Exciting times

I volunteered to work an aid station at Ironman Lake Placid. I have always appreciated the volunteers at events as I know they work hard, but I now have a new found appreciation for the volunteers. I fully recommend that all athletes volunteer at some point in time to give back to the sport.

Dave has told me about the Lake Placid experience, but there is nothing to compare to actually being there. To begin with, the area is absolutely beautiful. Top that off with a big event taking place and you have one packed little town thriving with activity. You could feel the energy in the air.

I signed up to be a participant at next year's event and am both very excited and questioning my sanity. I don't want to just participate, I want to do something special. I have not quite decided what that is yet, but it's being formulated.

I have new found energy to put into my training. I did not do my workout yesterday as I was exhausted from the weekend, but got up bright and early to do all but the swim portion of my workout before work. Somehow it felt different to be training with a different type of goal in mind. I pushed really hard - started by adding 10 pounds to the deadlifts and then just pushed each set hard. I am leaving for my swim workout in a few minutes and will push that hard as well.

I am going to finish out this year with the races that I had scheduled earlier in the year (Greenfield, Litchfield Hills and Hartford Marathon), but next year is going to be totally different. My whole year will be planned on two epic events rather than a bunch of local races. I will not be surprised if I only race three times next year (not counting a local road race or two). I will do a half IM as part of the preparation for IMLP, IMLP and the Hartford Marathon. I may put Hyannis Marathon on the schedule as well if coach agrees that it is a good base building thing to have on the calendar. I would like to do Patriotman again; however, there may be others that are better preparation for LP. I will get some input before putting next year's calendar together.

By the way - way to go Dave!! I know you were having a miserable experience, but you refused to quit. I wish I could go to Florida with you this year (to watch), but it's not in the cards.

Later - gotta swim.