Pointless

I know everyone has been hearing news of the Boston Marathon bombing and the reactions range from shock, awe, anger, frustration, and sadness. It's hard to imagine the point the person or persons were trying to make when they bombed an iconic event like this. One of the greatest attributes of an endurance athlete is their ability to endure in the face of incredible obstacles. For someone to think that they are going to strike fear in the hearts of marathoners, has no idea what it means to be a marathoner. When you train for an event like the Boston Marathon you complete against some of the best in the world and the fact that you need to qualify to get there shows the level of commitment and dedication that these athletes have. For someone to think that bombing a marathon will make these people afraid and keep everyone locked up in their homes, they are dead wrong! Us as endurance athletes will rise up in the face of these cowards and come back to compete in MORE events and become even MORE dedicated to doing the things we love.

Running is the purest form of endurance activity and something that everyone can do, the meditative state you achieve in endurance running calms the soul and makes you see things differently. If the reaction during the terrorist bombing of 2001 was to go out and kill those responsible, the reaction to this bombing should be- lets go for a run...

Getting There Slowly

Training this year has been educational to say the least, coming back from an injury I was hesitant to do anything too hard or fast in order to avoid a repeat of last year. Then of course the biggest change in any one's life, having a child can add to the overall workload at home and sleep deprivation. Thankfully Amber has been incredible looking after Ryder and those two are so cute together, it is true what everyone says- having a child changes your life so dramatically that your priorities shift. However I don't feel like a different person, I still want to train and race I just see Ryder as another member of our small family that will one day be able to join in our fun. I have found finding the time to train has been harder but I still look forward to getting on the bike, going for a run or swim as much as ever. I do realize that training for an Ironman once Ryder gets a little older is not possible, right now it's okay but I think I'm going to take a few years off Ironman training after this year. I can still see myself training for 1/2 IMs or marathons but the workload involved with IM is simply not possible.

This weekend I started to come out of the latest flu I've been fighting and had some great training even though it was all indoors. Yes it's April but there was a massive dump of snow this weekend and the temperatures plummeted. So after a tough 100k ride last weekend I got back on the trainer and did 100k followed by a 10k run on Saturday and a 36k ride followed by a 24k run on Sunday. It was tough and I'm still recovering but it's nice to see that some of my endurance is coming back and all the hard work in March is starting to pay off. There are only 10 more weeks of training for IMCdA so I better get in some more distance soon, otherwise it's going to be ugly.