dr0cc's blog

Long Overdue

2009-07-29T10:15:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to drop a quick note to anyone that has ever read this blog or may start to read it. I've been extremely flaky with blog posts because I've been so busy over the past few months. In a way, everything that I've been so busy with deserves its own post. Over the past few months I've raced a LOT and made some huge life decisions that I'm looking forward to in the future. Please stay tuned as I come back with a better update shortly. Hopefully I'll also come back with a new design. Anyway, thanks for reading and talk to you soon.

March Madness Biathlon Race Report - 1st of the Year

2009-03-31T17:03:00.007-04:00

Ever since I've started racing back in 2007 (am I already in my 3rd year?), I've always participated in the March Madness Biathlon (or Central Park Biathlon as its called during the fall). I used this race as a good indicator of what my fitness looks like and how I've progressed over the years. The event is basically a 2 mile run, followed by a 12 mile bike (2 loops around Central Park), and finally another 2 mile run. My results over the past few years are as follows:

2007 Central Park Biathlon

Time - 1:21:46

Overall Place - 147th out of 253

Age Group Place - 8th out 12

2008 March Madness Biathlon

Time - 1:21:08

Overall Place - 150th out of 346

Age Group Place - 10th out 16

2009 March Madness Biathlon

Time - 1:11:40

Placing at the end

The good news as you can see from the times is that I made a dramatic improvement over the past two races. My overall time decreased by about 10 minutes, which is mostly due to my running improvement. In 2007 and 2008, I only wished to hold a pace under 9:00 min/mile, but in 2009, I'm extremely disappointed if I'm not at least holding a 7:30 min/mile pace. My expectations of my own abilities have grown significantly, and as you can imagine, I had high hopes of coming out of the gate strong in 2009. In the weeks prior to the race, I checked times from past years and knew I would finally be competitive. My goal for this race was to get my first set of hardware by at least placing in my age group. I knew I had it in me until....

In the week prior to the race, I managed to injure my knee which is probably a product of running too hard too soon. I've been racing hard at the NYRR races this year and it probably gave me a case of Runner's Knee (pending a diagnosis from my Sports Medicine Doc this week). It took me out of commission for a few days and I had to basically rest which was frustrating after getting into a really good groove with training. It felt OK the morning of the race, but still not race ready.

I also followed the weather obsessively in the week prior because the forecast was for heavy rain on race day. I HATE the rain. Unfortunately, the prospects of a nice weather never got any better even though I thought if I refreshed my iPhone Weather Channel app enough, it would finally tell me that it wouldn't rain. In anticipation of the rainy weather, I bought this cool, but expensive, jacket specifically to keep me warm. I expected to keep it on throughout the race, especially on the bike, since it could get really cold when its about 40 degrees and raining.

On race morning, I woke up from a 6 hour slumber at around 5AM. I literally laid in bed for the next half hour debating on whether or not I should do the race. I obviously peeled myself off my bed and woke up my wonderful sister who offered to stand in the rain and cheer me on just in case I did end up placing in my age group for the first time. We eventually made the drive over to Central Park in the downpour and I still kept on second guessing whether or not to do the race. A few thoughts ran through my head:

"Maybe no one will show up and my chances at placing will be better"

"All triathletes are generally crazy, so its not like rain will stop them now"

"My competitors, present or future, aren't doing this right now"

My sister and I finally arrived at the race site and I picked up my race number, set up my transition, and warmed up, all in the dreadful rain. Before I knew it, the race was about to start and I toed the line with a surprisingly large amount of athletes. Fortunately the rain had let up and the race began...

Run 1 - 2 miles

Goal time - 0:14:30

Actual time - 0:15:57

I went into this run starting out very strong as I strided up a slight hill. I took at my watch real quick to check on my heart rate and noticed that it was way too high. I was close to 197 which is just under my max heart rate. I put out too much effort too early, but stayed strong and managed to negative split the first run. I wore that rain jacket that I bought the night before, but overheated because I had too many layers on so that contributed to my crazy heart rate. My knee felt OK, but it was when I came down the last hill towards transition that I noticed it wasn't 100%. I saw the clock from about a 100 yards out and saw I was already over my 14.5 min goal time. I was pretty disappointed as I ran into transition, but I heard my sister yell, "Don't worry! You'll make it up on the bike!" I thought the exact same thoughts and it was time to test my new bike in a race situation.

Actual Time - 0:01:01

It was an uneventful transition where I just jumped on my bike quickly and sped away. I ripped off my rain jacket to help with the overheating and just put my head down ready to mash the pedals.

Bike - 12 miles

Goal Time - 0:33:30

Actual Time - 0:35:59

I was excited to ride my new bike because it was the first time I was on a true triathlon bike. Not too mention, my bike was probably 1 to 2 pounds lighter, so it would be helpful on a lot of the climbs. I immediately started pushing a big gear up the first hill and it was business as usual. The bike is my strength so I just started reeling people in. I eventually got to the first downhill and was surprised at how nervous I was, so I uncharacteristically squeezed the brakes. The rain had certainly made the roads slippery and I just haven't been the same descender after I crashed during a race last year going close to 40 mph down a hill. That killed me because I got pulled back in by all the people I passed leading up to the first downhill because I was basically scared. I got to the north side of Central Park which is the hilliest part. I knew that was my opportunity to get back into the race, so I mashed the pedals and climbed past a few more competitors. Overall the basic story of the ride was that I pushed up the hills, was just as fast or even faster than anyone else on the flats, but scared to descend. By the second lap, I knew I was close to potentially placing because I figured with all the people I pulled in on the bike, there couldn't be too many people left in my age group in front of me. The rain and the cold finally got to me on the bike though and I was basically freezing by the end...

Actual - 0:01:02

The nice thing about having spectators is that you are forced to make your transitions look pretty slick since its the only time they will ever see you during the race. As I entered the transition and ran on the wet road barefoot, I racked my bike, and took a 2nd pair of dry sneakers out of my bag (first time every racing in 2 different shoes, but needed to keep dry). My sister was yelling "Go! Go! Go! Hurry up! What the hell are you doing!?" My toes were so frozen from the bike ride that I couldn't manage to put my shoes on. It was the furthest thing from graceful, but I finally got them on. Regardless, I exited transition with another woman and I heard a volunteer say to her, "You're the first overall woman! Go!" I figured if I could stay with the first overall woman, I'd be in pretty good shape to place in my age group.

Run 2 - 2 miles

Goal Time - 0:15:00

Actual Time - 0:17:40

I tried to keep stride with the first overall woman and ran pretty hard; however, within a quarter mile, I felt my legs start to cramp. After about a half mile, I couldn't keep up with her. Just before the turnaround, I saw a bunch of the top male athletes running back, so I figured I was at least 8 minutes back, which I was OK with, but I was hurting from the cramps. I pushed through the first mile of cramps and gave it all I had for the final mile. My knee wasn't too happy about the pickup in speed so I didn't feel as stable, but as I looked around me, I noticed that I passed a few lagging runners and to my surprise, no one was around me, so there was no threat to my age group placing. I just wanted to finish as fast as possible so I strolled in and saw the clock and knew I had my work cut out for me as I finished in an overall time over 1:10:00 which is not where I wanted to be at all.

I walked up to my sister a little disappointed and she said that she didn't see too many young guys in front of me. I realized that this shouldn't be my race mindset at all, but I couldn't help but beat myself up. I know should be more concerned about leaving everything out on the course and not leaving success up to chance like this. After waiting for about a half hour, it was awards time. Luckily since I'm in the younger age groups, they announce my age group placing early and my sister and I were getting sick of freezing in the cold and rain. First the overall men were announced and luckily one of the guys that won my age group in this same race last year (and who is also coached by my coach) placed third overall, so he was no threat. I joked that he actually helped me out by being that much faster this year. Then the announcement was made for the 18 to 24 males. It was so quick that I barely absorbed it all, but unfortunately, my name wasn't called. My sister immediately said "Don't worry! You did great!" and I nodded but felt disappointed. As the day progressed I became more and more obsessed with the fact that I didn't place and eagerly awaited the official results to be posted online. When they were finally posted, just as I expected, I was in 4th place in my age group, missing the 3rd place spot by 3 minutes. My competitors just ran faster and that was the difference.

2009 March Madness Biathlon

Overall Place - 47th out of 283

Age Group Place - 4th out 13

Maybe its important that this happened to me so early in the season, because it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I know that I'm racing for age group podiums now so I need to definitely step it up. It was a big kick in the ass, so I have a lot to work on. I realized that I can't just rely on my bike strength to pull me through, so I need to be faster.

I have some major changes coming down the road that will change a lot of things for the better so that I can continue to fight against cancer and pursue my own triathlon goals. My overall goal is to still fight against cancer, but I've developed a drive to just annihilate my competitors and crush their dreams. For the moment, let's just say I'm frustrated with how things are being done, so its about time for a change. More on that later...

Before I finish, special thanks goes out to my sister for toughing it out in the rain. I probably wouldn't have been as close to placing as I was if you weren't there screaming louder than anyone else.

As usual, thanks for reading and please stayed tuned for more...

Week 6 & 7: Stepping Up the Intensity

2009-03-19T11:50:00.005-04:00

Week 6 Totals

Swim - 5 km (3 miles)

Bike - 48 miles

Run - 15 miles

Total Miles - 66

Total Training Hours - 8 hours

Week 7 Totals

Swim - 5 km (3 miles)

Bike - 93 miles

Run - 18 miles

Total Miles - 114

Total Training Hours - 10 hours

I apologize for not updating sooner, but getting back into a regimented schedule of training has been taking up a lot of my time which is a good excuse I guess. Over the past two weeks, while the volume of mileage isn't as high as I'd like it to be yet, it has definitely been a lot more intense. During these past 2 weeks, I raced 2 NYRR races in my quest to qualify for the 2010 NYC Marathon and finished with times that seem to get better everytime (not counting the port a potty breaks that plague me every race). Unfortunately, my body is fighting back a little and telling me, "Whoa, not so fast," because I am now nursing a case of what is probably Runner's Knee. So with my bum knee, this week, I'll primarily be swimming and cycling with hopes of recovering and getting 100% healthy for my first multisport race of the season on Sunday, the March Madness Biathlon in Central Park (2 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run). I'm extremely excited about getting back into multisport racing and I've done this race every year since I started this crazy hobby so it'll be a great benchmark of how far I've come.

One thing I've learned first hand over the past few weeks as I've ramped up my training is just how delicate and resilient the human body can be at the same time. Since I've come back from Puerto Rico a few weeks ago, I've been sick with the flu, jammed my toe, developed runner's knee...all setbacks of course; however, during the same few weeks, my swimming stroke has become much more efficient, my cycling power has increased by close to 10%-12% over a 40KM distance, and my running fitness is the best it has ever been. I see training as a destroy and rebuild process and for the first time I'm battling with the balance of how much I should actually be destroying vs. rebuilding. I'm not a invincible kid anymore.

Week 5: Back in it

2009-03-09T11:07:00.003-04:00

Swim - 0 miles

Bike - 84 miles

Run - 21 miles

Total Mileage - 105 miles

Total Training Time - 9 Hours

I came back from Puerto Rico last Monday fresh from vacation and slowly recovering from a 3-day fever. I was itching to get back into real training and just in the nick of time, I received a challenge on my F-Cancer initiative. I owe my latest motivation to train to this challenge which was to train 100 miles in the month of March.

It wasn't till Wednesday though that I actually did anything, but I knew that I could easily hit 100 miles if I just followed my plan. I of course accepted the the challenge, but I wanted to take it up a notch and finish off the challenge in 1 week.

I followed my plan the best I could with some short bike rides and runs during the week. The weekend was where I really wanted to turn up the volume. I typically hold my weekends for long rides and runs. On Saturday, I woke up and took advantage of the beautiful weather. I ran 12 miles around Manhattan mostly on the West Side Highway route. On Sunday, I took my long ride and although I was only supposed to do about 2.5 to 3 hours, I managed to stay on the bike for over 4 hours. The last time I did this route, I was training for my half ironman and its always an epic ride that has me seeing all kinds of things. I basically start from my house and head straight up north across the NJ/NY border till I get to Harriman State Park. While in Harriman State Park, I get some hill work in on tired legs. It was a great ride until it started raining and I ended up descending about 7 miles in rain basically freezing my ass off. In all, I ended up riding about 65 miles. During this ride, I see the craziest things like ponies, a ton of deer, hasidic jews on bikes, a chapel in the middle of the wilderness, etc. The list goes on. Next time I go on this ride, I'll take pics just to show everyone how ridiculous it is. Anyway, thats it for now. Week 6 is off to a great start and I'm hoping to get even more workouts in. Updates soon. Thanks for reading.

Week 4 Blah

2009-03-04T12:51:00.002-05:00

Week 4

Swim - 0 miles
Bike - 20 miles
Run - 3.5 miles

Total Time - 1.5 hours

Another slow week of training mostly due to a jammed toe from playing basketball, a bout with a nagging fever, and a quick weekend vacation trip to Puerto Rico. Not really much to say here right now, so I'll leave it at that. I'm looking forward to a great few months of training up until the summer. I realize that its probably better if I build more of a run focus over the next few months to prepare for the San Diego Rock n' Roll marathon I'm racing in on May 31. Hopefully March will be better as it brings in my first multisport race (March Madness Biathlon on March 29) and the spring season.

Sorry for the boring update, but better posts to come so stay tuned.

Moment of Truth

2009-02-24T16:55:00.007-05:00

Week 2
Swim - 1.5 miles
Bike - 30 miles
Run - 0 miles
Total Training Hours - 2.5 hours

Week 3
Swim - 3 miles
Bike - 0 miles
Run - 8.5 miles
Total Training Hours - 3 hours

The thing about this challenge that I set up for myself is that it forces me to be brutally honest. Each week becomes a moment of truth. Did I deliver or did I not? Unfortunately for myself, its been tough, but the little volume you see here in training is not necessarily an indication of my laziness. I would probably be more inclined to train more if I had a donor that did challenge me on my training volume. I've had some interesting challenges, but none that have pledged a small amount of money for each mile I cover. Anyway, if you're interested in raising the stakes for March, April, and May, please visit my page here

I've been involved in some other physical activities including dodgeball, basketball, and even bikram yoga and have experienced some small victories outside of triathlon. We made playoffs in dodgeball, made the championship in basketball (and lost while also managing to get a first real injury that I had to get checked out), and lived through one bikram yoga session (an accomplishment, I swear!).

I also got the chance to finally tell my story to a bunch of college students at NYU. I was invited to speak about community service and my charity which I was really excited about. It felt like I was finally taking the right baby steps towards making my charity a much bigger movement. The key challenge I had here was that college students just don't care. Nothing against them at all either because I was there once and really didn't care. Like every stage in our lives, the minds of college students get so consumed with their own problems and responsibilities pulling them in about 9348759328475 different directions. For college students, its finishing a paper, getting a job, figuring out your major, stretching your money, getting with that girl, clubs, fraternities, etc... I knew donating is a pretty large task for poor college students, so the goal of my presentation was to get their hearts and souls invested into my charity as well as performing community service in general. I looked at this presentation as an investment for the future, because they will one day be making the big bucks and calling the shots around here. I just wanted to tell a story and get them to think about outside of themselves so that they could really take in all the causes out there that are larger than themselves. I was glad to finally give this presentation because not only did it further my cause, but it was truly the first time that I shared the complete details of my story with others. While I was presenting, I realized that I was entering a new stage of bereavement from being secretive and quiet about my story to telling the masses so that they can learn something from history to make a better future for everyone. A large task of course, but I hope I touched a few people. At the end of the day, I really enjoyed giving the presentation and I hope my audience did as well. I hope this is an indication of bigger presentations and more initiatives to fight cancer.

That's pretty much it right now, but more to come soon. In the meantime, I'll be nursing this stupid basketball injury so I can get my run training back in gear...

Luckily X-Rays said it wasn't broken, although my ego took a hit after having to go to the ER only to tell the receptionist that my toe hurt when she asked what was wrong...

Also, I've started to Twitter to provide some quick updates on training and any charity efforts. I'm sure there are many of you that are saying "Soooo what" but for times when I'm in my training cocoon, I hope to stay in touch with friends and family through Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

Week 1 of the F-Cancer Challenge

2009-02-09T10:13:00.012-05:00

Week #1 (2/1/09 to 2/8/09)*

Swim - 2 miles

Bike - 0 miles

Run - 19 miles

*Typically weeks will go from Monday to Sunday, but I'm including an extra day for the 1st of the month. No particular reason why, that just how triathletes do it.

I'm a little embarassed about this post, but I signed myself up for it, and will be sure to never let it happen again. I don't have any excuses. I just didn't train as much as I should've during week 1 of the challenge and I'm already behind on one specific challenge from Cheryl. See below.

Cheryl's Challenge

I will donate $4 if you sing “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go... Read More” while running that 1 mile.

I will donate $45 if you take a video of you singing “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” while running that one mile (or run for at least the duration of the song). you also have to post it public to facebook by 2/5/2009. i will subtract $1 from my donation for every day it is not posted. okay, maybe you can make it private for certain people. that is negotiable.

I highly doubt this is the kind of challenge we’re supposed to give, and it probably doesn’t really benefit your training thaaat much. sorry. nonetheless, I hope you accept it.

This should help you:

I will post the results of that challenge soon (hopefully after this weekend!).

While this past week was light on training, I experienced a few events that I just wanted to touch upon:

First of all, I went to my old high school to see my old wrestling team. It brought flashbacks of a time when all I cared about was winning. It was pretty awesome because I remembered how fired up I used to get and just how sweet winning was. I was lucky to see my old high school previously ranked #2 in the county come through with an upset by beating the #1 team in the county. I love that winning feeling so its about time I get it back through triathlon.
Last week, unfortunately, I learned that an acquaintance of mine, Pat Antonio, lost his mother to lung cancer . It really hit me hard because I remembered just how devastated and messed up I was right after. I came out a much stronger and better person as I'm sure he will. Anyway, I'm dedicating my initiative to Amelita Antonio in addition to both my mom and my aunt and the many others that have been touch by this disease. I'll be posting up a special challenge in honor of Amelita Antonio in the coming weeks. All money received from that special challenge will be donated in honor of her. Stay tuned.
This weekend was warm. I can't believe how giddy I got about running outside. I ended up running my longest distance thus far and it felt great. I almost forgot how awesome a nice long run in the outdoors can be.
One of the small things in life that I truly appreciate is listening to the right song at the perfect time during a workout. During my long run I hit a few walls, but its awesome how a song was able to lift me up when I hit the wall. A few of these songs are:

Eminem - Till I Collapse

Eminem - 8 Mile Road
Kanye West - Stronger
John Cafferty - Hearts on Fire (from Rocky IV Soundtrack)
Survivor - Burning Heart (from Rocky IV Soundtrack)
Rocky IV Training Montage
Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out (from Rocky IV Soundtrack)

Note: I love Rocky I, II, III, IV, and VI. Rocky V was an unfortunate mishap. F*ck you Tommy Gun. I'm working on a separate ode to Rocky blog entry. Stay tuned!

John Legend - Green Light (yes, that just happened)
Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Dio Remix (i know, that just happened too. anyway, special shout out to my summer of S.A.M. boys on this one)

5. And finally, I realized how lucky I am to have never dealt with significant injury (knock on wood). To those that are fighting back from injury, I'm right there with you. Where there's a will, there's a way. Just keep working hard and find a way to work with the body you have. As Kevin Garnett profoundly said after winning the chip, "Nothing is Impossible!" Keep in mind, Lance Armstrong had lung and brain cancer like my mom and should've probably died. He had other plans though and went on to win 5 Tour de France's and is going for another one this year.

That just about wraps up my weekly dose of random thoughts from a triathlete with ADD. Week 2 is starting and its been good so far so please visit this blog and remember to donate often.

http://firstgiving.com/f-cancer

Comments welcomed! I'd actually appreciate any other songs you guys listen to when you workout.

Super Bowl Box Pool Fundraiser

2009-01-29T19:06:00.014-05:00

In the spirit of the big game on Sunday, I’m starting a Super Bowl Box Pool to make it more interesting since the Giants basically blew it this year. Despite my frustrations with Plaxico, I figure I could make something good out of this football game by using it for a fundraiser where 70% of all proceeds will be paid out to the winners of the Super Bowl Box Pool, and the remaining 30% will be donated to the Cancer Research Foundation. If you're not around, I can randomly choose a box for you and you can pay me via Paypal.

I will be accepting bets until noon on Super Bowl Sunday or until all the boxes are sold. Once the boxes are set and the numbers are randomly chosen, I will post the final table on this website for all of you to check out during the game. Please feel free to forward this link to anyone else that might be interested! The pay out will be as follows:

Halftime Score Winner: $200
Final Score Winner: $500
Amount donated to Charity: $300

For those that don't know, here’s how it works:

1. Each player donates $10 per box.
2. Each box corresponds with 2 numbers (1 for each team). The order of these numbers will be randomly drawn once all boxes are purchased.
3. If the one’s digit of the halftime score from each team matches your two numbers, you will win $200.
4. If the one’s digit of the final score from each team matches your two numbers, you will win $500.
5. In the example below, a score of Arizona 13, Pittsburgh 26, would mean the owner of the square where the 3 on the horizontal axis meets the 6 on the vertical axis is the winner. See image below. Note: This will not be the actual order of the numbers.

Biggest Week I Can Remember

2009-01-25T22:14:00.008-05:00

For some reason, I was on a mission this past week. I guess it started with the sleepness night I had last weekend where I was frustrated that I had not started a fundraiser to fight cancer like I've been wanting to do. Some of you have probably seen my project which is to essentially have donors pledge a certain amount for every mile of training I cover from February to May. For followers of my blog, you know my biggest training vice is consistency. So this week, I wanted to take my training to the next level to prepare myself for the rigors of this fundraiser. It all started with having Monday off from work for MLK day. I finally set up a Computrainer training space in my room and decided to give it a try. The result ended up being an hour and a half ride of intense riding on Cadence (my time trial bike).

One day I'll have to give you a tour of all my training and racing toys, but this is what the Computrainer looks like. The Computrainer is basically a trainer that I hook up to my bike up to so that the resistance changes automatically for any specific course or workout I enter into my computer. As you can imagine, staring at the wall during this rides isn't so fun and it gets really hot and humid in my room, so I'm forced to air it out by opening up the windows to free the room of man smell. Kinda gross. The first 10 minutes of my Computrainer workouts are always really dreadful, but at some point my eyes fix on one point on my wall and I'm basically unconcious for the next hour or so. When I'm in the zone, I think its one of the few times I'm closest to my mom.

So this week, after 10 hours of training including 3km of swimming, 100 miles of cycling, and 29 miles of running, I accomplished one of my bigger weeks in recent memory. I hope that this is an indication of things to come. The new year has been good for training and I'm really feeling stronger these days.

I raced in the New York Road Runners Manhattan Half Marathon this past Sunday and it was definitely the coldest race I've ever participated in. I looked up at the CNN sign overlooking Central Park after the race and it said that the temperature was 17 degrees. I was pretty much freezing my ass off the whole race. I wish I had taken pictures, but the image of the frozen sweat that came through my two layers of hats would have given you a pretty good idea of how cold it was. I went into this race not wanting to push too hard because I wanted to be able to recover fast enough to train hard again this week. I started at the back of 5,000 people before the race and I was debating whether or not I should go through my pre-race ritual of hitting up the port-o-potties. I decided against my better judgement and ended up torturing myself through the first 6.5 miles at a 10:30 min/mile pace as the chicken and rice from the previous night sloshed around in my stomach leaving unpleasantries for the runners behind me. Sorry everyone. I guess to sum this up, Will Ferrell said it best. "Milk was a bad choice." For me, "Chicken, Lamb, Rice, Pita, with white sauce and hot sauce was a bad choice." I probably looked a little like this right before I stopped during the middle of the race for a quick port-a-pottie stop finally.

After I finally got some of it out of my system, I ran hard for the rest of the race. My goal was to accomplish a negative split before the race. That means you run the second half faster than your first half of the race. So for the second half of the race, I just pushed really hard through the paths of Central Park. One of the nice things about starting at the back is that you run with the slow people, so it was a nice confidence booster to pass everyone. I kept a pretty strong pace and strolled into the final mile. Whenever I get to the end of a race, one thing I learned to help distract me from the pain of running faster is that I put a target on certain people's back. I say to myself "by the end of this turnaround, you have this pass this fat shit." I'll keep saying that to myself. There's always one person I can't catch, but I didn't want that to happen this time around. So for the final half mile, I sprinted and sprinted to a point where I looked like a complete psycho. I know because I heard people talking as I passed them saying "what the hell?" Anyway, I was able to finish the second 6.5 miles at around a 7:30 min/mile pace. It was a pretty awesome feeling to finish. I almost forgot after taking so much time off from racing how great of a spiritual experience the finish line could be. After that split second though, it was business as usual, and I headed back to my car and started thinking about recovering and my next workout. End preview week 1 of the project...

Click here to help!

Winter Training

2009-01-23T13:30:00.004-05:00

Since my last race in October (see below) it has been really tough to get consistent, but I can honestly say that the start of the new year helped me realize that I have certain goals and resolutions that I have to accomplish. One of which is race faster, but more importantly, to continue my fight against cancer in honor of current cancer patients and the people I've lost to this disease.

Anyway, winter training is tough because of all the limitations. More specifically, there is nothing worst than driving and walking through freezing weather only to jump into a pool thats equally as cold. Cycling and running outside is almost a non-option at this point because the only time there is sunlight is while I'm at work and, to add insult to injury, there's ice and snow everywhere waiting for me to take a fall. As a result, cycling and running becomes an indoor activity where I'm left to deal with the weird paradox of training to move forward faster, but not actually making any forward progression while training on a stationary bike or treadmill. With that said, I wonder what crazy part of my mind decided to start this whole "Challenge Me" fundraiser.

It has definitely been a slow start, but I'm extremely excited about the potential the fundraiser has. And if all I get is a $0.01 per mile of training, then to reach my $5,000 fundraising goal, I'll give everything I have to hit the 500,000 mileage mark. In my opinion (and from personal experience), that's a cakewalk compared to the battles cancer patients and their families have to deal with.

So with that said, the cold is the least of my worries...

F*ck Cancer!

2009-01-19T19:35:00.000-05:00

Hi All,

Many of you know my general mission to fight cancer and prevent it from harming others in honor of my mother (see the previous blog posts for the original story). Please see the link below. It details my latest initiative against cancer. I hope you can help.

Click Here to Help!

Be creative with your challenges! Let's see how far you can push my training. Thanks in advance!

Kick Ass Week

2008-12-10T15:37:00.001-05:00

It's been a very long time since my last post and I am way overdue. Consistency has never been one of my particular strengths. Like these blog posts, sometimes I put a lot into training, and then other times it becomes an after thought. It hasn't been easy to get back into training after the race season ended with the half ironman I did in October. In light of that fact, a few little things came up over the past few weeks that gave me a little kick in the ass. I try not to read too much into the little things that life throws me, but I couldn't help it.

Its no secret that training has taken a bit of a hit with the winter weather upon us. With the decrease in training, I saw a corresponding decrease in performance and a slight increase in weight. It was a bit frustrating to run a Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving, only to find out that I've taken a few step backwards in my fitness. I did not hesitate to complain about my underperformance to my coach only to hear back, "This is supposed to be fun, remember." How easily I forget.

Then December 5, 2008 came and it was a day of mourning for me. It was 2 years ago from that day that my mother passed away. I've talked a lot about this, but it helped me come back down to earth and look why I got into triathlon in the first place. I was on a mission, not only for myself, but to continue my mother's legacy of giving back to others and inspiring others. How easily I forget.

Then Mary Lou decides she wants to try running. I'm excited for her because it reminded me of how excited I was after workouts during my first year of training. It only took her a week to really push herself to set a new personal record on the treadmill, and finally decide to sign up for a race. She said, "Thanks for inspiring me," but in reality, she just inspired me, and reminded me that we all started somewhere and look how far we can go. How easily I forget.

Then Manny Pacquiao goes on to beat De La Hoya after being established as the underdog (I should know since I won 10 to 7 odds by betting on a Pacquiao win). In convincing fashion, he made De La Hoya lay down and give up after the 8th round. I was at a bar watching the people cheering for him and it was amazing how many people were counting on him to win. He basically had the weight of a nation counting on him to succeed. Despite all this pressure, I remember Pacquiao saying after the fight, "I just have to think about my next fight." He reminded me that the greatest accomplishments spawn out of the simplest thoughts. Like he's thinking about his next fight, I should be thinking about just putting one foot in front of the other. Keep it simple stupid. How easily I forget.

Then I went out and saw a beautiful thing and made it my own. After dreaming of a new bike, I finally got my riding machine:

While it was sort of an impulse buy, it felt good to finally get a new bike. She's the beauty in my life, and we will ride to many victories. I'm sure of it. Please say hi if you're quick enough to catch us. By the way, her name is Cadence and she was a little pricey. After paying for the bike with my Amex, I was quickly reminded of how much I've invested in triathlon (both monetarily and physically). How easily I forget.

Then I recently started a new book called Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point and Blink.

The book is basically a study of how successful people rose to the top. His point is that these successful people (who are essentially "outliers" in our society) could not simply get to where they are because of their own individual merit. Yes, they may have been talented, but there is a lot more to it than that (e.g. being in the right place at the right time, living conditions, when you were born, etc.). An interesting common denominator that one chapter highlights is the rule of 10,000. If you add up all the time a successful person such as Mozart, Bill Gates, or even the Beatles spent on their craft from the first moment they were introduced to it to their first real breakthrough success, the total number of hours is at least 10,000 hours. In short, I was reminded that time and hard work pay off. How easily I forget.

Then my coach goes out and races Ironman Western Australia. He races and sets a new Philippine record after finally breaking the 10 hour barrier. I thought about how awesome it would be to be to finish an Ironman. Imagine suffering through 2.4 miles of open water swimming, 112 miles of cycling, and finishing with a 26.2 mile marathon, all for a few seconds of exhilaration at the finish line. That finish line has alluded me ever since I watched the Ironman World Championship on TV as a kid, and especially after I finally took up triathlon in 2006. I was reminded of that amazing feeling at the finish line after watching these two stories from the 2006 Ironman World Championship. I don't have it so hard after all. How easily I forget.

Jon Blais

Team Hoyt

When motivation takes a hit, I need these little things in life to kick me in the ass. So far, my training consistency has come back little by little as a result of these recent event, but please, if I easily forget again, make sure you kick me in the ass.

Thanks for reading.

Longhorn 70.3 Pics

2008-10-19T20:31:00.001-04:00

See below for a sample of the pics taken by Kris during my first Half Ironman. The entire album can be found at this link: Longhorn Ironman 70.3 Pics

Bodymarking in the dark means that its way too early.

It "dawns" upon me that I have to traverse over 70 miles today. What the hell was I thinking...

I remind myself of the reason I do all this and look up to her for inspiration before the swim. My mom was a swimmer in college so I'm praying that she passed the swimming genes to me.

I'm giving Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister the thumbs up here although I'm panicking because I have no idea how I'm going to run 13.1 miles after biking 56 miles.

This is me at one of my lowest points during the race around mile 6 of the half marathon portion. I would be running shortly after this picture was taken since I realized I was being watched by Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister. I owed it to them for coming out to support so I had to figure out a way to finish the race in one way or another (or die trying!).

The finish of a race is extremely brief and you can miss it in a blink of an eye; however, after 6 hours and 45 minutes of constant movement, I finally get the spiritual moment I've been waiting for. I can't explain it but I really live for this moment. Triathlon has truly become religion.

I'm still overwhelmed with emotions after the finish as I finally let it all out. This is me completely stripped of everything except the emotions inside of me. I never cry, but this sport always manages to give me an iyak moment.

Compare my iyak moment to my boy Kram's moment from the Disneyland Half Marathon. This is what endurance sports does to you, although he was also proposing to Rachelli in the process. Congrats on your first marathon by the way! His amazing story can be found here: Kram runs the city

At last, a smile of relief. Glad to have my medal finally. Another one to hang near my mother's grave.

Special thanks to Kris for these pics and coming out to support. The link below includes some of the amazing pictures he took. Thanks for capturing all of these memories.

Longhorn Ironman 70.3 Pics

Special thanks to my 2 best fans for coming out and supporting me as well.

Longhorn Ironman 70.3

2008-10-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

The SHORT story:

Swim - 0:34:36
T1 - 0:02:49
Bike - 3:13:11
T2 - 0:03:57
Run - 2:49:06

Total - 6:43:39

It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done, but a truly an emotional and humbling experience. Special thanks to Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister for coming out and taking pics. I'll try to post some soon of me crying like a baby at the finish!

The LONG story:

It's been a really long time since my last post and I'm sure most of you have probably given up on even checking to see if there is anything new, but it has been a crazy few weeks. Work has taken up a lot of my time and I also had to buckle down with my training. My goal over the past few weeks has been to develop consistency with my training since I had the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 race coming up. While I didn't develop as much consistency as I'd like to, I was still able to finish my first half ironman ever! I said I'd never do this, but here's my race day report.

4:00 AM - My alarm goes off and I wake up instantly after a decent night of sleep. The nervousness settled in immediately and I looked out the window wondering why I started this all in the first place. Then I looked up at the dark sky, thought of my Mom, and reminded myself that the world of hurt that I was about to experience was probably nothing compared to what she had to go through.

5:30 AM - Arrived at race site with Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister. These people were incredible all weekend by helping to keep me calm and motivated. We got on line to get on the buses to the transition area, but of course, not before my pre-race ritual of blessing the port-a-potties.

6:00 AM - Started to set up my dusty transition area in the dark, and felt the adrenaline pumping as I set up next to a few pro triathletes. On the racks next to me were Simon Lessing (retiring and making this his final race), Tim Deboom, Richie Cunningham (the eventual mens winner), Michellie Jones, Lisa Bentley, etc. Most of you probably don't know who they are, but I mention it because this is the beauty of the sport. Its like playing a pickup game with Lebron and Kobe. We're all doing the same race today, but they show the amazing things the human body can accomplish by finishing the race in almost half the time I do it in.

7:00 AM - I finished setting up my transition area and got acquainted with my surroundings. I warmed up and pulled on my wetsuit. The race was previously not wetsuit legal since the water was so warm, but the lake temperature dipped about 10 degrees within one week. This was a bit a of blessing since I've never done a triathlon without a wetsuit. I was excited for the swim because I had been working on this part of my repertoire the most, and had made significant progress since learning how to swim for the first time last year. In January of last year, I could barely make it one length of a pool and I'd look like I little kid splashing water as hard as I "swam" across the pool.

7:30 - I made my way down to the lake and took a quick dip in the water. I was still so incredibly nervous but the sun started coming out. I took some time to appreciate the beauty of the lake (yeah, i just said beauty). For now the lake was calm, but in a few minutes, it was about to become a huge washing machine.

7:45 - The pros go off. I came upon the realization that this race was the culmination of my triathlon season as I lined up with my swim wave. My wave consisted of my age group (men 18-24) and men 50+. One thing I noticed immediately was that this race was no joke as everyone looked like they were in pretty good shape (yea, i was checking them out). I entered the water and focussed on the race course and where I had to turn during the swim. I wanted to push myself to keep pace with the best out there so I set myself up in an aggressive position right in the front of the wave hugging the buoy line.

7:47 - SWIM BEGINS

1.2 Mile Swim

I started the swim aggressively and hit my threshold pace pretty quickly. One advantage I have (and I don't have many in this sport) is that I don't mind muscling my way over other people and dunking others during the swim start. If you have ever done a triathlon swim, you know how crazy it could be in the beginning with everyone wrestling for position. There is always that one guy that swims right over you and knocks off your goggles. I'm relentless in the beginning of triathlon swims, and I apologize in advance, because I'm that guy.

Anyway, I settled into a groove and tried to find other swimmers to draft behind to save some energy, but no one was in the line I wanted to navigate, so I didn't have a chance to draft anyone for most of the race. The sun was also pretty strong at this point so it was difficult to see the first of two turns, but I was holding a good line and felt strong in the water.

One interesting tip I've heard from others when competing in endurance sports is that you're supposed to keep your mind quiet. I definitely do not follow this tip because, as most of you know, I have serious ADD (although, I've never been diagnosed by people besides my friends). In the water my mind runs through my technique, how nice it would be on dry land, my mom and what she was like when she swam in college, how I gotta finish fast enough so that kris and my sister make their flight, etc. It seems to work for me because it helps me stay calm in the water.

Anyway, back to the race. I made the second of two turns and increased my pace since I still felt comfortable. I made a huge push right up to the end by quickening my kick to wake them up for the bike. I exited the water, and checked my watch. Quick note: the night before I told Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister that I'd be out of the water in a little over 40 minutes. My watched said 34:26. I know I'm not the fastest swimmer in the world, but this was a PR (personal record) pace for me. I beat my best previous one mile pace by 6 minutes per mile, which is an eternity in the water. I got another quick shot of adrenaline after looking at my swim time and sprinted up the hill back to transition.

Swim Time: 0:34:26

T1

I got excited at this point because I was going to my bread and butter. My beautiful bike. It has definitely taken a back seat in training to swimming and running this year, and I've only done a few long rides, but I was still pretty confident. In addition, I broke another cardinal rule of triathlon by trying new things for the first time during a race. I tested a new position (since my last few rides were painful) and was racing with new wheels (reynolds sdv66 with powertap and disc cover on the rear) and shorter cranks (170 instead of 172.5).

Anyway, I grabbed my bike and noticed that I was one of the few bikes left in transition as usual since I'm not a great swimmer. Anyway, I gulped down a 5 hour energy shot and took an energy gel. It was good to have caffeine again. Anybody that knows me knows that I love caffeine in all forms (red bull, iced coffee), but I weaned myself off the drug for 2 weeks prior to the race in hopes of lowering my tolerance for race day.

T1 Time: 0:02:49

56 Mile Bike

I started the bike and I felt pretty fast for the first 5 or 6 miles, but I was getting passed by age groupers that started the race after me. This is a different experience from what I'm used to because I'm usually catching up and passing people on the bike. I maintained an average of about 20mph, but took it down a little bit because I was worried that I wouldn't have anything left for the end. At around mile 7, my aero water bottle cage fell off so I had to stop and fix it. I already lost about 2 of these in previous races so I made sure to not leave it behind since it was $50 a cage. It also carried my high calorie carb drink. I lost about 2 or 3 minutes screwing the cage back in with my fingers. Little did I know that I would be dealing with this stupid bottle again around mile 35 and wouldn't even bother drinking from it since I taped the whole thing onto the frame the second time.

The bike course was one hill after the other. None of the hills were particularly steep until the end, but I'm typically not a good climber. I'm usually able to catch up with faster riders on long flats, but there weren't too many of those on the course. Regardless, I pushed the bike for most of the race and kept pace with a few women for most of the ride. I tried to stay consistent with my nutrition and was mindful of taking energy gels every 20-30 min. I also stayed consistent with my hydration since I knew it was going to be hot that day, but we were blessed with lower humidity. It was weird though because they have stations every 14 miles or so where you could grab water bottles or gatorade. The people at these aid stations were dressed up like indians which helped to take your mind off of the pain for a bit. Regardless, grabbing the bottles while moving is a skill that I still have to practice when approaching these aid stations. At one station, I grabbed a gatorade and usedd it to fill the bottle between my aerobars. I didn't do too great a job and it managed to spill the drink all over the place. I only got to drink about a quarter of the entire bottle. For a good 10 miles, I was sticky and thirsty.

At around mile 28 I was reminded that this is around the time I'm usually getting off my bike in an Olympic distance race. I also noticed that my body started to feel the fatigue of trying to keep up with the pack. At this point, I was really laboring to keep up with the pack and lost a little bit of speed. I took a gel to get a quick kick, but it never really worked. It's odd how real energy (calories, caffeine) didn't seem to work at this point and I was getting pretty tired. But it was around mile 36 after my aero bottle fell off for the second time that I caught sight of a butterfly. In my family, butterflies have had a history of coming around when people have recently passed away, so it gave me some inspiration because I knew my mom was with me. I'm not lying when I said it flew around me for the next 5 miles or so, and it was the peak of an emotional roller coaster of a ride that started with confidence, then fatigue and doubt, hope, and finally determination to finish strong. After my mom spent some time flying around me, I buckled down and settled back into aero position despite horrible lower back pain. I was finally passing people all the way up to the finish.

The finish included a few tough hills and the sun was starting to get really hot. At this point I started to get a little hungry, but I was able to maintain a faster average speed and finished strong. With about a mile left, I was relieved to see Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister because it meant I was close to the end of the bike; but it was also empowering to have them their cheering me on.

Bike Time: 3:13:11

T2

At T2, my legs were tired, but I was excited about getting ready for the last leg of this long day. I took another 5 hour energy shot, but decided to take a trip to the port-a-pottie again. After a quick pee, I walked and was reminded how good it would feel to stop and sit down. When those thoughts get into your head, its dangerous because you never want to get your body back into race mode. I walked slowly to the run start sucked it up eventually.

T2 Time: 0:03:57

13.1 Mile Run

A lot of doubt settled in as I started the run because I thought in my head, "I just swam and biked for the past 3 hours and 45 minutes. How the hell am I going to pull this off?" I started the run and felt confident though because I held an 8:30/mile pace for the first 3 miles. At around mile 4, I realized I was getting hungry. This was a big UH OH moment. In endurance sports, when you get hungry, that means you're too late. It basically means that you didn't fuel up enough with calories so your body is starting to respond. Unfortunately, it responds WAY after you needed to take in the necessary calories to continue racing. I started to walk, then run, then walk, then run, then most just walk. It was a hilly course with 4 miles of trail running. It also included the infamous "Quadzilla" hill that basically took everything out of me. They actually have people in costumes cheering you on, but I was in such crappy spirits that I was ready to punch out the guy in the batman suit for cheering in my ear so loudly. I continued to walk until I got to the around mile 6 where I saw Kris, Mary Lou, and my sister. I ran immediately when I saw them because I didn't want them to see me being a complete mess and their cheering definitely inspired me to run for about a half mile, but I still ended up walking. I finally finished the first loop of the race and it basically sucked to think I had to run that same loop again. At mile 7 I stopped at the aid station and had a bit of everything they had. At this aid station, I sat next to a little girl handing out food and we talked about the chocolate brownies I was eating. She gave me salt and vinegar potato chips, pretzel sticks, and before I knew it, I was feeling pretty good sitting down. This was especially dangerous since it made me not want to get up and continue. I could've probably fell asleep at that moment. I eventually had to get back up though so I started walking again and the letters DNF (did not finish) immediately entered my mind. Up until mile 8 I thought long and hard about stopping. I basically beat myself up for not training enough, not fueling up appropriately, not sleeping enough throughout the year, going out all of those late nights, not waking up early enough in the morning to train, skipping the gym to watch stupid mtv reruns. My lower back hurt from bad positioning on the bike and the pain shot through my body with every step I took. My quads were already incredibly sore from Quadzilla. My calves were trembling and about to cramp up at any given moment. I was down and out at this point and didn't think I would finish. I was completely done. I had nothing left. My day has ended. I wanted to cry.

At mile 9, I again saw another butterfly and I had flashbacks of my mom. I had flashbacks of victory of my old wrestling days. I remembered times when I was at the bottom and I succeeded. I remembered that there were amazing people waiting at the finish line and counting on me to finish. I really felt like my mom was with me at that moment. I thought, "She carried me for years. Why can't I just push out a few more miles?" So what I initially thought was impossible started. I started a short little jog. That jog turned into a run. I started putting targets on people's backs and said to myself, "You could take a break after you pass that person." I took a quick look at my watch, 9:00 min/mile pace. I kept running after targets, and kept forgetting to take that break I promised myself. 8:30 min/mile pace. I hit mile 12 and saw another butterfly. 7:15 min/mile pace. And then I saw mile marker 13. The rest was a blur of emotions as I sprinted to the finish taking down person after person on my way to the finish line. I saw the word "Finish" get larger and larger as I pushed to the end.

For a moment, everything was silent and nothing hurt. In basketball, when someone is shooting and basically making everything in without even thinking about it, they call that player automatic, or unconscious. At that moment, I was completely unconscious. It was as if I completely took myself out of this world and was having an incredibly spiritual high. In a second, I came out of that daze and realized what I had done. I broke down in tears because, like every finish, it is another tribute to my mom. This was extremely special. It is an understatement to say that I never in my life pushed my body to such extremes. There was definitely something else that got me there. It was my mom. It was my friends and family waiting at the finish line. It was the people that doubted me. It was the people I've met that want to do something like this, but never thought it was a possible.

I am finally a half ironman.

Run Time: 2:49:06

Total Time: 6:43:39

I really can't thank everyone enough this season for all the support. It has been an amazing run and I really could have never done it without my friends and family. I really do encourage everyone to push themselves to the limit in a similar. You don't need to do it for reasons like I have.

I started reading a book about adventure sports (i.e. climbing K2, tight rope walking across the grand canyon, etc.). The book is a scientific look at how people tap a sixth sense when they are completely stripped of all other senses and they need to focus in order to survive. One of the stories in the book talks about how a climber had a "feeling" that another climber was in trouble and was able to use the "sixth sense" to find that person. Another story talks about spiritual experiences people have when they are pushed to the limit between life and death. I can honestly say that the moment at the finish line was one of these experiences and it is truly amazing to catch a quick glimpse of it. It makes you feel superhuman because you're unconscious to any senses of pain or worry in the world and you are able to do what you need to do to finish or "survive". I'm not doing a great job of explaining it, but I invite you to join me in this experience at the next race.

Day One...

2008-08-26T10:55:00.000-04:00

For a very long time, I have been calling tomorrow “Day One”. To me “Day One” has become the phrase I spit out when I set out for a goal, but do not feel like working on it at the moment. I’ve always been too busy or too tired to deal with it at the moment. Take this blog for example. It says I’ve been a member since September 2007 and here we are, almost a year later on August 26, 2008. But “Day One” can also have some positive connotations associated with it in my mind. Take your pick: “Carpe Diem,” “Never stop trying,” or “Keep pushing the limits.”

So why did it take so long?

I started a new post many times before, but could never find the words to really express the goal of this blog. At first I wanted it to be a triathlon training log, which was more of a way to help myself track my progress; however, I forgot why I got into triathlon in the first place, and, as a result, it has since evolved into something much bigger than that.

The Back Story

The day my mom passed away was the defining moment in my life. It’s interesting how defining moments like this become a reference point in life. There is a person I was before her death and the person I am now after her death. Before my mother passed away, I was extremely career driven, money hungry, but at the same time, unfulfilled. I always felt like there was some “passion” that was missing. However, a few moments after my mom breathed her last breath, I remembering saying to myself and even my sister that I need a way to pay tribute to her. I remember saying, “I’m gonna do this triathlon thing.” As everyone left the hospital the night she passed, I stayed behind, and broke down at my mother’s bedside. I sat their hugging her for one last time and whispered to her, “This is all for you.” I want to live the life that she wasn’t able to experience because her body failed her. I want to inspire others the way she did because she needs someone here to take the reins. I want to be selfless like she always was because she could never give enough. Day One begins…

What sparked my interest in triathlon in the first place was when Kris introduced me to the idea of joining Team in Training (TNT) a few months before my mother passed away. TNT is a part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma society that trains athletes in endurance sports in exchange for their fundraising efforts for blood cancers. After few months of fundraising and training with them, I completed my first triathlon in June 2007 and was hooked.

Triathlon is so important to me because it lets me do a few things. I finally feel like I have something that I’m really passionate about, and at the same time, I’ve been able to inspire others to do the same. This year I saw my sister push herself to incredible limits to complete her first triathlon. I remember Greg coming up to me after the Wyckoff Tri and saying that he’d like to pay tribute to his Grandmother the same way I paid tribute to my mother. He also ended up completing his first tri this year. It has also become a way to fundraise and give back to cancer societies through associations like TNT and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

There is also a selfish component of participating in triathlon being that it is a completely individual sport. Of course there is nothing better than having fans cheer me on like my sister, Mary Lou, and Cheryl, but beyond that, triathlon has become a religion. The reason I train is not necessarily to win the race, but to experience the journey it took to get to that place. The specific experiences I’m alluding to are those times when I’m on a long ride alone and I feel my mother around me, or the times when I have nothing left and my mother’s spirit empowers me to continue to put one foot in front of the other. It is my way of mourning, and without it, I don’t know how I’d be able to reassert control over my life after losing it completely when my mother passed away. While I don’t wear my heart on my shoulder as much as others do, it’s because all these emotions come out during moments of solitude, when I’m riding alone, and I feel my mother all around me. Those are the moments when I truly feel alive and the emotion runs wild

I know it has been a long post, and I thank you for reading it up to this point , but this is my way of reaching out to the people I haven’t talked to in a while. It’s a way for me to finally communicate to the world what my mother meant to me. It’s a way for me to get you to understand why I might be training instead of being somewhere else with you. I want this to be a log of my dreams and yours. I want to create stories of success and failure. I am formally inviting you to tag along on this journey because nothing great is ever done alone. And if you want to be a hater or a doubter, thank you too, because I love proving you people wrong just as much.

So back to the idea of “Day One.” For me, Day One is today. Day One is tomorrow. Day One was yesterday. But it should never be an excuse for lost goals and dreams that I never followed. If there’s anything I learned from my mom’s death, it's that we can never have enough Day Ones.

So with that said…Keep it fresh. Keep it new. Keep it real. And keep pushing along. See you on Day Two.