Something's Changed

"Confidence comes from training" - Peter Reid, Ironman World Champion

Something's changed.

When we started this season back in January, we wondered what was possible. We had high hopes, an ambitious new year's resolution, a solid training plan, a motivating coach -- and some serious, deep down, super secret, highly irrational internal doubts:


What if the plan doesn't 'work'? What if we can't do it? Maybe we're just built to stay where we are. Maybe we don't really have what it takes to improve. Yeah, we've run a long way before, but this is different...this isn't just gutting it out - this is giving all we have....and what if that isn't good enough? What if we aren't good enough?


With all of that inside, we dove in and since the start of our 2007 training, we've:
- Biked over 98 hours
- Run over 82 hours
- Swam nearly 150,000 yards
- Practiced over 25 hours of yoga
- Lifted weights for over 30 hours


With that effort, we've seen real improvement - our technique is becoming more efficient, we're more in tune with our heart rates, our endurance has risen several notches, and our times are coming down.


But more than any of those external changes, something's changed on the inside. The attitude with which we approach our training and our racing is completely new. More than ever, the training represents our intention to live our best lives -- everyday.

Now, there are still days (like yesterday for Ray and today for Rob) when training just feels like work, one more thing to do...but still, even on those days, there is inside us a glow, a revived authenticity, a lightness, a knowing, a new ability to take it all in stride. And for that we are thankful.