There is no fast track to fitness.

I nearly set myself up for failure last week. I almost signed up for my 3rd year of long course triathlon (70.3 miles, or "half ironman") training. Ha! That just goes to show you that staying on plan is hard even when the plan is to not have a plan.

Thank you Mike and Jo for guiding my head back safely from the clouds.

I have enough on my plate with school and work, and a full race season with shorter, hopefully much faster, races. I will have more time to outreach to people wanting to get into the sport. There are a handful of people in my running club who are going to do their first triathlon this year. That is so exciting to me because it shows that not only is the sport picking up more and more people, but people are realizing that cross functional and cross sport training can be very beneficial to your overall health.

I said this before, and I shall say it again. Triathlon saved my life.

What many people do not know is that anyone can do a triathlon. So accomplishing a triathlon in and of itself is nothing too amazing. What is amazing is when people make life changes, find their motivation and inspire other people to make healthier choices in life. That I applaud! I applaud setting a triathlon as a goal and working towards that goal. Now THAT is an accomplishment, because now days people just do not seem to want to work for anything.

There is no magic pill to weight loss. There is no shortcut to fitness. Them be the breaks. Sorry.

It is a cycle and for some reason, only a few people get that. Triathlon/running is as much about finding a happy place in fitness and health, as it is about the camaraderie that comes from participating. You will never find a larger group of cheerleaders as you do in the triathlon and running circuits. We may race against each other, but we always celebrate each other’s victories, and share in each other’s defeats. The only bad day, if you have your heart in the right place, is the day where someone gets hurt.

I have met some amazing people along the way. I have also met some real jackasses. Two people who clearly fall into the former category (as in amazing people) are my friends and former RACING GREYHOUNDS teammates Jeremy Hagerman and Craig Weaver.

Together they have started this amazing triathlon team called "Team Motiv-8" (you can find them here: http://team-motiv8.com/), and their principles are solid: to motivate and to inspire. Major shout out to them and I am on board 10000000% to help them succeed in any way possible!

It is time to act as an ambassador to the sport and to health and fitness. I am walking proof that anyone can go from overweight slug to athlete. You just have to realize that not all athletes are rock solid in form and top of the pack in races. We come In all shapes and sizes. We come from all places in life. Everyone has an equal opportunity to reach the ultimate finish line… a lifetime of health and happiness.


So with that I decided to add a different purpose to my 2011 year. I am taking the slow and steady approach and will be chronicling my journey from mediocre to fit. I will take my baseline weight, my baseline measurements, and will perform a fit-test to have baseline numbers.

Through my exercise and vegetarian diet, I expect to be able to transform myself. However, the proof will be in December when I leave for Florida.

Each week I will do a quick summary, each month a fit test. I expect struggle, but then again this is not a flash in the pan, this is my lifestyle. It must be sustainable and realistic. I travel a lot for work. I work a lot. I have 6-day-a-week classes to finish my Masters work. I have a puppy, and am working on my house and health with my man Mike. I am a member of a cycling & triathlon race team, a swim club, and a running club.

And just like you - I have a life.

So follow along with me and see how it can be done. How you can turn your life around with small steps. How everything we do adds up exponentially.

I will not be posting my food intakes.
I will not be posting up my workouts.
This is not going to be an exercise and fitness log as I already have that at dailymile.com and beginnertriathlete.com.

This is my Journey blog.

So as such what will I be posting?
I will be posting out total minutes or hours in my weekly summary.
I will be posting up any information I come across, or an occasional recipe or workout that I felt was pretty exceptional in either skill or ease of mastering for those of us not blessed with 4 hours a day to work out.

This is the lifestyle of balance and fitness that I have striven for, for so many years. 2011 is the year of doing it!

Peace, love, and running.
RedZone