This past year of triathlon was amazing. I improved my overall fitness, and my cycling tremendously and that had a significant impact on my overall results. IronMan Lake Placid? Better by 90 minutes. IronMan Muskoka 70.3? Better by about 20 minutes. And, while it was amazing, it was very difficult. There were times when i wanted to throw it all away—training every weekend with Kathryn, with my brother and his wife, with Greg, with whomever… I was ready to give it all up on at least one occasion, and I know that Kathryn was too. In fact, we did give it all up, at least once. I think I’ve figured out at least part of the reason why. 2009 saw Kathryn and I compete in IronMan Lake Placid on July 27 and IronMan 70.3 Muskoka on September 13. I won’t get into the results—those are somewhat…

Here’s how 2008 went down. I got through IronMan Muskoka 70.3 but I was a little disappointed with my result. I wanted more from myself. I felt like I peaked too early in the season—probably at this year’s Tupper Lake TinMan. I trained hard last year—personal trainer, triathlon coach, weights, flexibility workouts, spent a lot of time on the bike, teaching classes, all of it. I felt more ready for one of our training races than I did for the one that counted, and that just doesn’t sit well with me. By the time the race that mattered came around, my training had already started to dwindle, weight slowly crept back on (partly because of my speaking schedule—delivering talks at conferences with awesome food, and still trying to work on client work back home, means that my workouts suffer and I put on the…

This isn’t the post I thought I’d be writing, but I am. I am not feeling the way I should be feeling, but I am. Yes, I successfully completed IronMan Muskoka 70.3, and yes, it was a very challenging course, so in reality I should just be happy to have crossed the finish line—almost 40 people of the 1300 participants didn’t finish. I know that I improved significantly over my performance at IronMan Lake Placid last year, and I’m happy with that. Overall, I felt better prepared and in better shape. But the bottom line is that, for me, my performance on race day just wasn’t good enough. I trained my ass off for close to 6 months. Others that were competing with me (my wife and brother and sister-in-law in particular) all said that I would do way better than they would because they hadn’t trained. My…

“I want to cross the finish line of the IronMan world championship in Hawaii with Lisa Bentley.” Paraphrasing aside, those are the words of Carter, a young boy with Cystic Fibrosis who, despite his health struggles, keeps a very active lifestyle. It was at that precise moment that eleven time IronMan winner Lisa Bentley, who, like Carter, also has Cystic Fibrosis, moved me to tears as we all listened—riveted—focusing on her stories and unparalleled positive outlook on all aspects of racing and life. She goes on to tell us that Carter was her inspiration for racing IronMan Hawaii in 2007. Her theme that kept her moving forward was simply doing the best that she could to get across that finish line with Carter because that was his wish to the Make a Wish Foundation. His wish had been granted, and she was going to deliver despite the struggles every IronMan…