Ironman Triathlon Inspiration

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Ironman – You Will Do This

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How can I increase my running distance when I get bored and tired so easily?

I can run in sports, bike, and do the elliptical but for endurance running I just get so bored and tired. I find after about one mile I want to jump off. I have kept with it figuring that it will get easier with time but it seems to get more difficult to find the motivation to stay on. Any suggestions?

How can i start running with myself?

I have to run today. But like i lose so much motivation running by myself. What are some good mental tips for running alone?

A Fitness Partner is a Great Benefit for Motivation in Exercise and Fitness

In a quest for a healthier lifestyle, women know that fitness and exercise are important. Exercise can improve your health, increase your energy level, relieve stress, and help you to sleep better. A fit woman will remain stronger and more independent as she ages.

Sometimes the road to fitness is a difficult path when you are attempting to initiate and exercise program and eat healthier alone. Attempting to exercise daily, watching your nutrition, and making healthy lifestyle changes are often overshadowed by boredom or a too busy lifestyle. At one time or another, most women have had trouble starting or sticking with a fitness or exercise program.

Being a fit woman does not have to mean a solo journey. If you have ever had trouble initiating a fitness program or sticking with the exercise program you have started, a fitness partner may be the solution. A fitness partner is a powerful motivator. Being accountable to a fitness partner can help you start a new exercise program or stick with the exercise program over time as you continue on your road to fitness.

The right fitness partner can motivate you to achieve your fitness goals. Your fitness partner should be positive and supportive as she encourages and supports you. In choosing a fitness partner, look for someone whose fitness level is close to yours. As you become fit together, you can progress at a similar pace, and encourage each other to climb to new levels of fitness. Having similar fitness goals will allow you and your fitness partner to share triumphs and encourage you to accomplish individual fitness goals.

Keep lines of communication open with your fitness partner. A good fitness partner is honest and sensitive. Cheer each other on in your fitness successes and avoid being critical.
In addition to a fitness partner, the right fitness program is also important to achieve health. Sisters in Sneakers provides a complete home fitness program and exercise program designed especially for the fitness needs of women. Sisters in Sneakers includes color coded exercise cards for flexibility, strengthening, and cardiovascular exercises so you can vary your exercise routine day to day. Since exercise alone is not enough for a healthy lifestyle, Sisters in Sneakers includes nutritional information including fat and calorie awareness to get your eating on the right track.

Motivation is important for fitness, and Sisters in Sneakers includes inspirations and nutrition tips as well. An exercise band is a great tool for resistance exercise and is also a part of the Sisters in Sneakers complete fitness program.
Look no further for your new fitness partner. Sisters in Sneakers will connect you with a fitness partner just for asking. You and your new Sisters in Sneakers fitness partner can motivate each other on the way to fitness and health, as you work out in the privacy of your own home.
It is time to get serious about starting to exercise and becoming involved in a fitness program. Your health is important. You do not need to be an athlete to be fit. The first step is the hardest.

Grab your sneakers, your new Sisters in Sneakers Home Fitness Program, connect with your Sisters in Sneakers fitness partner, and start on the path to better health with Sisters in Sneakers today.

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How can I start running when I have such a disadvantage?

I’d like to start running, however, I have one problem- I can’t run at all. I don’t think it’s a problem with motivation or endurance because I don’t have a problem pushing myself with other physical exertion. The problem is, I get debilitating cramps after running for a minute or so. It doesn’t matter how fast I’m going, if it’s a jog or more, it happens. How can I get myself used to running and start doing it on a regular basis if I can barely even get started?

Can anyone suggest any methods that have worked for them or a gentle routine that could help get me started?

Dying Professor Teaches his Students How To Live

Lou Gehrig's disease hasn't stopped law professor Steven Gey's lessons

By John Barry, Times Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE — Steven Gey's law students kept their part of the deal. Last Saturday morning, they swam, biked and ran in a triathlon for Lou Gehrig's disease research. They raised $50,000 for the third straight year.

In late afternoon, about 50 students and former students waited for professor Gey to keep his end of the bargain. In a sense, they hoped for him to complete — against all previous odds — his own kind of marathon.

They waited on his patio, beer iced and ready. They had a birthday cake. The cake with garish red icing itself seemed outrageously miraculous, another lesson for all of them. Their professor wasn't supposed to have a 53rd birthday.

The famous Florida State University constitutional law expert is in the third year of terminal illness. That's as long as anyone usually lives after a Lou Gehrig's diagnosis like his.

In the last year, he has nearly starved and suffocated. He lost half his house to Tropical Storm Fay. He lost use of his hands and arms. He even lost his identity to credit thieves.

The students have always had a deal with Gey. If you care, if you try, he has promised them, I'll help you become the kind of lawyers you need to be.

Now here they were on his porch, waiting for him to deliver on another promise.

They're young, and they don't know limits. How much can they expect of a dying teacher?

• • •

Steven Gey is more famous for legal scholarship than for dying. As an American Civil Liberties Union attorney and FSU law professor, he ranks among the nation's top defenders of separation of church and state, of scientific inquiry, of free speech. (His free speech reputation was tarnished only once. He stopped a restaurant chain from singing Happy Birthday To You — a copyright infringement. He has never lived it down.)

He is also famous for turning generations of youths into attorneys and judges.

Last spring, Gey nearly died from malnutrition. He had to give up teaching. He felt bitterly disappointed that the Bush administration had limited embryonic stem cell research for eight years. He felt that the limits had robbed him personally of a possible cure, that the adversaries he had battled in court all his career had somehow beaten him in the end.

Last summer, while on a respirator and feeding tube, he rode out Tropical Storm Fay. It flooded all the bedrooms of his house.

Last Friday, Gey's doctor told him his life had reached "the bottom of the eighth inning."

But he writes. His hands don't work, so he writes with his foot, guiding a computer mouse with his toes. He has just completed two 150-page works of constitutional scholarship. They're headed for the publisher. He also has lived long enough to see a new president reverse the government's standing on embryonic stem cell research.

Barbara Leach, a former student who now practices labor law in Atlanta, was with him just after he got his late-inning diagnosis.

"Bottom of the eighth?" she exclaimed, sitting among his mountains of manuscripts. "Looks to me like you're in the top of the third."

• • •

Third-year law student David Gillis brought his mother, Cathy, to the triathlon for Gey. He's one of the students who brings food to the professor's house. Dave's turn is every other Thursday.

When he started bringing food, he knew Gey mostly by reputation. It made him nervous. "He's this rock star of the legal profession."

Gey told Dave he liked anything, he wasn't fussy. Dave brought his personal favorite: takeout meat loaf from Boston Market.

"You getting tired of meat loaf?" he'd ask.

"No," Gey answered, "Love the meat loaf!"

Two months went by. Finally, Dave heard from a "second party." The professor was really, really tired of meat loaf.

But in the course of those months, Dave's own life changed. His mother said he had chosen law school for the career and for the money. That was it.

He got into Gey's constitutional law class. He admitted to Gey he was more interested in the lawyer trappings than in the law itself. Money's fine, the professor told him. "But where's your passion?"

Gey changed him. His mother could see it. He learned the impact that one lawyer could have. He felt part of something noble, he said. Gey changed her, too. At home in Sarasota she started mentoring.

"We've learned that's what life is about — passion," she said.

• • •

On Saturday afternoon, the students waited with cake and beer on Gey's porch. Gey had not been on his porch in months. But he had told them that if they could endure a triathlon, he could match them.

Inside the house, Gey took a deep breath and untethered his respirator. He swung his legs out of bed, steadied himself.

The double doors to the patio swung open.

Gey came through the doors, on his feet.

He walked a dozen steps across the deck to a chair.

Beers and tears flowed for two hours.

They sang Happy Birthday to You.

They told their professor: Sue us.

 

A Moving Story of one Incredible Father (Great Video)

 

Why do we run? – Reflections on running and life

By Rob Ulon

n speaking to friends of mine who are not runners themselves, I am often told that running is a waste of time. That it is boring, painful, and takes too long are the most cited criticisms during these conversations. And when the critics have uttered their last disparaging remark about running, I am usually asked, “Why do you run?”

It is at this moment that a sincere discussion can begin about a runner’s passion and reasons for running.

The effect of the question is undeniable, much like the effect running has on a runner’s life. In the face of criticism we look to defend our positions, whether they are our position on politics, religion, et cetera, by seeking to prove the naysayers with the reasons why they are wrong.

Conversely, when asked the reasons why we do something we love, the tension dissipates, enabling us to fully express our enthusiasm for whatever the activity is that raises our spirits.

As a result, the conversation provides an opportunity for the persons involved to learn about, among other things, each other’s: aspirations; fears; lessons learned from past experiences; and hopes for the future. In this exercise we begin to understand each other and a new level of respect for the people in and out of our lives is forged.

We bring with us this hope of a greater understanding of ourselves, and the world around us, every time we step outside to go for a run. The only difference is that it is an inner dialogue that produces the sought after insight. Before and during the day’s run, it is only the runner who can ask him or herself: “Why do you run?” At the end of the day, it is only the runner that can supply the ensuing answer.

Just as we must continue to seek people to converse with and learn from, the runner can only carry on the inner dialogue within him or herself by continuing to run. Through running, and, especially, when it is the last thing in the world we want to do, we discover new aspirations; identify and conquer our fears; apply lessons learned; and renew our hopes for the future.

Why do I run?

One reason I run is because I love the idea of the “journey.” Like life, running is a journey, not a destination. Like jazz, running is filled with limitless routes of discovery and self-expression. I enjoy running because it provides me an opportunity to spend time with friends in a physically and mentally productive way. I run because I love seeing the world outside my door. But most importantly, I run because, like life, it presents the chance to defeat, however briefly, my most formidable opponent – myself.

For me, running reaffirms the notion that success, in any aspect of life, is not to be measured by comparing ourselves to others, but by comparing who we are and who we could become if we approach each challenge with enthusiasm and determination.

 

Building Mental Toughness: Simple, But Not Easy

By: Cameron Schaefer

“Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I’m sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that’s keeping you from the finals?” – Lance Armstrong in “Dodgeball“

By now most of us know the incredible story of Lance Armstrong, the Texas native that came back from cancer to win 7 consecutive Tour de France titles from 1999-2005. He has inspired many and is now busy trying to conquer his next challenge, the sport of running. He ran his first marathon in 2006 finishing in 2:59:36 (if you’re not sure, this is really good). He recently completed this year’s Boston Marathon in 2:50:58. Elite runners, watch your backs.

The story is amazing because it seems so supernatural and unreal. When staring at the list of Armstrong’s achievements the natural question is how? How does a man go from his deathbed to winning one the toughest sporting events in the world 1,2,3….7 times in a row! How does one maintain that much consistency? Lance has told us, “It’s Not About the Bike,” and I would agree — I think the majority of the answer to “how” lies in Lance Armstrong’s mental toughness.

Mental toughness is talked about a lot, but understood by very few. It is the ability to will oneself through less than ideal situations and conditions whether that be battling cancer or simply waking up early to go workout. Mental toughness can come from many sources such as:

• overcoming a difficult childhood
• a deep faith in God
• battling an addiction or disease
• undergoing military training
• consistent physical exertion

I know several people that I would consider mentally tough from WWII veterans to outdoor adventurers to Christian missionaries, but my friend Beau Suder is the first that comes to mind.

Beau has been an incredibly close friend for some time now so I’ve gotten to see his “inner workings,” a bit more than most folks. In high school Beau was an amazing athlete. Was it because he was 6′2” 220lbs with a 50-inch vertical? No, it was because he worked harder and pushed himself more than anyone else on the field. I have several stories I could tell, but I’ll keep this short.

Beau ended up playing football for the Air Force Academy, but struggled with a nagging shoulder injury. One night, while playing UNLV, he made a big hit on a guy and came trotting to the sideline holding his arm which was completely limp – he had dislocated his shoulder. I was on the sidelines and cringed thinking he would be out for the game if not longer. The next thing I saw was him talking to the trainer and the trainer popping his shoulder back in right there on the sidelines. One play later, Beau was trotting back onto the field to play the rest of the game! This is mental toughness, ignoring pain and performing under less than ideal circumstances.

As I began thinking about how one builds mental toughness I realized that while there are many ways it comes about, for the majority of people, consistent and intense physical exertion is the most accessible and common way to build mental toughness. You can’t help if you grew up in a posh suburban environment with loving parents or have never battled cancer, and the majority of people will never undergo the type of training that comes standard in the military, but everyone can go on a long run or work out until their bodies are screaming to stop. With that in mind, here are some keys to building mental toughness that anyone can follow:

1. Show Up – “Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on? ” – Lance Armstrong

What separates a guy like Lance from 99% of the world is the fact that he showed up everyday, when it was raining, when it was hot, when he was sore, when he was tired….he showed up everyday. JUST SHOW UP! What happens after you show up is where the real fun begins, but most people can’t even make it to that point. If it’s working out, tell a friend you’ll meet them at a certain time so you will be less likely to back out. If it’s battling an addiction, make yourself go to a recovery group every time it meets.

2. Hurt Vs. Injured – “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong.

My high school football coach, John Deti, used to always ask players that limped to the sidelines during a game, are you hurt or injured? This may seem trite to some, but he was keying in on a fundamental issue. Soreness, stiffness, bruises…these are just parts of any game or any physically demanding activity, but they should not keep one from continuing. Injuries on the other hand, like muscle tears, broken bones, etc. are a different thing entirely and should be taken care of. One of the best ways to develop mental toughness is extreme physical exertion…if there is no discomfort , you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. This is different from causing injury which hinders you rather than helping.

3. Unfamiliar and Unexpected Are Your Friends – Part of building mental toughness involves being comfortable performing in stressful situations. One of the best ways to develop this trait is by consistently doing things you have never done or trying things a different way. Fear of the unknown keeps many from ever developing mental toughness, but by consistently placing yourself in unfamiliar situations you can learn to deal with stress and fear. Some good ones that I’ve tried include rock climbing, attending the Air Force Academy, swimming (what is recreation for most used to stress me out since I was a terrible swimmer until recently) and mountain biking. You don’t have to do something crazy, just something that you don’t normally do and something that puts a little fear in your heart.

4. What’s Your Motivation – Whenever you find yourself in a tough position you will need something you can focus on to provide motivation. I don’t know exactly what Lance focused on during the hill climbs of the Tour de France, but I’m sure it included a mixture of other cancer patients he had met along the way, yellow jackets and a finish line. Lately, for me it has been my daughter and my desire to have her look at her father’s life someday and say, “Wow, he really pushed himself and accomplished some great things.” I want her to be as proud of me as I am of her. Whatever it is, everyone has to find something to focus on for motivation. If you allow your mind to focus on your pain or your laziness you will have a hard time pushing through any adversity.

5. Constantly Challenge Yourself – What most people fail to understand is that mental toughness is something that has to be practiced and developed over time. The key to this is placing yourself in challenging situations…constantly doing things that are hard. This is a fundamental principle of military training. Sure, push-ups and sit-ups help develop you physically, but after a couple hundred of them it becomes much more of a mental game than a physical one. The military uses physical training and yelling because it creates a stressful environment that breeds mental toughness and forces one to deal with intense discomfort and anxiety, the fact that it gets you in shape is a side benefit.

6. Surround Yourself with Lance’s and Beau’s – As with most things in life, you will become who you spend time with. So, if you want to get more mentally tough, spend time with people that already are. It’s contagious. I always love working out with Beau because just when I’ve had it and am ready to leave the gym he is just starting…he pushes me by his example. Lately I’ve been pouring myself into training for a marathon. Being as I’ve never run one I have tried to meet and talk to others that have in hopes of gleaning some insight and motivation from them. Whether you are training for a marathon or not, surrounding yourself with other mentally tough people is a sure way to become mentally tough yourself.

Mental toughness isn’t about being macho or cocky, it’s about coping with stress, anxiety and pain. It’s about running another lap when your throat is burning, doing 20 more push-ups after your arms start to shake and doing the things others aren’t willing to do.

This trait is beneficial not just for the Navy SEAL, but for the 9-5 average Joe as well. When one looks at people like Lance, the Ironman triathalete, or the Vietnam POW it is easy to say, “I could never make it through something like that or be as strong as them.” The fact is, they too had to develop their mental toughness just like everyone else, day after day after day. Simple, but not easy.

 

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