BURN THE SHIPS.....

I know what you must be thinking by now,I haven't seen anything written for months and now it's only been two days and he has another entry. What is going on? Well, let me tell you I think this is an extremely important time in our lives. I love the holidays, but there is nothing like a new year just about to open up for us, it is a very special time, where you feel like a new beginning, a fresh start to your life.\

I take this moment and look at my past year's adventures, trials and accomplishments. I believe in setting new year's resolutions, not because I intend to give up on them but as a challenge to try to better myself. Last year, I came up with 7 resolutions, I was able to keep four and a half of them. Think those are good odds, at least for me. In a few days I will post my 2011 resolutions here, and I invite you to share some of yours too. Maybe this way we can be more accountable and have a higher success rate.

When the Spanish conquistadors came to conquer Mexico, after many months at sea; their captain asked them on the beach...are you ready to go into battle. And of course they said, YES. Three times they were asked the same thing and three times they excitedly said YES. Then he said, OK you are willing to stay and fight, then before you do burn the ships. See this is my advice to you today, before you start out on this new year, look at all the things that will make you look back and reconsider those resolutions. Anything that will make it easy not to get healthier, or wiser, or better, or just feel better of yourself as a person. Get rid of it before you wake up the morning of January 1. You only have one way out of this year, of this life and it is to go forwards. Arm yourself wisely for the trip, surround yourself with the ones that love and will help you along the way. OK, OK.....by now you are saying, enough. Well it is enough, I have to start looking at the pieces of my ships that I am trying to glue together. See, I have burned them once before, now I have to finish the job and get rid of the splinters.

Once I again,I wish you a healthy, joyful NEW YEAR.

Time does not stand still...

It has been over two months since I posted here and so many things have happened, mostly positive, in my life. I would love to go into some of the details at this time but I figured it will have to wait at least a little longer.

My heart is full with anticipation for the New Year, though, I felt it would be only appropriate to write a few thoughts on this milestone in all of our lives. I can not believe that we enter the second decade of this new century and millennium. It seems like only a few days ago when I was anticipating the dawn of the 21st century, and now I look and I am 10 years older. Wow, it just flew by.

I feel that I am at the doorstep of a very exciting time in my life. this past year things have fallen into place. I have grown through many struggles and I have matured into a person that, if I had looked at the beginning of the year, would have said it was not possible. I hope that as 2011 starts I will be able to share some of my accomplishments, defeats, struggles and growth of this past year.

I end this year on a very positive note. I am where I am because of each one of you. Your interactions into my life, have brought me to where I am now. For this I thank each one of you. I pray that you will continue to share this life with me and wish you a very prosperous, joyful and healthy NEW YEAR.

Clouds help most of the time......

Today as I ventured out for my morning workout with Nancy, I could not help but see how beautiful the sky was as we headed back. It was too early for the sunrise but in the first light we noticed the clouds. I had to think about how clouds make the sunrise even more beautiful. And so I thought how true it is for most of our lives. The clouds( or obstacles or problems) that come into our lives make the good times in our lives seem so much better.

So I am thinking this is not a new concept, but one that I wanted to share this day. This past week has been a good one. My training in all aspects is going well. In my training for the marathon, I keep plugging away. I am thankful for the people that God has placed in my life to share this journey with. Nancy, Barbara,Shari and Jamie as I plug away on the daily training. My leader and coach, Marcela, is a true inspiration for me. Her never ending smile and whoo-hoo make me try to achieve the best every Saturday.

On the personal front, I am, also, keeping on track. I keep trying to eat right, get more sleep and am sticking with the MTO formula to reach my weekly goals. I feel confident that the longer I stick with all of it , the sooner it will just become one of my habits. Spiritually I keep growing too. I now see the times I slip backwards as it seems, are just growing pains and learning experiences. Sometimes I think that I am getting to be a worse sinner, but I quickly realize that it is just that I see my sinful behavior for what it truly is and not as what I thought to be normal before.

o I guess the bottom line is that today, this week when you see a cloud on your horizon, look at it differently. the obstacles will quickly pass in the grand scheme of things, and when you see that sunrise approach, when you have overcome that hurdle in your life , it will be so much sweeter so much more beautiful. Smile, and have fun it is only life.

NEVER FORGET.....

I remember waking up nine years ago, on September 12th, early like I did today ;and I was scared. I was dealing with a friend who had completely lost it because of what had happened the day before,and I was trying to process the whole thing and how my life and the loves of all in this world had changed in what seemed a blink of an eye.It seemed at that moment in time that the whole world united, the world prayed for safety, for direction , to find something as simple as hope once again.

It was a terrible thing that violated our space it seemed, and we had to prepare for whatever else was coming. I had always lived in Florida so I knew how to prepare for a hurricane, we always had a hurricane plan in my family. Now I was coming up with a plan on how my family was to react and what we needed for a potential terrorist attack.

This happened many years before I actually started my training for a marathon, but I guess it was laying the foundation for that training too. In the blink of an eye things changed , but it also made me realize that anything was possible. The limits we had placed upon ourselves as a nation and as individuals were shattered that day. Now we were not only not safe, but we only had ourselves to blame for our shortcomings.

So now I pray, I prepare and I train. I hope that another attack does not happen, but I am better prepared now. I certainly pray for God's mercy, and I pray to place Him in the center of my life as the nation should also become a God centered nation also.

What I will certainly not forget is what happened. If I start to forget I know that somehow I have wandered off the path that I am now on. By remembering I will continue to walk where I know I belong. The sunrise is of today 09/12/10 and it reminds us that no matter how dark the night, a new day will always awaits us.

First Light....

Have you noticed that sometimes(at least for morning people like me) you have to wake up pretty early so that your mind is clear and you can gather your thoughts and reevaluate where you are at and where you are going? Well today was one of those eye opening days for me.

First of all I want to say that my training for the upcoming marathon season is going well and on track. I am averaging between 18-25 miles per week. With the longer Saturday training sessions getting longer and longer. Yesterday was the first day that we did 10 miles in a long time. We all survived but the humidity and high heat index does take its toll. This morning I went out for a few miles and breakfast, that is when it really hit me how much I am changing.

I do enjoy my training, especially the people I train with, but I came to finally realize how my priorities are changing. How I am changing. In the past few weeks, through spending time in retreats, spiritual readings and just contemplative prayer, I have come to see how I have been a 'poser' for a very long time. Because of this I have not been totally myself, I now realize that the only way I will be content and at peace is to break down those walls, strip away some of the falsehood and be the person God has created.

You say, the blog was better when it described your training and its pitfalls; well I say I will still be looking at my training but it will encompass a lot more then just my physical training for a marathon, it will cover also my training for life. I will try to evolve into and live the life I truly was born to lead. Ok, it will not be a simple process and I hope that it will be even more entertaining then my previous training. I am fast approaching my 53rd birthday and I know it has taken a lot of time to get here, so I know this new process will take some time, but I, as I was for my original marathon training, am in it for the long haul.

So I invite you to take some time early in the morning or late at night. When it is peaceful and quite like it is in the picture; and look at your life. What needs to change? How can you go about doing that? And if you have the perfect life and don't want to change then thank God and continue to live it.

Remember you only have to train or live one day at a time.

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning......

The times, they are a changing. I can feel it in the air, or at least in the stillness of the morning. The sky is an eerie red when the sun rises for the last couple of days. the new month has dawn. There are changes on the horizon, I can feel them, there is new excitement in the air.

Well I have finalized my plans for the new season. I will do the Space coast full marathon and the Disney full marathon in January, with several half marathons in between. It will be an exciting time but it will not have any undue pressures. My target goals are well within easy reach, as long as I spend the time training both mentally and physically for them.

Speaking about goals, I would like to share something here given to me by Shari and developed by Raymond Aaron. It is the MTO method of goal setting. I have started to do it for a couple of weeks now and have actually come up with an elaborate plan of setting goals in all aspects of my life for the month of August. MTO stands for minimum, target, and outrageous. So in one area of your life you set a minimum , a target and an outrageous goal. The minimum should be easy to attain so you will almost always reach that one, with target setting your limits a bit higher and then the outrageous being just that. As the time continues you find yourself attaining more of the target and even some of the outrageous ones, so that is when you reevaluate and set new parameters. Like I said I have been doing it for a few weeks now and am excited to see how many goals I can accomplish. After this month I will be setting more long term ones. I will keep you posted.

Two other aspects I will update you on , the spiritual program Barbara F and I were working on , got approved by our church and so hopefully will soon be embarking on that journey with others at St Gregory. Also I have started to write a novel. Yes, being inspired by Alex P., I ,too, have started to put some thoughts down. Maybe some day Alex we will share a booth in the Miami Book fair.

So you see times they are a changing, new frontiers are coming to the foreground, ready to be conquered. As I continue to go through the journey, I thank each one of you that share it with me , I thank you for your love and support.

Until we meet again, I carry you in my heart.....

It has been a while since I last blogged...

I sit here and wonder why I have not had an entry in a while. Has been life been uneventful, is my training non existent, am I too busy, or do I just wonder why write, does anyone read this? Well for what ever reason, I am back.

My training is going well. I average about 20 miles per week. It is extremely humid and miserable most of the days I go out and I wish I was faster, but I still go out and I am faithful to my training. I am trying to eat better and record all the food I intake through a site called my fitnesspal. I can do it through my iphone so it is much easier to track.

My life although busy has become a lot more manageable. I am more centered and I trust my God to lead me to where I should be. I finally have come to realize again, that nothing is impossible for Him, so why worry too much as long as I can turn my burdens over.

I keep trucking away, I feel more at peace, and I feel deep love in my heart. I trained with JJ yesterday. I have to tell you I missed you although I tend to give you a hard time. I value the insight you give to life at times, and the sound of your laughter. Don't change, although I may ask you frequently to do. And Nancy your training is invaluable to me, it gets me out the door. Also your friendship is very much cherished.

So this time again , shows me the importance of having people around that encourage me and that I in turn can encourage and motivate them. I thank you all. The sunrise at the beginning was from the beach at Ft Lauderdale one morning as I trained. When looking at that, how can I question the existence of God? My friends keep on, follow your heart as you continue your journey....

Training?

This past week has been more of an unusual week for me, and that is saying a lot because I have come to accept that things are not "normal" in my life. I know I started this blog as a forum to describe and keep you inform on how may training develops during the months and years that I write. My training usually was in regards to getting healthier, training for a marathon, half marathon or a combination of these.

Well on that front training is going well. It is extremely hot here in south Florida this year so I have come to accept that my training will be hampered but that fact but I still train. I still go out between three to four times a week, and do about 15-22 miles per week. I sometimes hate it, I question myself why I am doing it, but I still know that since I am building endurance I get out there.

Although I will still use this to chronicle my training for the upcoming marathons this year and the beginning of next; I will also use this blog to share how I am training for life in general. As I eluded to in the last entry, I feel that I am at a possible crossroads in my life. I have started a retreat with Barbara and hopefully others in our church to explore and deepen our spiritual life. I will want to share some of those experiences on here. The culmination to all of it will the journey and pilgrimage on El Camino, the pilgrimage that many have made in the northern slopes of Spain, ending at Santiago de Compostela.

So you see this will be a busy blog in the coming weeks and month. I hope that as I share these different aspects of training that it will lead you to explore what needs to change in your life, and that you be given the impetus to start on your personal journey too. so take time, walk with me for a while....

How much do you want to know?

Yes, it has been a while since I wrote anything. maybe someone reads this, maybe no body does, but I enjoy writing about my experiences in training and now lately it seems in life.

How much do you really want to know about these past weeks and months. I feel I am not training as I should because I don't feel I am making much progress. I have been going out and walking at least three times per week for about 5.3 miles each time and I go out with FIT on Saturdays and do 20/50 intervals. I am trying to decide what races I will be doing this coming year, along with how I will train to best accomplish my goals.

I guess what has taken the most energy in my life has been my mom's total right knee replacement. Although it all turned out well, she is 90 years old and so has taken a lot of my time to help her as she went from hospital, recovery room and now to her home. Soon, it will all be over and she will be recovered, and I will be happy that I was able to help and get her back to her normal life.

Another part that I will touch on , is the changes that I have set into place in my life. It seems that there is constant change all around me, and I am now trying to orchestrate this change into a more productive , stress free life styles. You know so many time addictions and addictive personalities come into play and so the best way to handle it all is "one day at a time". I am glad that God takes care of me , and I am learning to let go and let God by concentrating more on myself, on how I can improve my journey with the Lord. I have started a 34 week retreat, might share some of the highlights as I journey through. I am reassessing my life, I have had to let go of some of my baggage, including some things that although very important were not good for me.

Well that is enough for now. I will explain the symbol that opens this blog at a later date. Just let it take you to a different place, let the journey begin....

Four weeks later....

I can not believe that it has been about four weeks since I last had an entry. A lot had happened in that time span. I won't bore you with all the details but there are three incidents that are worthy of mention before I continue to write about my day to day week to week experiences on training.

First, four weeks ago I went on a kayaking trip in Jupiter, Florida down the Loxahatchee River. It was a gruelling trip, where for four hours I evaded submerged logs , tree limbs that were trying to knock me off the kayak, and the illusive presence of alligators and turtle and frogs on the river. It was hard for me to go through a lot of the obstacles and if it were not for the accompaniment of some buddies I would have never made it over some of the downed trees. I got over one obstacle, I became confident and went ahead. Not the right thing to do. As I turned the corner, the current got stronger and pulled me close to a very big limb. In a second I was being knocked off the kayak and into the water. I had my eyes open as I hit the water and saw myself submerge into the river. I started to sink and I could see the kayak going over me. My thought was to kick and go up. I broke the surface. My kayak was going down the river and I was in the river without a paddle. One leg got entangled in some roots and one leg was pulled by the current in front of my body. I kind of had a life jacket on, but since it was not fasten it was doing more damage then helping. I grab onto the limb that knocked me into the river. For a few seconds, I thought how easy it would be to just let go and to end it all there. No more pain, no more battle no more hiding , no more pretending, no more masks that we all tend to wear. But I held on, my buddies after a few more minutes came around the bend and rescued me. We continued on to the nearest stop and got picked up by the park ranger. Thank God I was ok, just my side and ego were bruised. Needles to say I did not train that week.

Second,instance was not a bad one. I got invited to accompany my friend, Barbara, to a wedding in New York. We had a great time at the wedding , and then we went into New York City. The first day we aer walking around, sightseeing and I notice that there is going to be a race the next day. It is the MS Walk in NYC. I inquire and find out that the 10K is a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. So of course we did it. What an experience. After we climbed the Statute of Liberty to the crown and up and down numerous staircases to the subway. My knee hurts again. I for got the brace I usually wear on that knee. I come back, Knee hurts, no training for week two.

The third thing that I did was the annual Emmaus retreat at my church, St. Gregory's. What an experience, God really worked through His Holy Spirit touching countless lives. I am tired, need to rest , knee still hurts so take another week off.

That brings me to yesterday. A new season starts for Friends in Training (FIT);my marathon training group. I was excited to get out there and start the training again. We had a great turnout. Started my group with some running and a lot of walking, we kept a 14:50 minute per mile pace. It was a good start. Today, I went out with my training partner and friend, Nancy. We did over 5 miles. I have entered into the path once again. I thank you all the played a part in these last four weeks. I could not be here if it not had been for the parts you all played in.

The pictures at the beginning are of the river that gave me a new outlook of life, the Brooklyn Bridge and the group that I shared the retreat with. Enjoy your life, share your love with another this week. And continue on the path....

THE SCOND WEEK AND I FEEL LIKE I JUST STARTED....

Welcome to week 2, here I am on W2D3 and the best I can say is that I at least finished it. Not at a great pace, not with the best form but I got out there 3 days and did the required 5 minutes warm up, and 20 minutes of repeating 1 1/2 minutes running, and 2 minutes walking with a 5 minutes cool down which I ran part of too.

Well my running seemed like jogging and sometimes I felt I was running in place,but it was cool and I went out and I kept telling myself I was stupid, but I did it.

You know I have found that with the best intentions life seem to get in the way sometimes. You either don't sleep well, or you sleep too much. You have a bad day at work or you have a great day and you want to celebrate. You eat too much or eat too little. You are worried about this or that, stressed about life. Bottom line all things that you can possibly change or not, but things that have to be set aside for a few minutes a day to take care of yourself. I saw all the excuses this week and I feel into their trap. But in the end , I still did what I had to do.

This week coming up, I don't know what it will hold. I don't know if I will go to Week 3 or repeat Week 2; but I know that I will do something. I will be one step closer to my goal, and I will try to enjoy the journey as I go along. Enjoy your journey.

One of my friends, Alex P, shared a quote with me after reading the blog and I was touched enough by it that I decided to add it on here. After getting her permission , she tells me that she found in a very special place; inside the wrapping of a candy bar. I always knew that hidden truths are to be found in unexpected places. Here is the quote written by Anonymous: "ONE'S BEST SUCCESS COMES AFTER ONE'S GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENTS".

Well here I sit and I completed W1D3 of this new program. I did D2 a couple days ago and I was faster then D1. I actually felt that I could do another day this week. So here I come to D3, I decided to do it with my friend and training partner,Nancy. We met early in the morning downtown in Ft Lauderdale. She really wasn't sure what we were doing, but she has started the same program too. It was cool and we started to run after the 5 minute warm up. Completed the time allocated and felt strong, well at least I was upright.

I look forward to next week. Well i have some trepidation, but it is good that I am concerned , that way I will try that much harder to complete it. The crazier part of the whole morning was that after our training we did a 5K, yes exactly the race we were training for. OK we did not run all of it, but we did 30 seconds running , 1 minute walking for most of the race, and we finished it, Nancy and I in 40:04 with a pace of 12:54 officially. Not to shabby.

One of the best parts of the race was that I got to see a lot of my friends, people that have encouraged me through my ups and downs of this past training. Debbie, terry and Aaron and Luke were there. I ran some of the route with Eddie and Sophia. Got some brown sugar from Audrey. In all it was a great time. I look forward to this season and anticipate great things in the future.

Continue to smile, enjoy the training and take it one day at a time.

One small step..

One small step for me , one giant leap for my ego. Well I did it. Did what you might ask? Well I started the c25k program. I won't bore you with all the details but basically it i a program that gets you from the couch and no activity to running a 5K in 30 minutes. the program is 9 weeks long. After debating with myself on the pros and cons of it, I decided to challenge myself to at least start and hopefully complete the program.

Well,I decided this yesterday, so I had 24 hours to try to talk myself out of it.All day today I kept telling myself all the bad things: I did not sleep well, I keep worrying about all the things in life I can not change.It is going to be too warm, I will be tired from a day at work, it might rain. I got out of work and I decided that at least I was going to try it. The worse that could happen would be that I would not be able to complete my first day. I came home, changed and headed out the door. I warmed up for 5 minutes and I started into the program. At each turn I kept thinking that my knee was going to start hurting, I was going to be more thirsty then I was. But I came prepared; I had water, I had a knee brace on and I completed my time of 20 minutes and then I cooled down for 5 minutes.

I got home and I felt good that I had accomplished it. And I felt that I would be able to do it all over again in 2 days. Well at least hopefully with less anxiety leading up to it.

I completed W1D1. Don't worry I won't bore you with a daily account of my adventure, just a weekly recap. And I leave you with this thought : it is better to start something and possibly fail then not to start it at all and not know your true potential.

It's another NEW beginning....

Here I go again, and again. It has been a while since I have written on this blog, but as I feel that I am ready to start another chapter in my life, I want to once again chronicle the accomplishments and any low points of this journey.

It has been close to a year I guess since I wrote so I would like to summarize the time away. It was a challenging time where I dealt with frustrations and a major burnout. I over trained and I paid the price because I nearly dreaded each workout and each race. I had a good year in that I felt I continued to touch some peoples' lives as I worked as an assistant coach for FIT, but it was frustrating because I really did not feel I was accomplishing anything for myself. I trained and trained for Goofy and I failed to finish the full marathon so I felt like the whole year was a failure. Thanks to the people in my life such as Drew, Nancy, Barbara and Shari I feel that I learned tons from the experience and will be able to help others too because of it.

So, here I am ready to start. This week I begin the c25k program. I will try to stick with it so that I can grow and challenge myself to accomplish what I thought was beyond my reach. I will train differently and will concentrate on eating right to lose the unnecessary weight. I hope you stay tune so you also can experience the new thrills of this trip.