Another season draws to a close and it's time to once again evaluate how things have gone this season and consider what my goals and reasons are for the time I spend in athletics. It's become very clear to me that training is a very core part of my life.  Before I got back into this stuff, I dabbled in this and that but I always felt restless and unfocused.  It's not that hard to figure out looking at my history, but I now know that I don't do "balance" well.  I'm much happier doing a few things...

There are things that happen in your life that you immediately know will be remembered forever.  Things that you will look back upon with fondness for the rest of your days.   We all have them, and they're special and unique to who we are. I was fortunate to have experienced one of those this past Sunday.  My first Ironman was Ironman Arizona in April of 2007.  My dad came down to Tempe to see Deb and I race, and it was great to have him there.  The day after the race, sitting by the pool at his hotel,...

Ironman Canada 2008 Well here we are again.  Ironman number four is 10 days away.  Wow, that was quick. Since I last wrote, I've gotten a few weeks of solid training in as things have continued to come around.  It's pretty clear to me, at least in this case, that an Ironman full recovery for me is between 5 and 6 weeks.  It wasn't until the last week or so that I really felt like I was going well.   The geek in me really wants to understand what the physiology behind this is.  How is it possible that...

I'll write more later when I've got more time and energy.  I figure most of you reading this saw the results from Sunday, I'm 10 minutes closer and that's nothing to sneeze at.  But just a quick thought that came across when I was writing to another friend about the race... This race seemed much harder than my first two.  I think part of it is because the "Wow!" factor wears off and you're out there trying to compete for minutes and seconds against very capable competition.  Because you're actually racing - against yourself and your limits and your fellow athletes...

Over the last week, I've gotten several emails to the effect of "Wow, great job at Ironman Arizona!  You crushed it and you're going to Kona!"  Yes! Yes!  Tell me more!  Unfortunately, there's a back story here. See, there are three guys by the name Shawn Burke currently doing Ironman.   That's results for three different people there. Two of us did Ironman Canada last year.   All of us are getting faster.   One of us has his ticket punched for Kona.  One of us has the domain name shawnburke.com, and that's the only one I know. Ironman turns...

I'm very lucky in a lot of ways, but one of them is that I'm able to build most of my life around things that I enjoy.  My work-life is interesting, engaging, and exciting.  My personal life is filled with great people, and my personal time is filled with, well, mostly pain and suffering.  But in a good way, for some reason I like that stuff. But everything is relative and there are always going to be aspects of things you do - even things you generally enjoy - that get old or entail doing some groundwork that isn't that...

This year I decided that I was going to continue to commute to work by bike, at least a couple times a week, as long as it was safe to do so.  This meant finally buckling down and investing in all the necessary paraphernalia that allows it.  Over the summer, when training allowed, I was riding into work about twice a week.  I really enjoyed it.  It's only 25 minutes each way, and I can usually factor it into my training a bit.   Any time on the bike is good time on the bike.  Especially riding home after work, it's...

    After IMC, Deb and I were having that inevitable "now what?" feeling.  Most of the prior 12 months had been focused on Ironman, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else.  I made the observation that I, for the rest of my life, was likely to look back on the year fondly as my "Epic Year".  Not sure where I came up with that naming, but it seemed to fit. In any case, reflecting back, it's been an amazing year in totality, and a reflection of what a lucky guy I am to be able to do the things I do: Trips...

I've really come to appreciate a lot of the things that Gordo Byrn has to say. Gordo is a pro triathlete (3rd at IMC last hear) and finance guy who has become a real thought leader in the sport. His book, Going Long, is more-or-less The Bible of long course training. There are certainly other protocols out there, but ones similar to his are very common. The protocol I'm following is nearly textbook Gordo. I often wonder if other methods would have worked for me - e.g. more higher intensity work and...

I've really come to appreciate a lot of the things that Gordo Byrn has to say. Gordo is a pro triathlete (3rd at IMC last hear) and finance guy who has become a real thought leader in the sport. His book, Going Long, is more-or-less The Bible of long course training. There are certainly other protocols out there, but ones similar to his are very common. The protocol I'm following is nearly textbook Gordo. I often wonder if other methods would have worked for me - e.g. more higher intensity work and...