Seeing it all get better!

The journey to IRONMAN has been a fun and exciting transformation for me mentally and physically.  I have become far smaller around the waste and believe that I have grown a lot in my little head.  I have learned a ton about myself in the process, and learned a ton more from the virtual blog world that feeds my curiosity each day!
The cool thing about all of this is being able to share it with others.  Yes, IM is about the most selfish training process that a person can undertake.  But, I have managed through the chaos to share my passion with others and see them get better and work towards a goal.

Over the course of the week(and each week this summer) I have led running groups 4 evenings.  Some of them are athletes that are paying others are through a community event at Lululemon stores  to promote health and community participation.  In any case, many and most of the people that participate have not been runners before the summer started.  Sharing what I enjoy doing with them is an awesome opportunity to enjoy the sport from a different perspective.  Hearing them ask questions so that they can continue to improve, listening to the stories of the long runs they did on the weekend, seeing the look on their faces as they push hard through another speed or hill workout.  I get as much pleasure being a part of that as I do in my own progress.  This week has been especially great!  It seems that they have all taken some type of huge leap forward in performance and commitment, and it is great to see that in 'new' runners.  In the spring I was lucky to be with a few athletes who completed their first races and it was an awesome thing to see the smiles when they crossed the finish line, I loo forward to the end of September when I get to see another entire group do it for themselves!  Seeing them make themselves better, pushes me to continue to get better.  Watching athletes who thought they were going to keel over on the first 4k at a 7min pace run now doing 15k at a 5:45min  with smiles!  Hey we can all do whatever we want, we just need to want to do it!

This week as also been a great training week for me.  Although listed as a build week, it has not seemed overly exhausting.  The workouts have been tough but I feel my fitness level is strong and I have been there and also recovered well.  This weekend may be another story.  I am starting tomorrow with a 3.8k swim, followed by a 4hr ride and then a 1:15 t-run.  This will be a good test of what is in me.  I a looking forward to the day and seeing how much fun it can be!  Last night I did a short run at a 5min pace.  It was an interesting run for me to feel progress.  Not so long ago a 5 min pace would have put my HR at about a 170 and I may not have been able to sustain.  Yesterday I was at a 152 and felt like I could have picked it up another few notches and stayed with it.  It is a good feeling as running has been a mental achilles and I am starting to feel like I am improving.  Over the winter I will continue to work on it and see if I can get to the point where I can truly call myself a runner next season!
This afternoon I will start another new experience!  I attended yoga teacher training last week and was able to gain a ton of new insight and knowledge.  This afternoon, my dear wife is going to be my first victim of yoga teaching.  I am going to teach my first full yoga practice in the sun in my backyard!  It should be a great time and if nothing else truly entertaining to her as I continue to learn ow to be the best teacher that I can be!
I hope your day is awesome and your weekend is even better!