Heroes - My thoughts on Lance Armstrong and other Athletes of my generation.

From an athletic standpoint all the heroes from my generation cheated in some fashion.  Cycling, Baseball, Football, and even the Olympics.  Sure, I bought into the dream that Lance was an American hero who beat cancer then went on to defeat the best athletes in the world for 7 years.  I don't agree with cheating in any way, but I do understand that it was part of the athletic culture back then.  I hope we as a society can learn from the past and promote clean competition in all sports.  

I also hope as a society we make better choices in our athletic heroes.  I'm guilty myself of looking up to athletes who achieve success.  But what constitutes success?  Winning? Championships?  Being the best at what you do?  In the past I used these attributes.  Lately, I've realized I was wrong.  We should choose heroes like ourselves who manage to promote healthy lifestyles while managing careers, families, over come disease, illness, tragedy and deal with the daily stresses of life.  All while doing the most with the talents we were blessed with.  We are the true heroes and we need to support each other in what ever path we decide to take.  Too often we choose to tear down instead of building up.  So, the next time you see someone choosing to be "their" best.  Cheer them on as they are the true heroes.  

Back in Black: My plan for 2013

I'm fortunate enough to be selected to as an Official Cleveland Marathon for a 3rd year.  I'd like to thank the marathon staff for giving me this opportunity to promote your race and share my training experience.  Each year I feel more pressure to be more inspirational than the year before and I hope I can continue to do that this year.

For those of you how are new to this blog, My name is Beal.  Beal is my last name and has been my nickname for as long as I can remember.  I started blogging about 26 months ago to meet new people interested in living a healthy lifestyle and share experiences in my weight loss journey.  I used to weigh over 300 pounds and look like this!!!  Yikes!!

I have since adopted a healthy life along with loosing over a 100 pounds.  During that time I have swam, biked, and ran over 20,000 miles including multiple 100 mile bike rides, 13 half marathons, 3 triathlons, and 2 Cleveland Marathons.  I now look like this....

For a more in depth look at my weight loss journey and how I was inspired, check out this post Welcome

Enough talk about the past.  Lets look to the future!!!!  This year I will not be running the marathon.  After running my 2nd last year.  I felt like I had finished that chapter in my life and it was time to take on another challenge.  That challenge is Ironman.  Last June I began my multi-sport training with a plan to complete a half ironman in 2013 and full ironman in 2014.

I will have 2 main goals in 2013:

1) To complete my first Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim / 56 mile bike / 13.1 mile run) at Revolution 3 Sandusky on September 8th.

2) To qualify for the Revolution 3 Age Group Championship race.
      - I will be attempting to snag one of the ten available Clydesdale division slots.  

With these lofty goals, my Spring will be centered around one word...SPEED!!!  I've been laying a foundation of training the past two months and will be specializing on speed training during the next couple months.  Since I will not be doing much distance running, I will be competing in the Cleveland Marathon 10K event this year.  By training for a shorter distance.  I will be able to better prepare for multi-sport events this May.  My Cleveland Marathon blogs this will be more focused on the benefits of cross-training, speedwork and how they can help your running.  I'm excited for this year and looking forward to a different approach to training, blogging and racing this year.  I hope everyone joins in on the hard work as we will punish those who try to keep up with our SPEED!!!!

BEAL