A New Fiscal Year

Well it certainly isn't January 1st. But I figure March is as good a month as any to start my new Fiscal year. I feel its important to sit back and look at all the things you have accomplished over the past year and start to determine what you want to accomplish over the next year and plan. As for me I like March because it feels like the beginning of spring. Its the warm end of winter and should be the perfect time to launch a strong start into summer. My past year has been interesting. School feels like it consumes most of my time and I finished my second university year with less than impressive standing (although I've been able to get it under control) I began my last year in the best shape of my life and have been trying my best to maintain it although recently I have been slipping. My financial status is the same.. poor, but my assets have changed considerably. I upgraded to a new computer with 2 27inch monitors, bought a new guitar, managed a fill a whole rack with nice guitar gear and have slimmed down my lifestyle to mostly necessities. During my past year I also managed to stop the casual smoking that comes with any naive university partier and stop drinking almost entirely (although a cold beer is still too good to give up), improve my diet considerably and find more time for sleep (although I feel like an insomniac of late). I competed in 3 triathlons over the past year and finished my first olympic distance. Im sure I could write out a bunch of other little accomplishments and failures but Ill leave that for other days, today is about planning!

One year squandered can go very very fast, but one year used productively can mean the world. For me I want to make this next spring and summer as productive as possible. Winter always feels like a write off for me. On my list for this year are:

First Half Marathon (May)
First Marathon (October)
First Adventure Race (September)
Graduate University ( April of next year --- its close enough)
Finish Level 2 of Rosetta Stone French
Get Considerably Better at guitar (and finish my post album --more on this in other posts)
Find a way to make money on my own time (ive heard you can get paid for blogging.. maybe ill start recommending books for people to buy?)
buy a car? It would be a nice to have

As I lose my train of thought to go grab waffles I will leave it at this and continue with a post on my action plan to accomplish these goals later! I will also try and post a daily tip related to Training tonight.. ive been slacking with my blog recently! Ill try and view everyone who has been commenting blog today as well! Cheers guys

University of Windsor Triathlon Club

One of my biggest problems in training has been finding people to train with. Its strange because I know a lot of people who do Tris, Run, Swim or cycle but I can't never seem to co-ordinate with them enough to get a full time training partner. I sometimes go to the gym with friends but never anyone who really pushes me to the limits or who can spot me during weight training. Even while I was getting coaching last year they recommended to me to find someone to train with. Training with people is honestly one of the most beneficial things you can do to improve your results. Not only does it improve your how much effort you will put into your workout but also the social benefits are great! You make new friends or strengthen old relationships all the while watching results with someone else. My goal all along has been to meet new people through this and I have made many friends in the Triathlon/ Running communities. Although I've never met too many cyclists or swimmers I knew a lot of swimmers back in Highschool and had a great time competing with them.

The other day while at my school gym I saw a sign for a University Triathlon club. Me and a few guys I met from the Triathlon store in London I go to a lot were planning on starting a club but it looked like someone beat us to the gun. I let them know about it and gave the organizer a call. Turns out one of the coaches of the football team here recently got into sprint triathlons and was looking to start a club. I met with him and a few girls who were all aspiring triathletes like me. Strangely I had probably the most Triathlon experience of anyone there! But everyone seemed great! One of the girls named Lauren was like me and had been a competitive swimmer in Highschool and was just revving to start training the run and bike. We decided not to start the club until January which works well for me as I really want to get a lot of training in before then. Hopefully these guys from London will sign up too and get a size able club going.

In other news Im now searching for a bicycle trainer. Its bringing to light a whole bunch of new questions about cycling stuff for me I had never asked before. Hopefully Ill be able to talk about my purchase after and give anyone who wants to train their cycle at home some heads up on stuff. The stationaries at the school are just not cutting it anymore. I hope to blog soon also about diets. Its easy to see lots of people talking about IDEAL diets in stuff, but when it comes down to it, being a student means money is tight and time is tight and No one ever eats as well as they should. Ill talk about my diet and how I "think" im doing compared to what I should be and weather or not it is sufficient anyways!

Thanks for reading! Wish me luck!

Cheers

New Blog!

Hey Everyone!

I'm here to start blogging about my new journey to do an Ironman. After watching the 2010 Detroit Marathon I remembered how much i enjoyed competing in Triathlon (which i had given up to lift weights) and decided that Triathlon and running was really what I wanted to do. So basically this blog is going to cover all I learn and have learned in the past about Triathlon and will hopefully help me organize my thoughts as I find out what it takes to run an ironman (which was the goal of mine back when I did triathlon 2 years ago). Thanks for reading! Alot more to come! For anyone who uses Dailymile you can find me by searching for Mike Faul!

Cheers!