Just Five Short Weeks!

December 6th will be here in a jiffy, and the Memphis St Jude Children's Research Hospital Half Marathon will be here in no time. Training is going as planned. This week's long run, which I will do tomorrow will be of the 9 mile variety. The weather has changed and man oh man, it's cold in the morning. I think today, I will have to go shopping for some winter running gear.


This fall I added a new element to my training routine; spinning. On Tuesdays and Thursday I do a 45 minute spin class followed immediately with a one mile run. I have done this spin/run thing a few times now and it's pretty cool and not as difficult as I had imagined. My plan is to increase the run, until eventually I complete five miles after the spin.


Several months ago curiosity led me to see what the Facebook buzz was all about. I signed up for a page and added my family, those that were active; my wife Monica and both daughters Juliana and Marcela, as my friends. The page sat idle for several weeks. One day Juliana posted a note on my wall telling me to "get it fixed, dad... it's boring". Wanting to oblige I spent some time making it look acceptable. Added a few more friends, some pictures, a few applications and I was on my way. More family and more friends found their way into my network. This was pretty cool, even some of my daughter's friends sent me requests to be added as my friend! Who would have thought!


As I am one to always be looking for ways to learn and improve on tasks at hand, I began to see what the triathlon/triathlete/running Facebook community had to offer. I quickly found that there are thousands of people involved and sharing their experiences through this medium. Many of which, like myself have created their own blogs. This was interesting to me because I have finally found a purpose for my Facebook page. Mind you friends and family, I love ya'll but I needed more from this in order to stay motivated to stay with it.


Through the USA Triathlon page, the Triathlon Training page, and the Runner's World Magazine page I began to build my network of like minded triathlete and running enthusiasts. I have found people from all over the country and some from right here in Middle Tennessee. It's great to see how much motivation one can get just from reading and watching the progress others have accomplished. This has also been a great vehicle to get this blog promoted within the community using the Blog Networks application. Check it out, it's pretty cool.