MORE FIRE

more fire.  the title of the book i am currently reading.  and the current reality of the santa barbara community.  all of my thoughts are going out to my friends and their families that have been evacuated and risk loosing their homes.  the picture of me on the top of the blog is the top of gilbraltor mt.  i literally had just finished running 6 miles straight up hill.  one of the most empowering running moments of my running life.  the greenery along the ridge behind me, the picture was a short 3 weeks ago, is currently blazin away right now.  check out the photos on latimes.com, it is a scary reality for the SB community.  i hope everyone is safe, including my firefighting friends that are up there saving homes.  if anyone needs to evacuate to solana beach- there is an extra room waiting for you!

more fire, how to run the kenyan way, written by toby tanser.  the book i am currently using to enhance my mental aspect towards running.  i am a fish out of water running.  i have been called a mermaid, dolphin and other things that would associate with being fast in the water.  never once have i been compared to a gazelle, cheetah or anything that runs fast or remotely runs fast for that matter.  so i am doing my homework.  i want to be a little faster at running, but most importantly i want it to be more enjoyable. 

 i figure kenyan's do it right so ill see what they do. well, let's just say, im not going to be running like a kenyan any time soon.  this book is so inspiring because it is filled with pages upon pages of the types of training these elite athletes do.  they run 3 times a day, run from township to township, practice technique and eat pretty much like birds.  even though in actual practice i may not run 3 times a day, there is so much more to the book.  many elite athletes and coaches are interviewed and quoted.  so you can be guessing you will see more in the future from this book as i finish reading and re-reading it.

"believe you can do it."  main lesson learned thus far. if you cannot believe it, you are limiting your full potential to ever attain it.  i learned early on as an athlete how important it is to set goals.  real goals.  ones you write down.  that you may or may not share with people. ones that are short term and ones that are long term.  if you have those goals you must believe they are attainable, even if they seem near impossible. "aim high, and then higher."  i still have saved a piece of paper from high school, 16 years old, that i wrote my goals down for swimming.  i shared these with my club coach at the time.  you would assume at first that goals, for swim or run, would be in terms of actual time.  while some were, most were not for me.  long term goals: to be team captain of a ncaa division I swim program.  i was 16!  still 2 years off from even going to college.  what happened, i was team captain 2 years of my 4 at ucsb.  goal was far off, but not un attainable.  for some reason at 27 i am relearning these lessons and trying to apply them to more then just running.

go ahead, write them down, commit and set some goals.  "believe you can do it," only then, will you reach your full potential as an athlete.

to your health,

C