Hi all!

More than a few of you let me know I didn't send an email last Wednesday. (Happy you're paying attention)

Thanksgiving and Christmas always throw quite the monkey wrench in our routines. Its amazing what a couple of days off from training will do to you both mentally and physically. Anything more than one day off, and I find it VERY hard to be "motivated" to start back. I'm an absolute wreck if I end up with 3 days off! It takes weeks to recover from the recovery. (If that makes any sense....)

I've got a marathon coming up in January, but my heart isn't in it AT ALL. That makes it tough to force myself out of the door this time of year. It gets dark early, everybody around is obsessed with food, all of the travel, and the cold doesn't help either. I am in love with trail running. I don't get the satisfaction from road marathons I once did and certainly don't have the time for that type of training. So, I've tricked myself that this marathon will be a training run for a sequence of trail races that I "want" to do this spring. I think that's working so far and helps take some of the pressure off of feeling the need to run road miles every spare minute of the day. It also means I don't have to attempt to run 100 plus miles per week to prep for "racing" a road marathon. Some may think this is an easy way out. I have convinced myself its not, and actually a means to realizing more goals in a bigger picture. I have rarely (okay.....never) had any success doing a race that I didn't "want" to compete in, but have had success doing races I wanted to do based on DOing a lot I did NOT "want" to do.

So why in the heck would I choose to do the 26.2 in January if I don't want to? Because it will still get me out of the door with my running shoes TODAY. If I didn't, my fitness would slip to a very regrettable state by the time spring pops up with the races/activities I "want" to do.

The key point is that you don't have to "want" to do something to do something. Sometimes the feat of doing things when you don't "feel" like it equates to a better, stronger, and more prepared you for many amazing opportunities to come that you wouldn't be ready for otherwise. This can be applied on a daily basis and even on a minute to minute basis if you truly want to continue growing every single day. Eventually the day will come. Eventually that one opportunity will come that you will "want" to be ready for. Life is VERY short and the years keep on slipping by. The people that feel they have to have all their ducks in a row in order to do something miss the growth that happens by doing the things while unprepared in order to eventually BE prepared. Years keep slipping by, and before you know it, GONE. "NO REGRETS" begins with what you do TODAY.

Hi all!

A very wise young man at a race not too long ago said: "To be a good runner, you have to suck at everything else." There is a lot of truth in that with every aspect of your life. If you want to be your best in any one area, you're going to have to accept the price of being less than stellar in other areas. With that, what grows in your life is what you feed. The amount and quality of the food determines the quality of what you reap.

The people I have always admired and are drawn to are the ones that have a crystal clear picture of what is important, and everything else doesn't really matter. You know the saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff............and its all small stuff"

Early in my health club career, I was literally consumed by numbers and sales. I poured everything I had into getting to "the top". I led the company in both, but everything else in my life SUCKED. I was the "Golden Boy" of the 7 club chain, but there was no room to be "golden" in any other area of my life. My District manager became a dear friend of mine and was also a member of the same church Tammi and I attended. He pulled me to the side one day and gave me some great advice I never forget. "Trent, your family is the most important thing in this world. After this company is long gone, what will you have if you haven't invested more of your time/energy in your family?" Guess what...... After 30 years in business, the largest privately owned chain of health clubs in N.C. merged with another chain and soon all of the clubs were out of business. The plaques I won, the big monthly bonuses, the employees I invested in were gone............What was there, was my family.

Since then, I've fought to "try" and maintain some sort of balance. I now am sad for people that put stuff, status, or titles ahead of the things that are truly important. I find these people "silly" and rarely take them seriously. I've been there, done that more than a few times. I didn't get it either, but there comes a time when you simply have to get past your own ignorance and pour your time/energy/resources into what you know in your heart to be truly important. Most people don't take the time alone to think about what is truly important and simply stay "busy". Take some time today. Go for a hike today by YOURSELF and don't come back until you have a clearer picture about what is important to you. Maybe we should all do that more and stop spinning our wheels so that we can actually catch traction and move in a direction that actually matters. The rest is small stuff...........