What Gets Measured, Gets Managed. What Gets Managed, Gets Improved.

[Erick the Red]

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not disgrace to not reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.”

--Benjamin Mays

I've been posting on the boards for a week now, but since I intend to participate in the next six-week challenge, I guess I should introduce myself.

I don't have a great, life-changing story. I'm just a regular 37-year-old guy who has never been a competitive athlete but has never been terribly out of shape either. I try to watch what I eat but I could do better. I have a supportive wife and good active kids and a good job that causes me to travel just often enough to occasionally wreck my diet plans.

I am better at research and planning than I am at execution So that is the #1 reason to participate here: create specific, measurable, publicized goals and use the "game" format to motivate towards completion. I know a lot about fitness, exercise, and diet, but knowing without doing is worthless.

I am better at endurance than explosive strength. I set up a twelve-week training program earlier this year and completed my first 10K race. I have been training for my first marathon scheduled this December, running four days per week.

I will complete a 100-mile race before I turn 40 years old. This is my biggest "non-life-support" long-term goal right now. One of these ultramarathons. All my other fitness goals revolve around getting me to that spot.

I need to do more cross-training on my off days to prevent injury and to flatter my vanity -- I have been losing muscle in my upper body over the last few months, and I wasn't Hulk-sized to begin with. So sticking to a clear plan to "lift heavy things and put them down again" is a big focus too.

I hope to be able to support other people in this virtual community. I'm glad to be here.

Oh, nerd credentials.

1. My friends and family will be having a birthday party on September 22 for Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

2. I can recite from memory the words on the One Ring in the Black Speech.

3. I rolled up my first D&D character sitting on the front porch of my friend's house in 1985 (it was a cleric). I have played pencil-and-paper RPGs off-and-on ever since.

[NorthFloridaNinja]

Awesome goal! I too have aspirations of running a 100 mile race someday. Much further in the future though, I'm also training for my first marathon right now, but after that I want to work on getting faster at the marathon and branching out into triathlons.

Also, just to give myself some semblance of a V-shape, I do pullups, dips, pushups and other bodyweight exercises two or three times a week. It's a good full body workout that I can do from home and I don't have to pay to use a gym to lift weights!

Welcome and good luck from another distance-running Eric!!

[Razor]

My friends and family will be having a birthday party on September 22 for Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

Please... please have your family adopt me

[Erick the Red]

Please... please have your family adopt me

Everyone is invited to the party. It's just a BYOC (Bring Your Own Cake) kind of thing.

[Razor]

It's just a BYOC (Bring Your Own Cake) kind of thing.

Not very baggins-like, if you ask me >=(

[CyningaDena]

Not very baggins-like, if you ask me >=(

I don't think he knows about second breakfast.