Well it’s been about two months since I started the long road to fitness. Joining a gym really helped and I have been averaging about 15 sessions a month. The last month have been tough with many “brick” sessions of back to back cycling and running. This prepares the muscles to race tired - which is very important in triathlons.
Honestly, my body is feeling pretty exhausted. I gave myself a day off on Saturday to rest and sleep up. It was a big help. Although I do not have any aches and pains due my slow build up of exercise, I did not realise how much the brick session drained me. Doing a run only yesterday felt so good!
With 7 days before the race, I am only doing a few gentle workouts with a couple of swims thrown in. I will also carb-up during the week on pasta. Although I am not a nutritionist and there are many schools of thought on endurance diets, there is something reassuring about bowls of pasta. My goal for this race, as it’s my first of the season, is to get through safely and in a reasonable time (around 3 hours). With the other four to five races planned through the summer, I will look to drop some weight and that will probably mean a more protein based diet.
Once again during this process of change, I am surprised at how easy it is to achieve a consistent change when there is a fixed target in mind. I wonder why I can’t keep this going throughout the year. Certainly, I have to put aside the excuses of busy travel schedules and packed work calendars. Even though I spent last week in rural parts of China at a friend’s wedding, I still squeezed in several treadmill runs between the continuous banqueting.
I am looking forward to this first race, and see it as the first step in my continued journey towards better health. And perhaps to a faster race time of 2hours 45 minutes!
I have wanted to publish a book for at least five years. I have written plenty of articles, workbooks for my public speaking training workshops and even contributed to an “Investment in Laos” guide while at KPMG many moons ago. But never a book.
When I went to the Global Speakers Summit in 2005 with a diverse group of professional speakers, everyone seemed to have a book. When we invited Dan Poynter, self publishing guru, to speak with the Professional Speakers Association of China in 2007, he extolled the benefits of writing a books and all the spin off information products.
But for all this desire and attempts to put something on paper, it never happened. Until I found a system. And a mentor. And a coach. I found a great program with an experienced publishing mentor who has created teleseminars, expert interview and a forum. Packaged in a 12 month program, my mentor laid out a 17 step plan to author a book in 90, 180 or 365 days. I dedicated a few months over the summer to attempt the 90 day plan. I really like the systematic approach and the very detailed, practical breakdown of the whole process. However, the real catalyst came from the coaches. I choose an experienced coach who had also gone through the program and we held a small group coaching session every 2 weeks. Plus my coach was available for a 10 minute laser call at a time of mutual convenience. It opened my eyes to “system plus support” as a proven roadmap for success.
I took longer than my original 90 day plan, but as the book has just gone off to the printer, I am on track to finish in 180 days! Hurrah! I have had a really good grounding in working with the wide range of people needed to bring a book to reality. From mentor, coach, experts, designers, editors, proofreaders, printer, it’s been a really interesting experience working with an international team from four countries.
I am inspired now to continue my development of publishing and learning about information products. 2009 should be a great year to test my creativity and international project management skills.
Latest Comments
RSS