Happy New Year!

It's been difficult to maintain the BLOG over the vacation, but rest assured, I've been training. I ran, swam, and biked over the holiday. I was also able to catch up on some much needed rest.

Just a few things I wanted to get out of my system... ahem...

Cal won the Las Vegas Bowl!!! GO BEARS!

also... GO SHARKS!!!

I recently made a challenge to my friends. 3 out of the past 4 years, I have run the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego. I'm running this year, and I have invited my friends to come along. I thought it might be fun to hang out in San Diego together... why not throw in some mutual suffering and pain!

Some of them are in the same boat as a lot of people... they have never run a marathon. Surprisingly, it doesn't take as much prep time as one might imagine. In as little as 16 weeks (2-3 training sessions per week), you could be race ready to run 26.2 miles. You may not run every bit of it, but you can travel the entire 26.2 miles by foot.

My wife is a perfect example. When we trained for the Mardi Gras Half-marathon back in '02, she had not run more than 1 mile in her whole life. 3 months later, we are crossing the finish line in New Orleans... 13.1 miles. We did Rock 'n' Roll a few months later... 26.2 miles!

I have found some good training schedules at www.RunnersWorld.com. There are others on the internet, but I'm not sure what they are. Curious? Interested? Check it out. If you need some extra motivation, train with a team, such as www.teamintraining.com. You get fit, and raise money for a good cause.

Shameless plug... you could always donate money to my fundraising. See the link at the right, or go to www.IronMel.com.