One of my new inspirations comes from Cindy Klassen, the 5-medal winner at this year's Winter Olympics for Canada.

Did anybody see her out there? This woman exemplified what I believe to be a champion as both a person and an athlete.

Her approach? Hard work, determination, competitiveness for sure... But also her deeply routed belief in herself, in her faith, and in the reality that this whole sports thing is just an outlet for inspiration, but not life itself... Honestly, she was no different 1 week after the event than she was before the Olympics, except now she had some heavy medals around her neck.

I am not usually one to bring "faith" into the picture, especially when talking in religious terms. I have often held that faith is a personal decision and a personal choice between you and that which you hold as your spiritual path. There are so many roads to inspiration and to belief that I am not going to trumpet the merits of any of them.

However, Cindy Klassen being a Mennonite, which is also my background, I was somewhat moved to here about her perspective and motivations.

If anything, I have learned that we all have gifts to use as we choose. I think what is motivating is to use your gifts to do something that matters in the world. Since this story is about athletics, I believe that we all have the opportunity to compete in these Ironman-type events in order to serve higher purposes. They are not the end-all of life pursuits, but merely vehicles to bring the world together or people together.

Getting back to the here and now, my training week was fairly solid. I had some heavier swimming days (2500+) on Tuesday and Thursday. Until now, those swims were really "run recovery" swims, but with the increase in distance I am now finding that throwing them in right after a run is proving a little tiring. So, I'm going to rework my time so that I give a little distance between the run and the swim. Since Thursdays have become higher intensity runs, I think I will swim early in the morning then to ensure I am properly recovered and can stretch out after the run properly. On Tuesday's, I'll flip it around and run in the morning so that I can swim in the evening.

I have received my blood lactic test results, so now I can start using those in my biking workouts. Actually, looking at those results has inspired me to use a heart rate monitor more on my runs. Even though I am a good judge of my effort, yesterday I used the heart rate monitor to ensure that I kept myself in a base training zone. I did find that I was running a little too hard on Sundays.

One thing I have been tackling with in my head is my approach to the Vancouver Marathon. Initially I had planned to use this race as a shot for a personal best, but I am so much more focused on the Ironman this year, and I don't want a hard running schedule to impact my training for Ironman. So, with some input from my coach and others, I have decided to run the marathon, but to focus on an Ironman pace that I think I can hold, and maybe even throw a short bike ride in the day before. This really means letting go of a performance-centered goal and trusting that my effort will lead to a stronger Ironman performance. But focus is focus, and if my goal really is a strong Ironman performance then the marathon has to be approached as a preparation race.

I suppose this choice is one we all face in different ways... What do I put my focus on now? What is most important to me? And not just in our athletic pursuits, but in our lives...