Lessons From Lance



I have no interest in judging others for 3 reasons:

1. Any time I waste on judging others could have been way better spent on improving me.

2. I don't want God to think I was trying to take over his job of deciding who are the villains and who
    are the heroes. I think we all are heroes and villains at some time in our life.

3. I am not self-righteous enough to believe that I might not have at some point in my life said,
    "Yeah, OK I'll try it I guess." From that point on the two worst things might happen. I win and I don't
    get caught. Then the snowball just rolls.

I think Lance might have just been an "Average Joe." Or even worse because of that an "Anonymous Joe." For someone as competitive and driven as him that might be the worst insult that he could be given. And that may be why he decided that he needed to go outside the rules to keep up with and surpass the other "Anonymous Joes."

But I believe one of the greatest organizations I have seen built has been built by "Anonymous Joes." I believe that LiveStrong was built by "Anonymous Joes." "Anonymous Joes" that have an incredible passion for life and compassion for others. Doctors, web designers, receptionists, nurses, social workers, business people, and financial backers who all care. They care not that they get famous. They care that they are giving their all to heal people.

This blog is in honor of Mac Crutchfield who died when he was twelve years old.  Twelve year-olds have heroes.  Twelve year-olds need heroes. Mac would have been so disappointed because he was what a twelve year-old should be.  A kid with an idealistic view of the world. More importantly a kid who lived an idealistic life. A kid who consistently walked what he talked. When he wasn't swimming his best he knew the answer was to work harder.

We don't need to teach twelve year-olds they don't need heroes. We need to teach twelve year-olds that they are surrounded by heroes. Heroes like teachers, lunch room ladies, custodians, Sunday School teachers, scout leaders, and Wal-Mart greeters. It is people who get up and do the everyday things that make the world a better place.

Great athletes are famous because they make their bodies perform in ways we like to watch. Hall of Fame basketball player (and currently the funniest man on television) Charles Barkley summed it up best when he said, "I ain't no role model." Famous people are not necessarily great people. We need to teach our kids that the crossing guard that pats your child on the head and puts a little hip swivel dance in her traffic direction is a great role model. The lunch room lady who smiles and says, "Hey baby, how ya' doin' today?" to your kid every single day is someone to be looked up to.

Most of all we need to look out ourselves and ask how, as parents and mentors, we can be a better hero to kids around us. Will a kid find a hero in a grumpy old, bitter, "GROAN-up" parent, teacher, or coach? Nope. So quit complaining about everything and everyone around you and put on your tights and cape and engage in the world with enthusiasm and vigor and become the hero you want the kids around you to have!

Forrest Gump As Ironman



Many triathletes write a race report after a triathlon. It is filled with numbers that represent transition times, mile splits, heart rate zones, calories consumed and wattages of power put out. Well I did great in math until high school when they started putting letters in my numbers and called it something like, "Aljeebrah." So what I'm saying is, I wouldn't know what to do with those numbers if they came up and 8 me (see what I did there, I put a number in my letters).

I loves me some words so I'm going to give you my Ironman 2012 experience in the form of a movie. Well, since I have been so richly blessed with the gift of ADHD I won't give you the movie because at 10 thoughts per second for twelve hours and forty two minutes that would make me tireder than actually doing the Ironman thingy. (Yes, "tireder" is a word if you have just done an Ironman. Ask anybody who has done one.)

So I will just give you the description of the characters that played a role in my Ironman movie.

Our Founding Fathers -   In 1978 a few guys got into an argument on who was the better endurance athlete; runners, cyclists, or swimmers. So they met a couple of weeks later and put together a medley of the longest swimming, cycling, and running events. A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike (previously a two day event), and the 26.2 mile marathon. No training plans, no nutrition research, no heart rate monitors.  I love what I heard when watching one of the earlier Ironman DVD's. One of the athletes passes some fans after about 80 miles on the bike and says, "I'm really hungry, anybody got a banana?" Yep, no nutrition, a bottle of water on his bike and his heart pounding out of his chest. The numbers geeks did not win the early Ironmans. The cavemen did. Each one of them actually won because they won the competition with themselves. No need to be jealous of anybody else out there. It was just a competition between themselves and the 140.6 mile course. Mano y mano against the Ironman.

Me - Let's just say I grew up on a dirt road just outside of Tallahassee next to what is now Killearn Estates. I played outside all day and chased lightning bugs into the night. My Mom and Dad owned a store with a very large bike section. I rode my bike from my house to my parents' store and my girlfriend's house on the opposite side of town and to Wakulla Springs and to Carabelle. Maybe I rode my first century when I was 15 years old, but who knows? I wasn't worried about miles I just had places to go and people to see. My parents were not the kind to say "You need to think outside the box!" They just never let me know there ever was a box.

The Leading Lady - Sherrie represents what an Ironman should be; she is passionate, she is driven, she is hard working, and she gets better because she works at it. She is also a force of nature on the bike. God took an iron backbone and an iron will and gift wrapped her in the most beautiful woman skin he had. She also must have the patience of the zoo's giraffe neck scratcher because she is married to me and truly shows me how to be a better Ironman. Forrest Gump is cute in a movie but imagine how exasperating it would be to talk him through the intricate details of a set of bike intervals followed by run pick ups all the while trying to tell him how to track his heart rate percentage and bike wattage output. He nods his head and says "uh huh," and it appears the lights are on, but it's really only a motion detector. And then she has to wake up the next day and do it again. And again. And again. Kind of like Forrest Gump starring in Groundhog Day. Sainthood, I'm telling you, sainthood.

IronLove - There is a third character in every marriage. That third character is the marriage itself. It often gets ignored as people seek to get their own needs met. While other couples do things like travelling to see leaves change together, Sherrie and I choose to sweat and push and travel hundreds of miles in a pool, on our bikes, or in our running shoes together. There is something being built deep and strong into our relationship here and it's pretty inexplicable. (And I love trying to use lots of really cool words to be very explicable.) To start an Ironman with a kiss from your wife as the ocean laps at your feet knowing what you both are about to go through and to have a bookend kiss on the other side of 140.6 miles knowing what you both have been through is amazingly crazy cool. We also agree to respect Ironman enough race it to our best individually. We play cat and mouse all day long with sightings and passings and words of encouragement. I beat her by five minutes last year. She beat me by five minutes this year. Next year, as I posted on her Facebook status, "G.O. Girrrl!!! (Game On Girrrl!!!) This may sound like blasphemy here in the south, but this iron bond thing may even be stronger than Duct Tape.

Mac - The inspiration for our perspiration. Maggie, Charlie, and Savannah Crutchfield work hard to keep the spirit, memory, and name of their son alive. We are so happy to be a part of spreading Mac's vine especially because it represents the pure faith, joy, and intensity of a 12 year old boy. Sherrie and I love being a part of team Ironmac (www.maccrutchfieldfoundation.com ) because it somehow gives a sane rationalization to this insane fun.

The Coach - Nothing like having a Double Ironman Champion that essentially lives in your neighborhood to coach you up. Who wouldn't love a coach whose favorite phrases are "It's all good!" and "You've got to eat more!"?  Chuck Kemeny appears to be such a nice guy. However, I imagine the lightning bolts striking near his house and the wolves howling at the moon as he takes on that "Evil Chucky Doll" personna when he writes out those dastardly workouts.

The Ironman Training Piggy Bank - It's always interesting to bust open a year's worth of training on one day and see what you've got stored up in there. Some days you put in a penny's worth of training, some days a quarter and probably those 103 degree days in August you rode 120 miles or ran 22 and felt your worst; those were probably the wadded up dolllar bills you crammed into your little training piggy bank. The most important muscle in Ironman training may be the one at the tip of the index finger. That is the one that pushes the button to set the alarm clock. Push it to go off at 5:00 am and there is a 99% chance we are getting up to do our workout. Don't push it and the chance drops to slightly below zero!

The Other Ironmen To Be - The beauty of this sport at my level is that the other athletes are all truly pulling for you.There is still no need for jealousy here. We are all out to get one thing. To hear the words as you cross the finish line,"...you are an Ironman!"

My two favorite were:

The Guy Who Yelled "You are relentless!" as I passed him on the bike at about mile 80 - I guess we had been going back and forth for a while but I really had not noticed. I yelled back, "Not really, just unmedicated ADHD!"

The Guy I passed On The Run Who Heard His Big Square Beep Beep Thing On His Left Wrist And Then Consulted Some Kind Of Multi-Colored Chart Written Down His Left Forearm: Sorry you missed your Ironman experience listening for your beep-beep and consulting your binomial diagram on your arm. There's lots to see and hear and plenty of people to talk to and lots of volunteers, law enforcement officers and volunteers to thank. Thank you for reminding me of how I will always want to do this stuff Caveman Style. 12 year-old boy Caveman Style!

The Fans - It is crazy to think that people will get up at 5 am and stay until midnight cheering and high fiving people they don't even know. My favorite signed summed it up best as one woman stood and cheered for hours with a sign that said, "Go, Strangers, Go!"

The Point Guard - As I ran passed one group of teen-agers I noticed one of them practicing his basketball dribbling skills in the driveway. His basketball goal stood out over the road. Life slowed down as I realized a Bucket List moment could be happening. Now in order for a Bucket List item to happen you have to have thought about the possibility before. Yes, I have seen many a basketball goal on a triathlon course and actully thought to myself, "Man, I wish a kid was out here to dish me an assist so I could just score a lay-up!" Well now was my chance, "Hit me with a pass, dude!" I yelled at the unsuspecting teen. "I can't turn around, hit me for a layup now!" And he did. Life went into slow motion. This had to be perfect, like Eminem said, "You got one shot..." I looked the pass into my hands, took one dribble, a step, I knew my upper body had to stretch because after 130 miles there wasn't going to be lot of "ups." I stretched my arm up, put a lot of arc on the ball. The ball kissed the glass and fell straight through the net! "Swish!" said the net. "MONEY!" I replied. If I am not the leading basket scorer in Ironman history, I am sure I am in the top ten. I can die a happy man knowing that will be etched on my tombstone.

The Last Mile - The last mile of an Ironman is the purest sense of energy I have ever felt on earth. You know you have worked at something for a full year and this is the final piece of wrapping paper you are tearing off. All the other athletes, friends, family, and strangers that are there have an idea of how hard you worked to get here. So, while you are high fiving strangers you are high fiving people who have an idea of what you have been through to get here. Turns out, there are no strangers in Ironman, just commrades we haven't met yet.

Roll Credits - The rolling of the credits begins immediately after you finish as everyone you come across, stagger by, or squat next to says, "Congratulations!" or "Great job!" even though they never saw if you did a great job or not. My favorite quote after the race came as a truck stopped to let me stiff leggedly hobble by. I said, "Thanks!" And a female voice from the dark yelled back, "Ironmen always have the right of way!"

That ought to be a law.

At least for a couple of days, "Ironmen always have the right of way!"ought to be a freaking law.

I just designed my tombstone.

Non-Triathlon Me Or Triathlon Me?

                                            This is what I'd look like if I didn't do triathlons.

So, which do you like better, Triathlon Paul or Non-triathlon Paul?

I go for Triathlon Paul. People think Sherrie and I are crazy for taking our bikes when we go on a trip, or go for a three hour run when we are at our daughter's swim meet. But in the long run (yes, pun intended) it helps. What would we have done with that three hours anyway? Eaten? Laid around? Gossipped?

I love what rocker Alanis Morissette had to say about training her body and that a rocker said it and not an athlete or a trainer.

To me, the four components of one's self are spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual. I definitely believe spiritual is the most important because it is what can give us peace and joy. But the one that gets neglected an awful lot is the physical. Even if you are strongly spiritually based the only vehicle God has given you to carry your message, your task, or your gift is your body.

Get your body pumping with fresh blood and fresh oxygen, build strength, create endorphins and your gift giving to the world is greatly accelerated. So find an activity that interests you and makes you go hard...and then, GO HARD! You don't have to be an athlete, just treat your body like it is the "incredible awe-inspiring machine" that it is.

And then enjoy the energy and excitement that comes with having that gift delivering machine!!!!!

Sorry, New York But It's A No Go

Well...after a great summer of hard training it looks like Sherrie and I will not be participating in the inaugural New York City Ironman U.S. Championship. We have had a great summer tracking around our swim star daughter and watching her progress and grow as a great competitive swimmer. Our sweating and training will still pay off in a fantastic Ironman Florida in November that we cannot wait for.

This reminds me of my favorite lines from a country song, "Wherever you go, there ya' are." Meaning whoever you are on the inside does not change despite a geographical location. If you are sad, angry, unhappy, in your hometown you would really be the same in Hawaii. So on game day we will be training hot and hard in Tallahassee but we will still be happy, grateful people. We know we are crazy blessed to have our health, each other, great family, an awesome coach, and very cool friends. To be incredibly honest, I am sure we will click on the webcast and have a little wishiness to be doing an Ironman in the Big Apple.

But to also be honest, I know us well and we truly try to live out another one of my favorite sayings and that is, "Bloom where you are planted." So I guess we should apologize to New York City because they will not get to enjoy our sense of taking big joyful bites out of life.  But Tallahassee you will get to enjoy another beautiful week with the Peavys!

How Do You Go 120 Miles On Your Bike?

Last year when we were training for Ironman Florida we were often given the long bike ride of 110-120 miles. We always chose the 120. When people would ask us (always in all caps), "WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO GO ONE HUNDRED TWENTY MILES ON YOUR BIKE!!!!????"

The answer was always rather simple, "Well, we didn't really necessarily choose to go 120 miles. At 50 miles we felt great. At 55 miles we felt great. So why not go 60. Then you have to turn around. There is no wimp rope that will bring your house or your car any closer so you have to get back to where you started."

At mile 60 it sounded like a fine idea. At mile 70 it still seemed like a good idea. At mile 80 it was beginning to sound like just an OK idea. At mile 90 it probably did not seem like the brightest idea. At mile 100 it seemed like a bad idea and at mile 110 it sounded pretty stupid.

When we got back and completed the whole 120 miles were we glad we did it? No, not right away. Maybe not even the next day. By the time Ironman Florida rolled around we were very glad we had done it. We felt very well prepared for our 112 mile bike portion of the race.

This is much the same way I view life goals. As my friend and trainer extaordinaire Steve Pfister (http://www.stevepfiester.com/) likes to say, "Keep It Stupid Simple!"

1. Start.
1.A. Start Right Now!
1.B. Are You Kidding Me? START!!!
1.C. START RIGHT NOW!!!

2. Get After It Like A Dog Digging Out A Buried Alabama Barbecue Restaurant!

3. Get Halfway.

4. Your Halfway, You Might As Well Finish!

The Perfect Triathlon Car

We have debated the cost effectiveness of driving to the Ironman U.S. Championship in New York City. The added benefit would be being able to carry all our nutrition, sports drinks and tri-gear. Here is what I think we would like with all our tri-junk driving through The Big Apple:

Yep this would be my look of incredible awe as I look at them big ol' buildin's. "Whee doggies!"

So that we are clear, I have the brains of Jethro and Sherrie has the looks and strength of Ellie May. Remember Ellie May would always win when Jethro and Ellie May would "tussle." (Please forget that Ellie May and Jethro were cousins, because that just makes this weird.) While both of our parents have the spunk and fiestiness of Granny and Uncle Jed I'm not going to say they look like them. So let's just say those two people are just two random people we picked up in Georgia to guard our fine ride.

This is us returning from our shopping trip with our pre-race meal. You will also notice that our wonderful 15 year-old swim star daughter, Lobo, is not represented here. Trust me, if we had this car she would be about 2,000 miles away.

...and 2:30 am race morning leaving the hotel with the movin' stairs headed to get our Ironman on!



A Sample Of Two Days Training

No wah, wah! No brag. Just here's our schedule for the next few days. Those of you who have done an Ironman know this is just what you do. This is for those of you rubber neckers gazing at the Ironwreck training life and asking why in the world?

Thursday morning 6:15 am: 95 mile bike ride followed by 6 mile run.

Thursday afternoon: Work.

Thursday night: 8 mile run.

Friday morning 4:30 am: 16 mile run.

Then spend the rest of Friday watching Lobo's swim meet, working, and then back to the swim meet for finals.  In fact, we will spend the rest of the weekend volunteering at the swim meet and watching Lobo swim.


Being a swim parent and training for an Ironman is a bit cruel because after a long hot run you have to go stand on a hot concrete pool deck and you are not allowed to get in the nice cool blue water. We swim parents have always said they need a parents' lane with rafts and umbrella drinks at swim meets for parents to float in while they wait for their kid's event.

The last time we tried a run at 4:30 am so we could watch Lauren swim was at a Panama City swim meet. We had picked up glow sticks at Target so the people driving from the bars could see us. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling particularly strong that day so I'm sure I looked just like the other people staggering out of the bar as I slogged along with my glow stick a-glowin'.

Would I be doing this kind of insanity right now without Sherrie? Absolutely not.

Eccliastes 4:9-12 talks about two being stronger than one. Verse 10 says, "For if either of them fails, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who fails when there is not another to lift him up."
Verse 12 concludes "...A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart."

That's how it is we do this, God is the center strand and we wrap ourselves around him. Without God, without Sherrie and trying to do all this I would just be a frayed knot.

As in:

"You gonna get up at 4:00 am to run 16 miles after you rode 95 and ran 14 yesterday?"

" 'Fraid not."