The Buckle - Why Am I So Motivated By It?

If I finish the LeadmanTri 250 in under 11 hours I will get a shinny belt buckle.

For some reason this is providing a bunch of motivation for me right now.

Here is the coveted item:

Here is what I think I have to do to "Earn with guts" the buckle.

5K Swim (3.1 miles for those in USA) - 1:23:20
T1 - 4:00 Minutes
200K Bike (138 miles for...) - 8:07:59
T2 - 4 Minutes
20K Run (13.64 miles) - 1:46:51

Total Time - 10:59:03

So here is the pacing
Swim - 1:40
Bike - 18 MPH
Run:  7:50

Wow, it will take guts, luck and some work.

I waffle between thinking maybe, no, yes and I'll try, maybe not.

But I really want the buckle and I don't want to compete in rodeo which is really the only other way to get a cool buckle so I'm going to go for it!

Any ideas on going faster?  Help!

Accepting The Pain

I'm currently finishing up Chris McCormack's book "I'm Here to Win".  I've had it for a while and quit reading it because I didn't relate that much to the dueling and tactics he was talking about.  Yet I picked it up and started reading again and liked what he said about pain.

He knew pain would show up and when it came, he greated it like an old friend and kept going.

I like triathlon but the start of a race is my time of acceptance.  I know that at some point I will suffer and I accept it. 

My race for 2013 will be LeadmanTri 250.  I'm not worried about the race based on how hard it may be, I just know that I want to race faster than I've done in the past and I know that it will be painful.

I know I can do IM distance being undertrained and if I go slow enough, I can avoid a lot of pain, but I don't want to go slow.  That means training that hurts and racing that hurts more.

I accept.  I look forward to quite a few meetings with pain this year, and will treat the relationship with respect and determination.