“I am already looking at which race I can sign up for next year. I finished in 15 hr 14 minutes and I had expected to do this in 16 hours and 45 minutes. I am a mother to five and grandmother to 3 and I wanted to set a good example for lifelong fitness for them. 

I can’t thank you enough Kristen for preparing me mentally for this challenge. I owe a portion of my successful first time Ironman finish to the things you taught me in your AOY class.  You provided the tools I needed to not just survive, but to thrive in the Ironman arena. Keep up the good work – you are AWESOME!!”

Deb shared a few awesome snipits about her Ironman experience ~ get ready for some laughs!

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Brief Ironman recap to Kirsten from Deb Blair:

I had the time of my life at IMTX! Virtually no nerves whatsoever leading up to the start. The only problem was I swallowed in a bit of disgusting lake water on the practice swim which had me in the bathroom for 4 hours Friday afternoon. Even then, I was practicing my race mantra: “What’s fun about this that I am not seeing?” While being sick in the bathroom and saying my mantra out loud, I actually started to laugh! It was the turning point to starting to feel better. Very powerful questions you so expertly planted in my head.

During the swim while enjoying getting banged I thought of a line from the movie Days of Thunder, where a rookie race car driver was complaining to his pit crew about the other cars bumping into him on the track: “No, no, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he rubbed you. And rubbin, son, is racin’.” I got out of the water exactly where I expected to be on the clock. T1 was fun and funny. Two women actually found live fish inside their suits when they stripped down to change clothes. Did I mention the water was disgusting and full of stuff???

The bike was awesome.  I got the Mr Rogers song stuck in my head – ‘It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood’ on my way out of town. I found myself singing it. The course took us into Sam Houston National Forest which was magnificent. I talked out loud to myself quite awhile in there, commenting on how lovely it was and that I didn’t want the bike leg to end as I was enjoying it so much. At one point I started to laugh again because I was thinking, ‘Wow it smells like pine scented air freshener in here’, then I said no, wait – It’s FRESH AIR!! Ok, so I thought it was funny.

I finished the bike an hour faster than expected. No live creatures appeared in T2 that I heard about. The run was hot but the support was awesome. I ran/walked the first lap as planned. I met up with my partner who got violently ill after making the swim cut off and had to drop out at mile 30 of the bike. He told me I didn’t have to hurry as I had 8 hours to do the marathon. I decided to power walk for all of lap two. I was so excited to be taking part in my first Ironman I could not wipe the smile off my face. I danced with volunteers who were dancing and talked with so many of the spectators lining the run course. Everyone commented on the fact that I was smiling, and that I looked so strong – they remembered me each time I came around.

When I turned off the course after lap 3 toward the finish line, I could see the lights and hear the crowd. At that instance, I could no longer feel the blisters on my feet, or the aches in my muscles. They magically disappeared. I ran the last quarter mile and high fived every outreached hand. I made sure nobody was close behind me so I could finish alone. Hearing Mike Reilly say, “Deb Blair from St Paul Minnesota, another first timer – You are an Ironman!”  was fantastic. An even more awesome experience was having Chrissie Wellington place my finishers medal around my neck and give me a big hug. It was almost surreal.

I am already looking at which race I can sign up for next year. I finished in 15 hr 14 minutes and I had expected to do this in 16 hours and 45 minutes. I am a mother to five and grandmother to 3 and I wanted to set a good example for lifelong fitness for them.

I can’t thank you enough Kristen for preparing me mentally for this challenge. I owe a portion of my successful first time Ironman finish to the things you taught me in your AOY class.  You provided the tools I needed to not just survive, but to thrive in the Ironman arena. Keep up the good work – you are AWESOME!!

Just about all wise indigenous cultures have some form of incense for ritual, ceremony or even everyday use.  There are really good reasons for this.

The best place that I have found for excellent high quality clean natural smell is Juniper Ridge ~ they are all wild crafted directly harvested in the wilderness and created without any added perfumes or oils.  They are also a very small company and give a percentage of their profits to protecting the wilderness.  You can order their products online or sometimes you can find them in your local Whole Foods Store.

*I do not receive any profit from purchases at Juniper Ridge I just love them and highly recommend them, and of course use them myself

If you have any questions about how to begin using them and what to get first please feel free to just email me directly I will be happy to guide you.

For AOY Inner Circle Members ~ I will be teaching much more about the use of certain incenses and mini fun exercises that are extraordinarily helpful for athletes.  I will be teaching you some things from Native American cultures and from ancient Asian cultures.  All very effective, fun and wonderfully inspiring.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwLWuv2VVbM

YES we are going to get race tattoos made asap

I wanted to share with you her design notes because they are so wonderful and insightful and they add meaning to the image you see.

“I created the center Zen Circle of Eternal Life, the “O”, to have white space around it created by the “A” and the “Y”. This white (or negative space) visually represents your outer circle and inner circle ideas.

The orange ink blot in the center is the athlete. Unique and like no other and connected to the “YOU” in your title. Since what you do is about the focus on the individual and their unique abilities I put visual emphasis on this connection.

The font used in the title “Awesomness of You” has a bold, vibrating and organic quality which I felt represents the energy of the individual. The font of the tagline echoes the brushwork in your logo and also mimics the organic and distinctive energy of the individual.”

You can connect with Krista on her blog OR her awesome Zaps Threads Company (Graphic Tees for Runners and Athletes) ~ I’m sure she would love to hear from you!

Krista is an AOY athlete & AOY Inner Circle member. This is a pic of her moving a few things out of the way on a trail run

Most people go from work, school or regular life directly into their training sessions.   You will gain so much more in each session if you take a moment to consciously reconnect with your body, mind and soul and balance yourself.  Both your outcome and your experience will improve tremendously.

You want to tap into your primal instincts when you are training rather than focusing on what to do at work or how you did in a test at school.

It’s a matter of quality over just quantity.  And it’s a matter of training your mind to focus on the moment and allow your body to create so much more.

Too many athletes are under the impression that if they just put in the hours and go through the motions that they will create that great performance they are looking for.  Yes you must put in the hours, however, those hours must be focused and meaningful and when you practice connecting body, mind and soul for each sessions you will find a far surpassed outcome.

When you go into your training sessions directly from another task without resetting you are taking leftover tension and distractions with you.

Inside of the AOY Inner Circle  I will be giving you a couple of specific reset exercises you can do before each training session and each race.  If you are not already a member then go to this page.

Great performance happens when you are calm, confident and having fun!

This class is perfect for ALL levels of athletes from your first race to your 500th.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmzrFbA2enw

_Jim Lynch twitter:  @authorjimlynch

Thank you to AOY Athlete Bob Baney for posting it on his Iron Man Louisville Kentucky Group Forum on iamtri

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KTEgLKhjIw

~ Albert Einstein

It’s part of why visualization works.  Our thoughts are all translated into images and those images are dress rehearsals for our life.  For example, if you continually imagine hardship you are rehearsing hardship.  If you imagine ease, fulfillment and joy you are rehearsing it which then gives it a better chance of happening.

When you are thinking about a race and you imagine it being joyful, fulfilling and fun then you are rehearsing these images and feelings ~ marinating yourself in it and basically manifesting it to happen.