what I live for

I've felt amazing the last week! I've felt rested, happy, and alive! I took 4 days off from work to spend with the family for their spring and Easter break. Nothing makes me happier than being with my wife and kids. During that time I slept a full 8 1/2 hours each night. It's not very often I get to sleep as much as my body needs.

In addition to time with the family I've made some awesome gains with my strength . In the last 2 training sessions I've set lifetime PR's at the clean and jerk, snatch, and deadlift, I'm hoping to break my bench press PR set back in 1999 by the end of this summer. I'm sure a lot of my gains has to do with catching up on my sleep, but I think the majority of my gains has to do with the feeling I get from competing. I've been training in Olympic weightlifting for 5 months now. I have my first competition, the New Mexico games, in mid May. This whole competing in weightlifting thing is totally new to me, and now that I'm getting close to my first weightlifting event I'm starting to feel alive! I haven't felt this good since I was training and racing for triathlons. I need to compete to feel happy. I've learned its the way I'm wired. There's nothing I can do to change it, so I might as well live it to its fullest, enjoy it for all its worth! That's what I'm starting to do. I'm getting back into the groove of training and focusing on competing. But doing well has never been good enough for me. I have to beat people who are great! When the dust settles I need to be on the podium, being better at what I'm doing than people who have better genetics and have been doing it longer than me. I have the drive to push myself harder than most people can. After only 2 years of swimming, cycling, and running I qualified for my first national triathlon championships. A year later I qualified for the 70.3 world championships. My goal is to do the same thing with Olympic weightlifting. I'm planning on breaking the 3 state records for the clean and jerk, snatch, and the total before I hit the 2 year mark of strength training. Wow. I live for this stuff. It fuels me, makes me feel happier and more passionate about all aspects of my life!