It has been some time since my last post so I thought in this post I would do a quick recap of 2010 then dive into the present.
My life personally and professionally has changed so much in 2010 it is almost mind blowing. From finishing my first ever run race (The Shamrock Shuffle), to leaving behind my friends and family at ACA/AppleTree to pave my new path at The Connection. Boy what a year can do!!!
I entered 2010 with 1 very large goal in mind, complete the Chicago Triathlon. As I started 2010 I had the love and support of my friends, family, and an amazing personal trainer named Pete. Pete and I spent countless hours together working out and come Aug. 2010 it all paid off with not only a finish of the Triathlon and many other races along the way, but also the loss of 80+ pounds.
Cross the finish line was one of the highest moments of my life. I cannot explain in words the feeling to work so hard at something like that, and accomplish it. It was the best feeling I have ever felt, so good in fact I decided I was not done racing for the year.
During my training 1 sport stood out as my all time favorite, The Bike! I think it may have been the fact that I could push my self faster and further in the sport than running and swimming combined. But, what ever it was, I was 100% addicted! So after the Triathlon I set my sights on a goal that some spend a year plus preparing for, a Century Bike Ride.
For those of you not familiar, a century ride is a 100-mile ride that you do in 1 day. I had joined a training group like I did for the triathlon, to help me get ready for this, while I was training for the Triathlon. Chicago Endurance Sports (CES), lead by coach Mike Norman not only taught me everything I need to know about accomplishing both of these goals successfully and most importantly, safely.
So me being I could not just do 1 Century ride, I decided to take on 2. LOL! I choose the MS Bike for the Cure Double Century and The Apple Cider Century (ACC). Just so you know these may be 2 of the hardest centuries in the mid-west as they both are in extremely hilly parts of the area. So the MS ride ended with me finishing my first ever century on day one, and skipping day 2 for being in 2 much paid, but I did finish. 2 weeks later was the ACC. Looking back at my MS ride I knew I could do so much better. So I was on my bike almost every day leading up to the ACC.
The day of the ACC was perfect. It was a little chilly, but that is to be expected in October. As I got on my bike that day my whole body felt great. I knew this century was what I was going to be most proud of. Around 8.5 hours later it was! After the ACC I was done for the season. But, I had set my sights on a new goal for 2011 and was ready to start getting ready for it.
HALF IRONMAN or HIM as most Triathletes refer to it as, had gotten in my crosshairs for 2011. But, I knew to accomplish this goal I could not do it on my own, I needed help. So After some hard research I found, Craig Strong, with Precision Multisport just before the ACC. After meeting and speaking with Craig I knew he was the man who was going to be able to get me to the finish line on my first HIM, 10 months later and help me post a strong finish at the ACC. The first month of training included the ACC, and it went amazingly well. But, then as I was hitting my grove things begun to change in my professional life that started to rock my boat.
Those who know me well can tell you that my professional life is my bedrock. It is what I allow to define me as a person. So when things began to shift my whole world was rocked at its core. My training fell off; my focus was not there, everything was well off. What was going on was that I had made the decision to take the next logical step in my career path, which meant me leaving ACA/AppleTree, whom I had worked for my entire life. This decision was by far the hardest thing I had ever decided to do. It made all the physical stuff looks like child's play in my mind, but it had to be done. So in late November I pulled the trigger and took and offer made by The Connect Contact Centers in Burnsville, MN.
The position was perfect, Director of Sales with the 9th largest contact center in the United States. I was now working on the deals that I knew I could sell, but could never support previously, but now could with ease. Professionally it was the new challenge I needed to continue on prospering in sales. But, with this new position also came the realization that I was about to uproot my family from the city we love.
The owner and CEO, Fred, was amazing and allowed me to work from home for as long as I needed. But, made it very clear that it would benefit the organization and me to move up to Burnsville, MN. After many discussions my wife agreed and begun to make arrangements to make this happen. During this time though my professional life was going great, my training was not. I had placed all my focus on getting this done right; I left nothing for my training for almost 2 months.
This brings us to today, Sunday, December 19th, 2010. I woke up this morning and started writing this blog, as I knew I needed to share this story. In the last 12 months I have had so many of my social media followers reach out to me in 1 way or another and ask for my help and encouragement. For me that was the icing on the cake for my journey. Then yesterday as I was watching the Ironman World Championship I received a Facebook email in response to a post I had made that morning that said, "It is 6:30am and I am awake. What to do, What to do?" The response from Mike Norman with CES was simple, "Run." The response from my friend and mentor Jack Daly again very simple, "Ditto." I spent the rest of the evening thinking about that and realized, "Mike, it really is that easy, RUN!"
So this morning I wanted to write this post to 1 catch people up on me, 2 to show my readers who are on their journey it is okay to fall if you get your self back up, and 3 getting your self back up is not hard it just takes 1 step. So starting today I have begun to layout my training plan till I meet up with Craig Strong to make certain I am ready for Kona HIM on June 4th!
See you at the finish line in Kona!!!
Mike McMillan - Triathlete!
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