Today, Saturday is our rest day and I am enjoying it very much!! We were at a campground last night but this afternoon we moved to a Motel in Winona. Several reasons we did that. First reason is John’s wife Mary Ann is flying in and renting a car and will be with us for a week, and she hasn’t had a chance to buy any camping stuff, so, you know, we needed to stay in a Motel, at least that is John’s story and he is sticking with it. The second reason, and this is very important, is so I can watch some football!!!!!!!!

Every year in October I set my goals for the year. I set the goal for this bicycle trip last year. I set 65 goals because I turned 65 last October and this year I will set 66. A lot of the goals are basic discipline goals that I set every year like my Bible reading goal, pray with Patty 3 times a week goal,  pray for all my kids, their spouses and grandkids everyday goal. I have job/ ministry goals, fishing goals, honey do goals, etc. I also set at least one BHAG, a “Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal”, a goal that is very hard, stupid possibly, and a real stretcher. This bicycle trip was my BHAG for this year. It will be October 3rd when I get home, so I have been thinking a lot about my new goals as I ride.

Goal setting where you write your goals down clearly described and measurable, goals that you read every day so as to motivate yourself to pursue them, goals that are an expression of the desires of your heart, and most important, goals that you have seriously thought and prayed about until you are convinced they are God’s will for your life, are incredibly powerful to living a focused life,  that results in doing and accomplishing significant things with your life so that you have a great sense that your life matters. Goals also are powerfully effective to producing rapid life change and character development in ourselves so that we become the person on the inside that we want to be and we know God wants us to be.

So the burning question is, what should my BHAG be for this next year. It doesn’t have to be physical, a number of years ago my BHAG was ” go to school and get my Masters degree”, but because of having Parkinson’s, and wanting to do all I can to slow the progression down I have made exercise related goals the focus of my BHAG, and probably will for the next several years. So again, what should my BHAG be?

At this point, I think it will be to sign up and participate in the Ironman Triathlon in Coeur D’ Alean, Idaho, June 25th, 2015. This requires that you swim 2.4 miles, bicycle 112 miles, and then run a marathon. I am a terrible swimmer so I have signed up for swimming lessons that will require swimming an hour, three times each week, and I have worked out a schedule where I will bike and run 14 hours each week. I have purchased 3 books written especially for beginners and wimps, and I have signed up for an “on line coach”. My goal will be to complete the race in 15 hours; 2 hour swim time, 8 hours for the bike ride which will require riding at an average speed of 14 mph, and 5 hours for the marathon which will require that I run the 26.2 miles at a 11.5 minute a mile pace.

My intention is not to lose the physical conditioning that I have achieved on this bike ride, but to start right out with my training schedule the day I get home, well, OK, I will take a couple days off. This BHAG will probably be as difficult as this ride across America, just not so crammed in a short amount of time and I can stay at home on this one.

The one thing I still need is another person who would want to do the same Ironman Triathlon so I have someone to help motivate me, compare notes with as we train, and that I could compete in an informal way, comparing times etc.

After my birthday, October 27th you can have a copy of all 66 goals if you like.

Love you all. Dee