Finally, the day has arrived! Whether you're an experienced racer or a brand new one, race day can be stressful. A little bit of planning can help ease some of this stress and allow you to focus on having an exciting and fun race!

The vast majority of endurance athletes are highly self motivated. Success in running, cycling, triathlon, cross country skiing or other endurance sport requires consistency and long training hours in preparation for a key event.

Enjoying a fantastic race experience involves a great deal of thought, planning, and training. You don't magically appear at the start line ready to go and get to the finish line in a record time.

The more likely scenario, especially for beginning racers, is to rush out the door in the morning hoping you have what you need, not finding a parking spot, and getting to the race venue in the nick of time. Then have to line up way in the back as a result, feeling exhausted when the gun goes off, and having a subpar race as a result.

You registered for your first race. Congratulations! Maybe one of your friends convinced you to join them. Maybe you were inspired from a TV show or article. Or you received your inspiration from another source. Whatever caused you to do it, you took the plunge. Let’s narrow down the "essentials” of what you will need!

Running can provide a great "bang for your buck" in terms of high quality training in a short amount of time. Here's an outstanding run workout that will give you everything you need in 30 short minutes:

Happy New Year! You possess the ability, the power to make 2011 the best, most healthy, and rewarding year of your life. So make it happen! And do so by focusing on 1 - only 1 - goal for the year.

We all know this is easier said than done. We can't simply wave a magic wand over our head and "poof!" we've changed. It takes work, it takes time and mostly it takes dedication to a singular goal to make this happen. Most of us make New Year's resolutions. They might be something like......."I'm going to be healthier this year." Or......"I'm going to lose weight this year."

Much of our time in the weight room is spent working on our muscles. And while we look good and feel good with our 6-pack abs, toned arms and shapely legs, the most important muscle to exercise is the heart.

Summer is here, and to the endurance athlete, this means race season! You’ve been training hard all winter and spring, and you’ll see the payoff now as you compete in your various events.

You’ve seen or possibly even experienced one of the following examples of how NOT to use your workout time.

The first mistake is having no idea what you’ll do during your workout. You get on your bike, you put on your running shoes or you go into the gym and realize you don’t know what you’re going to do. The end result is often doing a little of nothing and getting no real benefit.

By: Bob McEnaney

The foundation to personal health and fitness is similar to that of a stool. Each of the 4 legs must be solid and in balance with the others. Too much attention to one leg and the stool is unbalanced. Likewise, too little attention to the others causes the same problem.