Here are 22 principles that have stuck with me as a result of decades of training, competing and coaching.

Focus your training where you get the biggest payoff. For most triathletes, that's biking, the longest race segment.

As a strong climber both in running and biking, I actually look forward to hills (except when I am already in extremis in a race).

Why would you need a coach for running or triathlon? I can answer that question!

For my fellow triathletes in the Annapolis Tri Crabs, most every week in recent months I have been sharing "the best of" my weekly swim, bike and run workouts. My intent is to give back to the club, be a motivator, offer varied workout ideas and, last, to raise awareness that I am a triathlon and running coach. This morning I realized that I could share these workouts more widely through this blog. See here we go.

It's not too early to ask, "How will I race this spring?" That is, beyond your training, what can you do to assure before and during the race that you race well?

This is the time of year I plan my running, swimming and biking for the year ahead. Out of this planning comes a set of races I am targeting and a detailed daily training schedule (sometimes laid out for a half year at a time) to put me in the best position to succeed in my target races, as well as to yield the fitness, well-being and overall enjoyment I get from running and multi-sport.

I vowed that some day I would run as fast as Billy. After all, I had learned earlier as a small kid that rather than fighting, my better option was usually flight. I already had indications that I was a runner.

Breakthroughs come in many, many forms. Here's a list (certainly incomplete!) of 150 ways in which masters runners and triathletes can break through limits, barriers and inexperience to reach new levels of fitness, racing success and mental focus.

By varying your workouts, changing pace and distance, and periodizing your training, you too can get to a new level of fitness and, if you have a goal race ahead, to the starting line prepared for a great outcome.

Here in Annapolis, we have been burdened with hot, humid weather for most of the summer. Most runs have sweaty and slow, often more of a slog that a fleet-footed transit of the distance.

I often get the question. I suspect most dedicated runners do, too. "Isn't running bad for your knees?" Or your feet or your hips? Likewise, as a triathlete I hear, "Isn't biking bad for your knees" and "Isn't swimming bad for your shoulders?"

Are hills your foe or your friend? We runners and bikers like to crab about hills - too hard, wear us out, why not a flat course? But, really, hills make us better runners and bikers. They challenge us mentally and physically.

For most of the last two decades, I rigorously trained and raced guided by a heart-rate monitor. And even though for the last few years I have been monitor-free, based on "feel" I have a pretty good idea of my heart rate at various paces.

Stay in the moment. The idea is to have the best form, race the best line, stay at the right heart rate, know where you are versus the plan, understand how the weather is affecting you, etc., every moment of the race. That's how to get the best result, I find.

It was twilight with dawn on tap. I was turning my bike around on a gravely side road across from Cantigny Golf Club. Whoops! I suddenly found myself in a zero-speed fall.

Stay active, stay challenged, enjoy what you do, always have a goal on the horizon..that's my thinking.

Note to self: Ride more and ride harder so next time I am less like dead meat!

Short story: Long group ride goes haywire due to crash, the wrong equipment and outriding conditioning. Long story, read if you want to learn how not to undertake a long group ride:

How do you change a bike tire?