Endurance Defined - Lance Armstrong

Endurance defined: The ability to withstand hardship or adversity. The ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity. Add a quarter of a century of enduring and you've defined Lance Armstrong.

The only man to win seven Tours de France.

Lance Armstrong's seven straight victories in the 1999-2005 Tours de France are awe-inspiring. The only man to win seven Tours de France. Seven wins is two victories more than the four men that share the prior five victories record in the Tours de France history.

Lance returned to professional cycling in August 2008, after a four year retirement at age 37. To finish in the top 5 again, in the Tours de France, would be a miracle at age 37. Lance finished 3ed this year -proving he is human, but still a winner. Like a wily fox, he used years of accumulated race smarts to compensate for what his 37-year-old body has lost in speed and resilience; a few seconds saved here, a few more clawed back there. When the youngsters sped off ahead, he gritted it out behind. Lance found enough gas in the tank to keep all but two other riders - winner Alberto Contador and runner-up Andy Schleck - at arm’s length all the way to Paris.

Lance was winning adult Triathlon at age 13

THE BEST OF LANCE ARMSTRONG 01
by miha2007

He began as a triathlete, winning adult competitions from the age of 13. In the 1987–1988 USA Triathlon, Armstrong was the number one ranked triathlete in the 19-and-under group.

At 16, Armstrong became a professional triathlete and became national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990 at 18 and 19, respectively.
At age 25, Lance Armstrong was one of the world's best cyclists. He proved it by winning the World Championships, the Tour Du Pont and multiple Tour de France stages. Lance Armstrong seemed invincible and his future was bright.

Then they told him he had cancer. Next to the challenge he now faced, bike racing seemed insignificant. Lance Armstrong's victories in the Tours de France are inspiring, but his simultaneous battle against cancer makes Lance, Mr. Endurance.

Lance is now leading the fight against cancer, and he hopes that you join him. This is a life he owes to cancer. This is his choice to live strong.
At the Lance Armstrong Foundation, LiveStrong, unites people to fight cancer believing that unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything.

He Lives Within Us

The greatest underdog story of our time is back for one final round of the Academy Award-winning Rocky franchise, former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa steps out of retirement and back into the ring, pitting himself against a new rival in a dramatically different era. The fact this move came out in christmas 2006 is not the point. This is no movie review. This is a blog on inspiration and the story of Rocky will always be an inspiration. So, what can we learn? Listen and learn my friends.

Rocky Balboa is a longtime retired boxer and remembered by most as one of the greatest boxing champions in the world. His wife Adrian has died and he's at life's old age cross roads. He now lives back in the skids of Philadelphia but manages a good life including running his restaurant Adrian's, helping an adult Little Marie and her son Steps, and saying hello at any opportunity to his estranged son Robert. After seeing a virtual fight of Rocky in his prime vs. heavyweight champion Mason "the Line" Dixon, Rocky's interest in fighting sparks again.



So, what does Rocky Balboa have to do with you? Rocky lives within you. Yes, Rocky Balboa lives within us. For 30 years Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) has been, as much a metaphor for life's challenges as, he was a boxer. Rocky the greatest perennial underdog of our time. Rocky goes from a "never been" to a "has been" and "back again."

The power of the story was never about how many times Rocky won a fight -it was always about what Rocky needed to do to get in the fight and stay in the fight. The fight with goliaths in the ring...and the fight with life out of the ring. It was a story about being knocked down in life and the will power need to get back up in life. The human will power to keep moving forward in life.



The plot centers on an aging Balboa still feeling he has something to prove when a computer fight, pairing champions from different eras, declares him the winner over the current champion. Stallone copied the computer fight idea from one between Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano in 1970. "After all the data was put into the computer, Marciano won by a 13th-round knockout, and that proceeded to create a lot of uproar among fans," Stallone says. "We wanted to duplicate that."

The character, Rocky Balboa, says it best, "It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep on moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward."



The story of Rocky comes out of the 70's stagflation tuff times. There had been a golden age of heavyweights in the early Seventies, but no one knew it at the time. No one bothered to stop and count all the great fighters – The Greatest, of course, Ali, but also Smokin’ Joe Frazier and George Foreman were the major stars and the supporting cast was brilliant with Jerry Quarry, Oscar Bonavena, George Chuvalo, Earnie Shavers, Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Ellis; there were the usual former champions like Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson, still able to make cameos, and there were the prospects, like Larry Holmes and Ken Norton.



Rocky Balboa lives on within you.

Inspirational Birthday Jump

Regardless of your political feelings....we admire a family of two former Presidents and one State Governer. The Inspiration is everywhere in their family story. Former President George H. Bush celebrates his 85th birthday with a parachute jump. He's done this a number of times since age 75. He vows to jump again when he turns 90.

The Last Lecture

Dr. Randy Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008. He knew death was coming. Randy talks about the life lessons he learned. Randy wanted not to give a college lecture but to create a video for his kids to watch and remember dad, when they grew older.

IronPeople with IronWill

Our hats go off...our hearts open up...to every Iron Man and Women that says,"Yes I Can."