I'm not stressed. I'm not worried. I'm not anxious. And I'm fine with that. Is there something wrong with me?

I've been thinking through a lot of things. Between the intense gym workouts, the endless stretching and the addition of the one-leg squats, I have been working my body, especially my right side, very hard. Yes, running has been tough this past month or so, but I took a step back and looked at everything I have been doing.

I have been overloading my body. The different exercises I have been doing alone are easy to handle, but I'm doing all three and then running on top of it all. I have been exhausting my body as a way to strengthen it. It's a form of proper progressive overload training.

Today was my last gym session. After a long run tomorrow it is light running until race day. The one leg squats will be done and stretching will be reduced a little bit. I've been overworking my body, so the week before the race needs to be nothing but recovery...while still maintaining my endurance by gently pacing my runs.

I'm not used to being tired, but in hindsight, I have gained all these new training techniques since studying for my personal trainer certification...and, golly, I have been applying them.

Have I overloaded my body? Yes.
Have I done so repeatedly? Yes.
Have I allowed my body to properly recover? Not yet.

My body is going to feel infinitely more amazing each day next week because for the first time in months I am going to have an extended rest. My muscles are going to recover and grow. The benefits from my stretching will be magnified after stretching, too.

Basically, all I'm saying is "watch out." I've been crushing my workouts. After a solid week of recovery, my body is going to be poised and fully energized to crush a 26.2-mile run to Boston.

I'm going to run a marathon. There's no reason to doubt--I've done it before. I'm just going to do it again. The only thing missing between then and now is rest. (Ah, the easy part!)

Doubt is mental defeat. Never doubt your abilities and you'll definitely believe where you wind up. Reason being because your determination and drive took you there. You are reaching for what you dream to do and nothing is holding you back from achieving such because there's no doubt-- the only force that can hold YOU back.

I'm about to head out to the gym, which is actually open from 10-2 today.  See, I'm not the only one who is obsessed...

I went out and got my first ever professional massage. Thankfully I have been stretching every day because the combination of the two helped so much. Given as active as I am, I may be getting a massage every other week. I definitely know it would help improve and relax my right side. Not to mention it would help relieve the tightness on my left side too.

Basically, anyone who is regularly active needs to go get a professional massage...they do absolute wonders!!!  The more active you are, the more you need one right now :)

My birthday was so much fun. The cherry blossoms in DC were beautiful (pictures to come). I ate the biggest kabob platter at the halal restaurant I always go to and went with my two best buds. Then I went to DC to see my college friend's boyfriend's band play. (I know...a lot of possessive's there, but that is the easiest way to expain.) It was great catching up with her since we haven't seen each other much at all since we both graduated.

What more would I want on a birthday? I spent the entire beautiful day outside with family and then spent the evening and night catching up with friends who I haven't seen in a while. Oh yeah, and breakfast...Burger King breakfast for french toast sticks just like I always did when I was a kid! I ordered them and felt like I was 8 years old all over again.

So yeah...time with family, friends AND being able to relive being a kid, what more does a guy need for his birthday?

All right...gym time and then a run before going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse to celebrate my birthday and my sister's birthday, who turns 20 on Tuesday. Happy early birthday to my sister, Lisa and Happy Easter to all of you!

Now go out and enjoy this beautiful day.

What's the best thing about having my birthday fall on a Friday? The DC Metro's free paper puts a Samurai sudoku puzzle in the paper on Friday...and I get to grab the paper and do the sudoku puzzle while I go to DC for a day at the Cherry Blossom festival and to just simply enjoy a beautiful day in DC!

I stayed in for most of the day yesterday, so I am going to make up missing how beautiful of a day yesterday was today.  I was kind of avoiding yesterday, not because it was April Fool's Day, but because coincidentally, on April Fool's Day last year, I was hit by a car. Crazy enough, I hit the side of the car and actually inflicted more damage to the car than the car did to me.

I wound up hitting the car with the left side of my body, predominantly with my arm. The car was going about 30-35 mph. My arm took off the car's driverside mirror on the left side to the point where it was hanging by 3 wires and I also practically broke off the antennae.

My arm was cut and bleeding. My arm swelled. I didn't feel anything due to the adrenaline rush. I had a seizure as a result of the adrenaline rush crashing and had the most bizarre trip to the emergency room.

First off, they strap me into the flatboard and put me in the ambulance. The female asked me here I was hurt, and I told her my arm and knee. She wanted to look at my knee, but she couldn't roll my jeans up high enough...so she cut my jeans...one of my favorite pairs!!! I had to take her through the events that happened, and repeat to her at least 6 times that I did not fall down when I was hit by the car. She kept asking me, expecting me to remember that I fell down. Little does she know, I study taekwondo =)

Get me to the hospital, I'm restrained very tight. I ask Dr. Hammer, yes Dr. Hammer, if I can get the straps loosened. She agreed Her exact response? "You know the only reason you were strapped in so tight is because the woman on the ambulance wanted to take advantage of you."

And if that wasn't enough of a sexual reference for you, I get wheeled down to get a CT scan and the radiologist on call comes out, looks at me and asks me what happened. I explained about getting hit by the car. His response? "Oh, I saw your knee and figured that your girlfriend made you go down on her and something went wrong." Seriously?!?!

Luckily that was all I had to put up with. CT scan comes back negative, Dr. Hammer comes back and tells me I don't even need stitches. I walk away from the hospital with nothing more than a 3-inch cut on my arm...while I basically broke a car.

Car vs. Greg...Greg won last year, but I never want to test that again! I wasn't really avoiding yesterday, but I did want to save up my energy for my trip to DC today because it's my birthday and I'm gonna have a blast! The fact that it falls on a Friday is a fantastic bonus =)

Now you go out and have fun too...everyone should have fun on my birthday, especially given how beautiful of a day it is going to be!



Yeah...stop reading. Go out and play. Or at least take a break from work, go for a walk and get a cupcake. Treat yourself...it's spring!!!

Point blank, this is make it or break it for my career.

As inspiring, incredible or fulfilling of a life I am living, the truth is that I'm Greg Wagner. That could be anybody. Honestly, I'm just another guy. But this guy has so many ideas aimed at helping others get themselves where he has gotten himself.

I'm not saying I know everything, but I've learned a lot in my life. That's why I wrote my book-- it's a compilation of all the lessons I have learned in my life. Everything that has gotten me from the three-year-old lying helplessly in a hospital bed to the 24-year-old, 25 tomorrow, who is going to run a 5th marathon.

I want to sell my book. I want to advocate for others. I don't want to share my story and put myself on a pedestal-- that is not why I am running this marathon. If I cared solely about myself I would nevert put myself through the torture of running a marathon again. I've done it 4 times already. I have proven that I can run the distance. There is nothing left for me to prove to myself.

This is for my career. Without this marathon, yes I am still the 2008 mobility-impaired champion, but that was 2 years ago. I'm still just Greg Wagner. If I win my division this year, and if I can do it in the fashion I've wanted to since 2008, I don't have to market myself just as Greg Wagner. No, I would be Greg Wagner, current Boston Marathon mobility-impaired champion.

In our society, the present is all that matters. This program I have put together, I left a stable, fully-benefited job to pursue. This is what I care about, what drives me and where my passion lies. If you don't pursue your career with passion, it sucks going to work. It's as plain and simple as that. With as hard as I have worked, I want it to be for a reason. I want to have worked this hard so that I could enjoy my life instead of settling for a job because that's what I'm told I'm supposed to do.

I've worked far too hard, and the lessons I have learned that have molded and driven that work ethic need to be shared. Knowledge is worthless unless it is shared. I'd rather dedicate all my efforts finding how I can make a career sharing that knowledge instead of settling for a job like I had and feeling like I have a worthless career.

Whatever it takes, my career will happen. I make people happy and inspire them without even meeting them. Imagine how that could be magnified if I were face-to-face with people. Yes, I know it's a dream, but what good is a dream if you don't reach for it? Too many people settle, and I have never been your average person.

One marathon to give me the edge I need to make my dreams come true. That is what is riding on this run. That is worth 3 hours 30 minutes of suffering. That is why running my race in that time is not even in question. Given what I see is at stake, it's in the bag. Nobody has ever taken or forced my dreams away from me when I have had control over my journey. I have control over this run and I'm not letting go until I have crossed that finish line in 3:30:00 or less.

Find joy in the pursuit versus solace in the dream. Don't wonder about the world you could have had. Instead of finding comfort in daydreaming about what could have been, or where you could have been, give yourself the satisfaction of knowing you tried everything you could to live your life to its fullest.

That's the secret to where I have gotten myself- the final destination. That's the ultimate lesson, but to get there you have to learn how to walk. That's what I want to do with my life-- help others walk better...and eventually run their own marathon, whatever it may be.

And that is why this marathon is so imprortant. Everything--opportunity, notoriety, the future-- results from this race. This is my ultimate marathon, the one race that determines how many races I get to help others prepare for one step at a time.