You gotta dance like nobody's watching, dream like you will live forever, live like you're going to die tomorrow and love like it's never going to hurt. -- Meme Grifsters
Yeah, I know it has been a while since I posted an update. Things have been pretty busy lately, in the personal life as well as the training aspect. But first some thoughts, and the most important thing to take away is this:
Life is NOT a competition; Living is NOT a competition; Love is NOT a competition. Finishing first or last in any given race isn’t going to change when you die!
Training mostly on my own, I have plenty of time to get a lot of thinking done – some related to the training, and some other random thoughts and perspective. One of those more random observations is that I realize so many people are extremely competitive. There is nothing wrong with that per se – there are a number of professional athletes whose livelihood is based on competition. But to my point… there are also a lot more people out there like me who only compete against one person…themselves. I am meeting more and more of them every day, either in person or through some electronic forum, such as the IronHeart Racing group, or the AHA Social Network of which I am a part. And a growing number of those people are not only not competitive, they are involved in these events more to support whatever social cause represented through the event (or raising money to support their own cause) or they are participating to support a better, more healthy lifestyle through their exercise, rather than the feel of competition itself.
Seriously, in the broader perspective of your life, do the bragging rights about winning a race or placing first in your age group really mean that much? Do you let your finish define who you are or how you act? Typically, everybody finishing a race gets the SAME finisher’s medal or t-shirt. And it is something a lot of people have come to realize, but all too often the revelation comes only to those who have had to suffer through some kind of serious personal event.
This I think sounds a lot like what you will read if you get the book “The Accidental Athlete”. I read the book, and it could have been my autobiography if you substitute my cycling for the author’s running. As a young person, I was part of a military family, so we were moving every few years when my father and then step-father was deployed to a different location. As a result, I was never in a place long enough to be able to commit to an ongoing sports-team involvement; nor was I ever able to get into that “clique” of students the coaches knew. But now as an adult, I am able to be involved in triathlon and cycling as I choose, on my own terms. It is not lost on me that there are a number of the “jocks” from my school years that would never be able to complete an Ironman, or would even make the decision to try. Read the book – it is a humorous look at the reality of most of us “sometimes-athletes” – age groupers who are happy to finish, regardless of our placing.
Okay, now back to reality…
I was working in a contract position with the state for my-now-nameless company until the end of August, and when the contract ended, the company told me at the last minute “no contract, no job”… after making money for them for the past 4 years. I was hired originally as a project manager to support a software tool developed by the company, but after supporting the product with IBM on a big project in Indiana for 6 months, and the company couldn’t make any more sales of their product, they decided that when this position came up with the state agency I used to work for as an employee, they could make some income with me there. The contract ended up lasting 3 years. The management at the state made the decision back in May to not renew the position at the end of the contract period. But the company for whatever reason decided to not tell me I would be out of a job until just 2 days before the end of the contract.
Anyway, suffice it to say I am now in job-search mode. I have submitted a number of applications, I have heard from a number of recruiters, and have had a couple interviews, so that part of my life is still busy.
But as much as I need to get back to work, I admit it has been pretty nice being able to train in the mornings, and get things done in the afternoons. I have done a number of rides and swims with a fellow Redman and Ironman Florida participant. Mike has already completed 2 Ironman events, one of which is Florida a few years ago. So it has been a great opportunity to pick his brain for all the nuances and details a newbie might not know. Granted, I do have a lot of information already, having been there for Briana’s training and event last year. But a second perspective is always nice.
Training has been continuing. Mike and I have done a number of rides together, varying in distance from 60-101 miles, a number of them up and down the tollway. I have also managed to complete a number of longer swims, across and back the distance of Lake Pflugerville, sometimes once, sometimes twice. Each lap is almost half the distance of the full-distance swim in Redman and Florida. I have done the swim first with a pull buoy, and then with the new sleeveless wetsuit. I can certainly feel a difference in the swimming in the sleeveless wetsuit versus the sleeved one I have used previously.
The running? Ha! I know this is really hard to believe – even for me – but I have managed an 18-mile “plod” as of this past weekend. I won’t call it a run, because those last few miles felt more like an extremely slow jog – I probably could have walked faster, but that wasn’t the point, was it? It will get longer (and worse) as we get a couple weeks closer to Ironman Florida.
This weekend is the Redman triathlon – well, for me it is an aquabike… the full-distance 2.4 mile swim followed by the 112 mile ride. I decided to do this after talking with Briana about how it helped her get a better feel for the swim-transition-bike portion of the Ironman distance. I am hoping to get a better idea of how I will feel after the first 2 parts. I hope to be able to come off the bike with some juice still in the tank. I can’t really compare this year to last since I was in the half-iron triathlon event in 2010, but I am looking forward to the event nonetheless.
So if you get a minute Saturday morning, say a prayer for the fat, plodding elephant out on the swim or bike in Oklahoma City… and thanks.
