Recently in motivation Category

So I'm off to Canada until Monday night and I'm missing 1 long bike ride, 1 swim and 2 runs. Actually, that would be 2 swims because I'm supposed to do a 40 minute recovery swim on Sundays but I never do because of where I swim. Anyhooooo..... this morning I tacked another 30 minutes on to my ride (big whoop!) and I went to the pool and swam 1500 meters which is less than I should but I had decided just to let it go and enjoy my trip. I figured I could get in a run, anyhow. Maybe 2.

Then I started printing out the "stuff" for the trip - boarding pass and reservations for hotel and car. I took a look at the hotel ameneties and almost peed my pants with joy - FITNESS CENTER!!! LAP POOL!!! Seriously - my heart soared like an eagle. Now I'm going to check out 'Map my Run' and find a route in the area where I'm staying.

This is why when someone does their first triathlon I always think, and sometimes say - "Welcome to the crackhouse!".

It's Tuesday! So shoot me - I just didn't feel like writing yesterday. I thought about all of you all week and all weekend as I blogged in my head repeatedly. I thought about how it's the little things in life that make a lot of little smiles grow into a big one. Little things that happened that made me smile:

1). The cat ate a teeny, tiny piece of turkey that I didn't have to cram down her throat. And then she stopped and it was back to the force feeding. At least she tried.

2). The cat has started leaving my bed to come sit on my lap when I'm watching TV. This is HUGE

3). The cat visciously attacked my hand the other day while I was petting her - she's coming back to life!

4). I had a great call with Humbly Ann who was struggling with some stuff and I helped her feel better. Nothing warms a Mom's heart more than helping her child out of a shadow. (That and learning that she didn't get eaten by a shark - see previous post).

5). I was good about getting my 2 weekday rides in. I even rode the road that has the hill that kicks my butt and it did not. Good times!

6). The weather was gorgeous this weekend. My 90 minute run did not suck as much as last weekend's 70 minute run so I was very happy about that.

7). I ran out of book on the run and started listening to music and heard the most perfect, sunny day running song, Sunny Day by Hyim If you click on that link you can hear it, too. The tempo is a little slow but on a hot sunny day when you are out running it feels just right.

8). I went to a bike maintenance clinic and not only learned some stuff but was finally told I look like I've lost weight. It wasn't really the first time. Humbly Ann told me I looked skinnier in early April but I hadn't started noticing it yet so it didn't have the same impact as me noticing I'd lost weight and then not hearing that from other people. Now I SO appreciate both comments. I'm 6 pounds down and doing fine.

9). I climbed to the junction of Mt. Diablo again on Sunday. It wasn't quite as hard as it had been the week before. The rest of my group went on to the top but I just didn't feel like it was my day to do that so I'm scheduling that for May 17.

10). I have 2 events coming up! Next Saturday I am riding the Wine Country Century (metric) and May 10 I have my season opener triathlon, The Golden Bear. I'm excited!

11). I went to swim clinic Saturday morning and went from flailing in the water like a crazy person to actually pulling some water and making some progress. It was really great to have that experience BEFORE my first tri where I'm sure I would have gone nowhere fast for the first 10 minutes of the swim, otherwise. I love my race club!
And all of those little things add up to big things - sunny days, training progress and happiness.

This is my life with the cat now. We do this 2 or 3 times a day:

Disclaimer - I lifted most of this contest description directly off of TriBoomer's blog and just changed a few details to reflect the present. That's how this thing works.

"Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior"

I was lucky enough to be the thrird winner of The Outdoor Journey's competition having been picked by winner number 2 - Triboomer.. The adorable, intrepid, flautist, athlete and all around great person, CurlySu was the first winner. There are still 2 more chances to win the book-- just leave a comment here and let me know you're interested.

That's it!

This is your chance to get your hands on one of five autographed copies of Dan Millman’s fantastic book, “Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior”. (click here to read hak's review)

I’m going to do this as a fun experiment and see just how many multisport Peaceful Warriors we have around the world. Here’s how it will work:

1) From April 2 to April 9, 2008, post a comment at the bottom of the post stating that you want to enter the contest. Make sure to include your blog’s name and URL.

2) At the end of the month, one winner will be randomly selected. Let’s call this winner "Blogger April."

3) "Blogger April" will get two copies of the book: One copy signed by Dan Millman that he or she can keep and one book that CurlySu, TriBoomer and I will sign. ." "Blogger April" also writes a review of the book and promotes the contest on his or her blog for the month of May , linking back to TheOutdoorJourney.com and CurlySu, TriBoomer, and 21st Century Mom.

4) At the end of May, "Blogger April" announces a random winner from his or her blog. This winner, "Blogger May ", then gets two copies of the book. One signed by Dan to keep and the other signed by CurlySu, TriBoomer and me. "Blogger May " also writes a review of the book and promotes the contest on his or her blog for the month of June linking back to TheOutdoorJourney.com and CurlySu, TriBoomer, and me.

5) Blogger June will wrap this thing up." At this point, "Blogger June" writes a review of the book on his her blog, linking back to the blogs of TheOutdoorJourney.com and CurlySu, TriBoomer, 21stCenturyMom "Bloggers April, and May" (who in turn link to each other throughout the tour). The passed along book will have everyone’s autograph on it and we’ll ship it back to Dan Millman to add to his personal library…the book that has gone around the world.

Are you game?
----

I'm really excited that I won this book and look forward to receiving my copy. I haven't heard from Dan or Boomer yet so no one know where to send the book so it might take a while. I need some peaceful thoughts about triathlon. Many too many of my thoughts are negative and defeated - I need some good motivation and a new way of looking at things and this book seemed like just the way to get there.

Hop on in! Leave a comment stating your interest, the name of your blog and your URL and I'll pick a winner at the end of the month!

I get so bone weary reading abou the insane salaries enjoyed by football players and basketball players and baseball players. At least the professional males. These guys make more every year than some of us make in a life time.

I was therefore really heartened to learn of the Mt. Cameroon Race of Hope which pits people against a mountain with a live volcano at the top and rewards a precious few with prize money equal to 4 times a person's standard salary in Cameroon.

Of course I learned about it through an email from a DC runner named Kate Elliot who wondered if I might give the documentary her friend made about a little air play. I was going to wait until Saturday and post this over at CRN but I couldn't wait!

About the film she writes

This marathon-length race traverses over 10,000 vertical feet up a live volcano, one of the tallest on the African continent. The racers, mostly local men and women, compete for the equivalent of four years' salary, but to win they must overcome altitude sickness, temperature fluctuations of 50 degrees, and loose volcanic rock— many wearing only plastic sandals.

Runner/filmmaker friends of mine just released a beautiful film about the race, called Volcanic Sprint, focusing particularly on the story of Sarah Etonge, winner of the women's race in the last 5 out of 7 years and a 39 year old, single mother of 7. She is known locally as the "Queen of the Mountain." The filmmakers are presently back in Cameroon shooting the 2008 race and donating 400 running shoes to the local athletes with their charity partner Soles for Souls.

The beautiful thing about getting to the end of one year and living in a culture that celebrates the beginning of a new year is that it gives us pause to stop and reflect on things past and on what we want for the future for ourselves. Most of our lives are wrapped up in thinking about other things and people - our jobs, our homes, our families, our community. All too often we barely squeeze ourselves in to the mix of what is important and when we make ourselves a priority we suffer guilt and then we suffer guilt when we don't make ourselves a priority and fail to meet our goals. Oh geez - must life be so difficult?

New Year's Day is all about the goodness that is "me". It is about assessing the year gone by for its highs and lows and deciding how this year can be better, richer, more fulfilling, and both more self absorbed and more selfless. It is about finding ways to be more dedicated to what is really important in life which requires us to think about what is most important in life and how we can, i n the words of my all time favorite insect, accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. .



My goal for 2008 is to do just that - be more positive. Most of you don't know this but I'm a bit of a cranky pants. I'm pretty quick to focus on the negative get all worked up about perceived injustice and then act on that and when I say "act" I mean "lash out". And then I get a grip, stop and cover and apologize and smooth things over. I'd like to improve on that and really focus on seeing that glass half full so I don't go through the cranky pants routine.

Another tendancy I have is toward self-sabotage so I want to start honoring my intentions instead of blowing them off with cheap excuses. I want to toss myself out the door for a swim or a run or a ride knowing that whatever reason I have to avoid it isn't worthy of derailing my plans. I want to spend less time surifing the web and more time indulging my interests. I want to push for a strong finish in whatever I am doing be it a race or creating a report for work and not give up with that cheapest of all cheap excuses "it doesn't really matter, anyhow". In short I want to stay on top of things instead of putting myself in react mode and then pushing the rock up the hill against the added weight of self generated defeat. I want to march forward with a sense of purpose and optimism calling out "Feets don't fail me now!" with no particular reason to think they will.

All of this reminded me of my favorite Tracy Chapman song - Change.

This song asks the question 'how bad does it have to get before you'll change". The beauty of New Year's is that the intention to assess and change isn't motivated by fear or sadness or problems - it is motivated by hope and the promise of new beginnings and New Year that is as bright and shiny and unsullied as a newly minted penny. So here's to everyone's shiny bright New Year. May you realize your goals and may your penny be as bright and shiny at the end of December as it is today.

Pretty much everything in life that isn't a piece of artwork has to come and go on some sort of schedule. For example, the Holiday season, lovely as it is must come to an end. That means no more this:

or this:

or this:

And lot more of this:

and this:

It was fun while it lasted and I really did enjoy this:

and this:

but enough is enough. Time to get back to work and QUIT EATING SO MUCH! ooph!

And another thing that will change, starting tomorrow is my profile. No more "52 year old" for tomorrow I become another year better than I was before.

Happy New Year to All!

** If you don't see the poll below it is because PollDaddy.com is down. I guess you get what you pay for. Please try again later if you think of it**

I need help choosing my event calendar for the rest of the year. So far I have registered for:

A July 4th 5K
A Tri for Fun on July 12
A Tri for Real (my "A" race) on Sept 19.

I feel like I need a 10K some time this year and I'd like to do a 1/2 marathon. I also need another Oly. I also really loved that Alcatraz swim.

Keeping in mind that this stuff costs money and I have a limited supply I need some help choosing.

The SF 1/2 Marathon is a strong contender because my race club has it as a focus event and it is local and I kind of like it. That is at the end of July so I think I've got July covered.

Additional important info:

The Folsom International has a smokin' hot field. In my age group there were 8 women last year with times ranging from 2:33 to 3:20 which means that in order not to finish dead last I have to PR by a lot. Of course Wildflower was a disaster for me but be that as it may, going sub 3:20 at FIT vs. 4:39 at Wildflower is very intimidating. Not that I mind being last but still. Okay - I do mind being last but if I'm not last by a landslide I can live with it.

The Treasure Island event is flat, flat, flat. That is a man made island and they skipped building in any hills. Flat can be exhausting but it's fast. The field for that event is also much slower (2:41 to 4:29). I would do fine.

The Alcatraz Challenge involves jumping off the ferry, swimming back to Crissy field and then running across the Golden Gate Bridge dodging tourists, strollers and cyclists. Big time fun and no time pressure since you are at the mercy of the tides - both water and people driven. I'm not sure about the Race of the Centurions except it commemorates the 100th swim of the guys who just finished their 500th swim (and one of them gave FeLady his cap!)

SOMA is a really, really strong contender for several reasons. Momo has offered to host me so that would be awesome. Benny and Nytro will be there so that would be awesome. The DPR might just show so that would be awesome. I'm probably leaving out half of the other bloggers who would be there, too. You are all a great reason to go. I could probably get my sister to join me and then we could go to Sedona after it is over and recuperate at a Spa and dig on the spiritual vibes so that would also be .... excellent. The real question is do I do the quarterman or the half and you get to pick! I don't care about placing - there are not very many women in my age group so finishing is good.

The Nike Women's Half is sold out but I managed to get a spot last year so it's still open as far as I'm concerned. Where there is a will there is a way. It is a week before SOMA, though so that's a consideration.

Please feel free to vote 3 times. I'd like to see the choices somehow ranked. Also, feel free to leave comments explaining your choices. You also have the option for write-in votes. I didn't list any 10Ks because they are common, easy to find and I can fit one in anywhere. In fact, there is one the Sunday after Thanksgiving I might do.

GO!