There are days in which it's just hard to think about training.
For those of you just joining, no I'm not giving up, I'm just noting that after a nearly 22 hour long day yesterday making a day trip to Irvine, CA and only getting about four hours of sleep today, I'm feeling a bit tired.
But here is what is different from me six months ago to me today:
I worked out anyway; And I worked out hard!
My calendar called for a set of strength training and PT exercises followed by a 2-mile interval workout. So, at 10:00 pm or so I went downstairs to the garage, fired up the treadmill and blasted out my two miles. Since I was smart enough to calibrate the foot pod last time I ran outside, I trust that the distance was correct and the speeds good. Even with a little wiggle room for error, I ran more, and faster than I have yet. My heart rate was up there at times - but it also comes down way faster than it used to.
Here is what is different with me. I believe in myself. I've never had a lot of self-confidence. Any of my work friends that are reading this are probably scratching their heads because I generally don't project such an image. But it's true, I'm hard on myself to the point of making myself believe that I can't do anything right. As my wife would say, "stop kicking yourself. You've already got one bad ankle".
Maybe I have stopped.
It would be easy to have just blown off the workout tonight and just crawled into a nice, warm, comfy bed and called it a day, but I didn't. I fired up a movie and focused on just putting one foot in front of the other and keep it going until my intervals were done. My ankle hurts when I run still and I'm certainly not pain free elsewhere - but it does not matter. I just focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
I saw an interesting Chinese proverb - even the longest journey must begin where you stand. I am now at least one step further than the beginning.
(Nota Bene to the reader: The title of this blog is borrowed and modified from a story that I read about another triathlete's blog from a book titled "You are an Ironman". I highly recommend the read - the stories in there about everyday age group triathletes preparing and racing Ironman Arizona nearly brought me to tears on the plane home)
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