I walked this evening and that was my workout

For the second time in about 12 days, I went outside and walked a little more than 1 mile and that was my big workout. This is more of a journal than a blog this time.

I have a life lesson that I have to keep learning over and over. That lesson is seeing a line before I cross it. It is a mental line that I am not allowed to cross in competition. I can not cross a line to try to win an event for no good reason other than winning. This past year has been filled with hard work to finish events to hopefully draw attention to things other than myself because I certainly wasn't winning anything. For people that really know me (and that takes at least 10 years), they know that deep down there is prideful person that really likes to compete. The last time I really went for it, was with my son at the CO state swim championships in March of 2010 to hopefully win as a father/son team and take our own overall titles and create a memory together. We did it and it was a memory that I would go back to Over and Over and Over again over the next year for various reasons and at various times.

Father & Son High Point Winners at the CO State Swimming Championships Spring 2010

The Spoils

Leading up to that, I was able to renew and strengthen several relationships through swimming and by making the promise to show up if others would too. That got me to the point physically of being able to make this special memory with Michael.

 

This was right before I signed up for the Ironman as a diabetic knowing that the schedule would include one event after another guaranteed to kicked my butt with a "finish" hopefully waiting at the end. With that year behind me, I forgot to watch out for my inner competitor. As I was training with friends and getting ready for their first half Ironman on Sept 11th, I signed up for the AquaBike since my feet are probably fried for life in the area of running (or at least I hope so ;->). As the event approached, I started looking a little too much at previous results in my age group. I starting checking my times against the previous splits. If I found a weakness, I hammered it. I got my open water time down to right at 25 minutes for 1.2 miles but I still needed to nail the bike and that needed to average 22-23 mph over 56 miles or I couldn't take my age group. I then called and reserved a carbon fiber disk and Zipp 808 front rim to "rent speed" for the day. I think that is when I crossed the line. Anyway, I am finishing where I started. My big exercise today was an evening walk which is the limit of my physical abilities right now and that's okay. I just hope that I can find something noble to do before I start do Masters swimming again ;->.

I don't need any feedback, I just needed to journal this and get this out.