I Wouldn't Want to Be Anyone Else

 Things are all gung-ho and push on until you have an injury.  It's easy to be inspired when you are in good health and nothing hurts.  But when back spasms come and go at frequent intervals, all the rah-rah  fades into the background.  

Now it is teeth gritting and plod on time.  The only reason you keep going is because you said you would to yourself.  It was fun before, not so much now. 

Over the years of doing this crazy stuff, I have come to realize that this is where endurance sports begin and end;  in the solitary, with no fanfare plodding forward through pain and discomfort and no one really knows.  You don't really know why either except this was important to begin with. But you move on and embrace the pain.

The reason may be on the other side or the end of the course and on the other side of the pain.  Even then you may not know completely. It's not amenable to analysis. It is just who we are; no answers, no excuses,  the way God made us.  Yeah, it hurts.   But thanks God.  I wouldn't want to be anyone else. 

Gratitude for the Spirit Within

 Today, I found myself looking at the race websites and thinking of events I would like to go to.  I found some events that looked really good, but more noteworthy, I found that few things in life stir me like the prospect of challenging myself in an event. 

Lots of things have changed but this hasn't.  It feels so natural like good conversations can be.  Today is about being inspired.  It is like the apparently dead fireplace ashes stirred to find coals under all the ashes.  With a little help, they turn to flame, like my own childlike passion coming to life with prospects of competing and being challenged again.   

This passion is like God.  He never leaves.  He never changes.  I am not sure I want to either.  Thank you God for the stirring of the heart that looks beyond to see the crest of the hill the soul is craving to climb.  Thank you, God, for putting this spirit within me.  

Putting Your Face in the Cold Wind - Can We Take It Too Easy on Ourselves

 Yesterday, I rode and ran in the cold.   Lately, it seems, I have unconsciously avoided harsher conditions to train in. Back when I was more of an animal, I did that all the time.  The weather was just something I had to put up with, like a sore knee or drivers who seemed incensed with acting like they were going to run me down. 

Yesterday, there was something added that had been  missing and I felt more like an athlete because I had put up with the cold.   The miles of the journey have taken me away from myself at times, and that could be a good way to get lost.  

And the question is:  can we take it too easy on ourselves sometimes?  As we seriously age up temptations can go from booze and women to a nice cushy recliner in front of the fireplace on cold days. It's easy to get really old in a hurry.  Just let yourself go and avoid the hard spots on the road.  The word I have heard is resistance exercise slows down aging.  Maybe we should exercising our resistance to taking the easy way.

Yeah, it's all part of life. And there is nothing wrong with a nice cushy recliner in front of the fireplace either, that is, after a good hard workout putting your face into the cold wind for a while.  

Yeah, take the hard road.  It is too easy to get old.

New Years - What Are We Going to Do With Our Little Longer Time

 

A New Year - God willing I see all of it, but if I do, what do I want to do with it?  Time is life's money.  Waste it on unnecessary spending and  one ends up broke and hungry.  So, with the year ahead.  It is a gift from God to experience this life a little longer.  So what do we do with a little longer?  Do we use it watching life go by, that is media, videos, television, movies, watching sports of some sort?  Or, do we get in the arena and become a life participant ourselves?  

And, one can ask, "What arena?"  Ah, there's the rub. There is a line from a song in the  movie "Flashdance."  It goes, "Take your passion and make it happen."  So what is the passion?    What lights our  fire?  

If there were not handicaps or obstacles to whatever passion you could pursue, what would that passion be?  It would appear to find that one thing would be a good goal for the coming newness of the year.  Is this the year we finally "dream the impossible dream"  and step and pursue it?

It's Time

 It's time to step out.  This day is all we have.  We can complain about it and call it hard names but it is the life we have, the one God gave us, not to do the SWC shuffle.  (Sit-whine-complain), but to live fully.  A song says "Live like there's nothing to lose."  There isn't.  There isn't anything we can keep here on this earth that won't be lost eventually Life has a short shelf life the label of which says "to be consumed within the dates of birth and death."  

So as resolution day approaches what can we give ourselves to that will enliven  our remaining days, bring out the hope to dream and try, and in so do show gratitude through the full experience of the life God has blessed us with. 

Let our journeys begin or continue, throwing off what slows us down or distracts us from what God put the passion in our hearts for. It is time - to run the race that is set before us. 

I It All Comes and Goes in Its Own Good Time

 This is a supper slump for training.  Not sure why.  Perhaps, the Christmas season and all we have here?  Perhaps, it is the fatigue from all the hard outside work I have been doing.?  Perhaps, it's the residual fatigue of months of 10-15 hours of weekly training in biking, lifting, running, mountain biking, and some swimming? And perhaps - I just had my 81st birthday - I am getting too old to cut the mustard anymore?

It really doesn't matter I guess.  I just need some rest, and more sleep, and   Then, perhaps, I will hit this training business full in the face, no stops.  

The truth is that I  have no event to train for.    I am not sure I ever will have something to train for again due to family situations.  Training out of reflex and for health doesn't possess the passion of purpose training for an event does. But, it all comes and it all goes in its own good time along the Miles of the Journey.  Thanks God for the journey. Now, I need to go to bed.  Have to train tomorrow.

It Didn't Fit the Moments

 A couple weeks ago I reached my goal for my 81st birthday by being able to do 82 pushups.   I thought at the time that maybe I could do a 100 on the actual day of my birthday.  Today , the day of my birthday,  I did all my other exercises down to the pushups.  

As I arched braced to do them I felt good that I would be able to do them.  But why?  Why do them?  Something felt  like it would be too many pats on the back - an all about me venture. Somehow it didn't seem right. It didn't  fit well.  This is my birthday.  For some reason I seemed to have a greater sense of humility today.  A friend just lost his wife.  Another person just lost her husband.  A relative is facing cancer treatment, and so on.  It didn't fit the moments.

This game just didn't seem appropriate on this day.  I have been much heralded today already for just living this long and still being able to complete a sentence.  Today, my heart is at rest.  I am grateful,

I stopped at 30 pushups and felt good about not going for gold.  Thank you God for that.  Thank you God for this Happy Birthday