Settling for Less

At my age I cannot help but sometimes think about the end of this life on earth. Increasingly, I want good answers to questions as I see the time draw nearer.

Did I settle? Did I settle for “close enough?” Could I have done more, been more, praised more, wept more, helped more, pushed more,reached more, risked more? Will I find at the end of it all, my life has been a half-eaten piece of fruit, enough, but not quite filling or fulfilling. Will I notice an absence of that feeling full feeling? Did I pour my life into the course set upon and not turned aside to lesser ends? Did I quit at mile twenty-three of the marathon? Did I leave my best finish still smoldering within me, never fanned to flame as life passes beyond opportunity?

My greatest fear is not death, but in failing to live out the blessings God has bestowed upon me and dying before my time with life left within me, because I settled for less.

"Choose not to settle. Pursue your God-given goals, knowing it's never too late to accomplish everything God has placed in your heart."

Trusting the Within

Where does it come from to get this tired old body out of the recliner and on the road? Why leave so many other things undone to go ride a bike? Why trade ease, comfort, and indulgence for more effort? Why? And for sure at the end of it all is even more fatigue, endured for a cause few care about besides me. 

 Why?

There are no immediate rewards; no parade; no cheering section; just my own willingness to take on the long hot road for a cause I can't completely explain to myself.

As I write this, I am so tired that I only hope this makes sense. Gotta go. I have a two-hour bike and down deep something Within knows why. Even in this haze of fatigue, my foggy brain says despite this apparent senselessness, this still makes sense. So, out the door I go, following, believing, and trusting the Within.

A "Foolish Consistency?"

OK, I am not consistent in this ! Just changed plans and my event for the weekend of Sept 18-19. Going to the Rose City Triathlon in Tyler, Texas http://rosecitytri.com/. Did this one last year and it was pouring rain the whole time. The year before I signed up for it but a hurricane came in. Something exciting about this event. Last year this course handed me my hat. My brakes didn't hold well on the downhills on the bike course. In a pouring rain, the almost uncontrolled downhills made me hold on tight and pray a lot.

The event I had originally planned on obviously didn't inspire me. After signing up for the Tyler event, getting a room, my teeth are on edge to race. I am pumped! Sometimes you just know when it is right not to be consistent.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Getting the Wobble Out

A great 3 hr 20 minute bike ride! Weather was wonderful. The hills were challenging. The downhills: exhilarating. But I missed my main bike. The back up bike I am riding is a little small for me and just doesn't have the good stuff like my main bike. When I stand up to peddle on my back up bike, it is not as stable and it wobbles some. Even sitting, it doesn't track like my main bike. I had a good ride but I wonder how much I lost due to these wobbles and little direction changes?

Isn't life like that too? Training? The straighter and surer you push toward a goal, the more efficient and faster it is to get there. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

Perhaps I should true my wheels just a bit and take some of the wobble out of training and out of life?

The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that of turning aside from one’s main purpose to serve a job here and there---Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Still Crazy After All These Years"

I wear bike gloves on both the bike and run legs of triathlons, even the sprints. Yeah, a little crazy, maybe. Some say you lose time on the bike due to the gloves but no faster than I am going, it is not that big of a consideration. It is said that wind drag increases with increase in speed....I'm not stupid. I know how to keep wind drag down: don't go so fast.

This got started way back when in a sprint, I just simply forgot to take off my bike gloves in transition. As I was running out on the course, I hit a speed bump with my foot and down I went. I caught myself with my hands and the gloves got ripped up pretty good but my hands were not seriously injured. From then on I have worn my bike gloves on the run.

When you get this old, you can get away with doing all kinds of weird things and lay it off on senility. Life at this age, is most often liberating and downright fun

Reflections on the Endurance Sport Lifestyle

For almost 28 years now, I have been doing some kind of endurance sport...starting slowly, building year by year, adding more and more into my life. As I add more of this life into my life, other stuff has to go. In the giving up, there is an awareness gained about one's life as to who and what is truly important.

Even on my worst days, I have never regreted being a part of all this. What I do regret is that I did not get in on this at an earlier age. According to some demographics put out by USAT,the average age of triathletes is 38. I didn't start even a modest running program until I was 37.

However, even with a late start,I can see that I have not just grown older; I have grown. And the real beauty for me is that this lifestyle integrates so well with my faith life that sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

The Best Laid Plans

These "Miles of the Journey" have not worked out exactly like I planned. My training plan has been revised three times. Events have been added and others cancelled. There were unforeseen medical distractions. There is a broken bike, tires that separated on me for no reason, my favorite long bike route made difficult with increasing traffic and so on. Even my goal half ironman distance event has been changed. It is as if my best efforts to control get thrown back at me.

John Steinbeck wrote in Travels With Charlie, something to the effect that you don't take a trip. The trip takes you. And I believe it. Wouldn't it be dull if it all went as planned? Managing the unpredictable, the unplanned and to keep moving forward, is a valuable skill for overcoming in endurance sports and in life itself.

Who doesn't like to play in the big waves; walk boldly out into the surf, to be taken asunder, carried along, to rise, stand, and with a smile, walk into the waves yet again. Thank God for the challenge of the waves: the unpredictable and all we can't control.

A journey is like marriage.
The certain way to be
wrong is to think you
control it.
- John Steinbeck