Week # 18 Training for Ironman Texas 2022 - Leaving the Rest Stop

 Today it is cool and raining outside.  The sound of the rain on the roof and the water dropping off the eves of the house, spawns a passive mood for the day. The temptation to put another log on the fire and daydream the day away is a force to be reckoned with.  The easy road, the comfortable place, is a good place to stop and recoup from all the hard miles performed.  But ---

This rest stop is no place to live.  At the end of the day called our lives, a life spent at the rest stop won't be that fulfilling to look back upon.  We can easily be cheated out of the most rewarding and fulfilling and thrilling aspects of our lives by the comfort zones of life's rest stops.  

I have put a lot of time and effort into this venture already  - it is week 18 of training, for goodness sakes - and this is no place to stop and count your blessings.  It is time to leave the rest stop and go out and receive even more blessings that God has in store for you.  

Oh yes, the Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God."   But my contention is that once we are still and we know God from it, it is time to leave the rest stop and embrace the gift He has prepared for us.  My goal is to pursue the gifts God has up the road for me, like Ironman Texas 2022:  win, lose, pass, or fail, I am leaving the rest stop.

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Week # 17 Training for Ironman Texas 2022 - It's Lonely on the Ledge

This week is about done, and I am just getting the blog out.  My momentum seems to be in sloth mode these days.  My training is going OK: not great.  It seems I need periodic infusions of inspiration for me not to fizzle to a stop.  What does that Mean?  I don't know.  It would be nice to have a little rah-rah in my cornier but largely I do this training in the dark so to s peak.  No one really knows that I am training for anything except my wife.  And whose fault is that but mine?  I think I am afraid to involve others around me because I am afraid they don't care, and I don't want the reality put upon me to face right now. Perhaps that is why?  

In my corner of the world no one knows much about triathlon to begin with.  About all folks know to say when I talk about this crazy stuff is "that's nice," which is the poster child of neutral responses.  Sum all this up and one can say, it is lonely here on this ledge.  

However, all this serves to drive me closer to God.  The emptier my motivational world becomes, the more I find I go to God quicker and depend upon Him more.  Perhaps, that's the plan.

Week #16 - Training For Ironman Texas 2022 - Blessed by the Freedom to Fail

 

16 weeks,or 4 months  - I have been at this.  There have been good and not so good weeks, and some just plain mediocre weeks.  However,  I am still moving forward.  My running isn't where it needs to be. Due to the cold weather and the lack of swimming areas in this part of the world, I am not swimming at all.  Of course, I am concerned, but there is a resolute side to this.  

It seems I have more or less decided to just go on and train as best I can and get in the water and get beat up and fail at it,  or get it done and get beat up.  Just do it.  Just go on and do it, and don't fret the sloppy journey to it.  Just enjoy the journey itself.  Not many people get to live like this. Though,  I am pretty not that many  people don't want to. But I wouldn't trade my sloppy, miserable training for anything I have seen other people my age devote their lives to. That's just me.  It is not better. It's not worse. It's just me.

And I thank God for that freedom to be me and to be reveling in my mistakes and shortcomings in this sport.   I thank God for liberating me to be myself, to pursue my passion, and, most probably, fall on my face in this effort.  I am blessed for the freedom to fail. 

Week # 15: Training for Ironman Texas 2022 - Challenges for Dinosaurs

 Winter weather is finally settling in and training will have some new challenges.  Of course, that is one of the things I think I like about being in training, is the challenges that come and having to overcome them.  Or, perhaps I become overcome and have to pick myself up off the floor and fight on.   

At this age training is infested with so much doubt.  The fragility of life and capability has been impressed severely upon me, and I have to fight living fearfully.  Another challenge to be overcome:  old age fear of what could happen. 

And when I run out of personal things to be fearful about, I can start worrying about the event being cancelled due to COVID again.  I have been kicked down the road to this event, through deferrals for a couple years now.  It is enough to cause concern with the event this year:  another challenge to overcome.

I just use the "give me this day" approach to my training.  My goal is to get the workouts done on my training schedule for that day. And the days have been good to me.  Last week was  one of the biggest weeks training that I have had in more than a year and I don't feel that bad from it.  How great!

There are not many of us Ironman dinosaurs left in these events anymore.  Creepers like me are a dying species destined for extinction.  What I am trying to do is really off the charts when it comes to insanity.  It's crazy to go on with this, I know.  But God is with me in it so far and I guess I will be there taking one day at a time until He stops me, in training or in the event.  Or He might just bless me and let me finish this bad boy within the cut off.  In all cases, I am truly blessed.

Week # 14 Training for Ironman Texas 2022 - New Year - Same Old Nemesis

 COVID is out of bounds as I try to ramp up my training.  Two good training this week were greeted by bad COVID news   personally, nationally, and world-wide.  So many people, so much fear, and illness, and I feel almost ashamed to be worried about my litlle corner of the universe and what I want to do with Ironman.  

Will this ever end or just be one long truce with disease?  Will my family and friends with this be the same coming off this disease, if they survive?  When is it going to be my turn to be sick with it?  How will this impact my training and my pursuit of this dream.  So many unanswered questions and I have left to lean into is God.  God has  got this, no matter.  None of this is the end; not COVID, not the possibly smashed dream, not my own life.  I believe in God and because He lives, I shall live also, no matter.  

So, I move on doing what I am called to do in the face of looming disaster of sorts.  I'll just keep working at it until He hollers "quitting time."