Are you guys tired of hearing about triathlons yet? Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for you, I'm never tired of writing about them. So here we go.
When I was little, I was mildly adventurous. I remember bus evacuation day when I was in 1st grade. 2 of the tall kids on the bus would jump out the emergency exit in the back of the bus first then one by one all of us would follow with the tall kids taking our hands and helping us out. By 3rd grade, I was one of the tall kids. Sensing the impending duty of being the first one off the bus I began contemplating first, what would happen if I died jumping out of the back of a bus with no one to help me. Then, I contemplated what would happen to the other kids. Then the day came, I thought, "How hard could it be?" and jumped. Do you know what happened? You're right, I didn't die. The moral of this story is that I went through a phase in life that I think we all go through where suddenly I stopped thinking, "How hard could it be?" and started thinking "How hard this will be." All of a sudden, everything in my life and every potential obstacle became a certainty and in addition, a certain disaster or failure. I don't know what spurred the change and I don't know why it took me so long to change it back, but I refuse to dwell on the past. Almost a year ago I decided that I was going to get in shape and get my life back. It was hard and scary and terrible. I spent months only working out in my own living room in the wee hours of the morning so that no one would see me sweating and panting. I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself and had nothing in my head but blame and doubt. I had a few dvd programs and every time I put one in I'd think about how hard it would be. I remember bursting into tears trying to make my way through a cardio kickboxing workout because just 2 years prior I wore a size 5 (ish) and ran a marathon. That day in November I remember thinking of what my mentality was when I signed up for that marathon, or the half marathon before that and there was one glaring difference. I never questioned it. I never questioned myself. I signed up for the half marathon thinking, "I've run 10 miles and this race is just a 5k more. How hard could it be?" I signed up for the marathon with the same mentality. And there were days when hell YES it was hard but I had some kind of tenacity that all of a sudden had disappeared. After that brutal week and just before the new year I was finally ready to weigh myself. I'd lost 8 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Check Out This Flashback Retro Post)! That was when I finally went back to "How hard could it be?" If I was capable of weight loss of any kind between two major food centered holidays, what else could I do? That was when I decided to sign up for the Triple Crown which consists of 3 races over 6 weeks, a 5k, 10k and 10 miler. I'd never done the whole thing before and hadn't been running in literally almost 2 years but as you now know, "how hard could it be?" Surprisingly, not too hard because I did it and didn't walk the whole thing either. All of a sudden I'd gotten back into the right mindset. I became once again, that 21 year old who signed up for a marathon and trained for it while working 3 jobs and an internship and being a full time student heading towards college graduation in 4 years. The last of the triple crown races was in April and shortly after my sister and I decided to do a triathlon. A couple weeks later I bought a bike. A couple weeks after that I learned to ride it. Fast forward a couple months and I swam in the Ohio River and actually did complete that triathlon. All the while thinking (say it with me now) "How hard could it be?" So today I challenge you to go one week, or even one day without considering anything to be too hard for you to do. Maybe it's walking up all those flights of stairs at work or baking a gluten free pineapple upside down cake (which I've done, and trust me, it's hard!) but whatever it is, just try it out. You'll be amazed by how not difficult (bad use of grammar...) a lot of things are.
Speaking of such non intimidating activities, check out this 12 or 24 Hour Triathlon Relay! I'm really excited about it and hoping to be able to recruit some folks to do it with me! Aside from Autumn (my sister's new nickname, jot that down for future reference) I'm trying to coax 1/2 of Team Awesome into doing it too. What the hell, how about all of Team Awesome! And last to be persuaded will be The Colonel. And I don't think that will ever happen. Tips on how to convince your boyfriend to do something he thinks is crazy are greatly welcomed and appreciated!
When I was little, I was mildly adventurous. I remember bus evacuation day when I was in 1st grade. 2 of the tall kids on the bus would jump out the emergency exit in the back of the bus first then one by one all of us would follow with the tall kids taking our hands and helping us out. By 3rd grade, I was one of the tall kids. Sensing the impending duty of being the first one off the bus I began contemplating first, what would happen if I died jumping out of the back of a bus with no one to help me. Then, I contemplated what would happen to the other kids. Then the day came, I thought, "How hard could it be?" and jumped. Do you know what happened? You're right, I didn't die. The moral of this story is that I went through a phase in life that I think we all go through where suddenly I stopped thinking, "How hard could it be?" and started thinking "How hard this will be." All of a sudden, everything in my life and every potential obstacle became a certainty and in addition, a certain disaster or failure. I don't know what spurred the change and I don't know why it took me so long to change it back, but I refuse to dwell on the past. Almost a year ago I decided that I was going to get in shape and get my life back. It was hard and scary and terrible. I spent months only working out in my own living room in the wee hours of the morning so that no one would see me sweating and panting. I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself and had nothing in my head but blame and doubt. I had a few dvd programs and every time I put one in I'd think about how hard it would be. I remember bursting into tears trying to make my way through a cardio kickboxing workout because just 2 years prior I wore a size 5 (ish) and ran a marathon. That day in November I remember thinking of what my mentality was when I signed up for that marathon, or the half marathon before that and there was one glaring difference. I never questioned it. I never questioned myself. I signed up for the half marathon thinking, "I've run 10 miles and this race is just a 5k more. How hard could it be?" I signed up for the marathon with the same mentality. And there were days when hell YES it was hard but I had some kind of tenacity that all of a sudden had disappeared. After that brutal week and just before the new year I was finally ready to weigh myself. I'd lost 8 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Check Out This Flashback Retro Post)! That was when I finally went back to "How hard could it be?" If I was capable of weight loss of any kind between two major food centered holidays, what else could I do? That was when I decided to sign up for the Triple Crown which consists of 3 races over 6 weeks, a 5k, 10k and 10 miler. I'd never done the whole thing before and hadn't been running in literally almost 2 years but as you now know, "how hard could it be?" Surprisingly, not too hard because I did it and didn't walk the whole thing either. All of a sudden I'd gotten back into the right mindset. I became once again, that 21 year old who signed up for a marathon and trained for it while working 3 jobs and an internship and being a full time student heading towards college graduation in 4 years. The last of the triple crown races was in April and shortly after my sister and I decided to do a triathlon. A couple weeks later I bought a bike. A couple weeks after that I learned to ride it. Fast forward a couple months and I swam in the Ohio River and actually did complete that triathlon. All the while thinking (say it with me now) "How hard could it be?" So today I challenge you to go one week, or even one day without considering anything to be too hard for you to do. Maybe it's walking up all those flights of stairs at work or baking a gluten free pineapple upside down cake (which I've done, and trust me, it's hard!) but whatever it is, just try it out. You'll be amazed by how not difficult (bad use of grammar...) a lot of things are.
Speaking of such non intimidating activities, check out this 12 or 24 Hour Triathlon Relay! I'm really excited about it and hoping to be able to recruit some folks to do it with me! Aside from Autumn (my sister's new nickname, jot that down for future reference) I'm trying to coax 1/2 of Team Awesome into doing it too. What the hell, how about all of Team Awesome! And last to be persuaded will be The Colonel. And I don't think that will ever happen. Tips on how to convince your boyfriend to do something he thinks is crazy are greatly welcomed and appreciated!
Oh my gosh. I absolutely love this post! Seriously. You are SO RIGHT! I mean, what is the worst thing that can happen?! (And I so don't mean that in a 'Final Destination' tempting fate way, but a 'let's really look at what the worst case scenario is and realize that trying is so worth it!' way)
ReplyDeleteHmmm maybe we could get the boys to at least participate and do a run leg? Or they can at least be support!
What a great post. I am going to read it again later, and I'm sure I'll have more to say!
lol the colonel huh...I'll do it!
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