Sunday, June 16, 2013

Altitude, Attitude, and Acceptance

Part 1. Altitude:

Altitude sucks. Seriously, I never thought there would be that much difference up here from Santa Barbara, but I feel like I am breathing through a straw on a daily basis, and I take my inhaler way more than I ever had to before. My times and paces for swimming, running, and biking are all way slower and it is so insanely intimidating when I am biking back into Santa Fe and the city limit sign says 7000 ft and I know I still have more to climb. Additionally, there are no flats around here, you have hills and rollers. Every "easy" workout I do turns into more of a don't die scenario. Crazy fact: when I visited Santa Barbara a few weeks ago, I went on a long run and my pace PER mile was 2 min faster!

Part 2. Attitude:

Clearly, I need an attitude adjustment. Its funny, I have been an athlete for so long, so one would think I would know how to keep a good attitude, but I am constantly having to take a few steps back and reevaluate my situations. Since I have moved here, I haven't had much confidence in myself going into workouts. Usually what runs through my head are "This is going to suck," "it hurts so bad," and "I am so (insert choice of expletive here) slow!" Apparently I haven't figured out that the adjustment doesn't happen overnight. So this week I approached my workouts differently. I always feel guilty if I miss a workout from being sick, or just life getting in the way. Stuff happens and I need to TRUST my training. This morning I was not having a particular good run and was having some negative thoughts so I stopped (gasp!) at 60 min in and gathered my thoughts. I stopped looking at my Garmin and just ran the last 50 minutes according to feel and just enjoyed being outside. Fact: I did way better. It wasn't fast, but it FELT better.

Part 3. Acceptance:

And on to the final part of this story. I am finally learning that I won't  be as fast up here and things will not happen overnight. I need to enjoy the moment. In two weeks at BLST 70.3 I am going to enjoy the moment. The fact of the matter is, I don't know what is going to happen and I have to accept that. Will I make it under six hours? I don't know, but I am going to try my best. One thing I learned from swimming is that it is ok to fail, once you accept that, anything is possible. Will I make Vegas worlds on my first try? Probably not, but its always in the back of my mind and I won't limit myself. What if I have to walk on the run? Well sh*t happens and I will accept that. Moral of the story friends - I need to accept the ugly with the good, and I won't always be perfect!

2 comments:

  1. I will have to print out your thoughts. They are pretty motivating. I will put in big letters at the top of the print out "SHIT HAPPENS." :-)

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  2. ....and you must have pretty good parents and sister to have come out so well. :-D

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