Staying the course ...

Post #: 10
Weeks of training complete: 13 weeks, 2 days
Time until Ironman: 18 weeks, 5 days
Miles swam: 48.076
Miles biked: 644.28
Miles run: 189.46

Goal: $5,000
Total money raised: $570

There's something about the middle.

It's not the beginning, not the end. You're neither starting the journey, nor anywhere near it's conclusion.

Here I am stuck in the middle with ... me.

I relayed these comments to Eric, my coworker and Ironman finisher and he told me, as I have mused before on this very blog, that you must stay in the moment, just as you must do in the actual Ironman race itself. You can't focus, he said, on how far you've come or how far you've got to go.

Live in the moment ... it's an idea and theme that keeps coming back.

There's another motto I find myself repeating often: "Keep making the right choices." In a previous life, this was my downfall - when times got tough, I made the wrong choice, the easy choice. Another beer, another cigarette, blowing off a responsibility, giving into my own demons, my own fear, my own rebellion against the things I perceived to hold me down.

I am stronger now - making the right choice is easier, but not always easy.

Getting up for my workout was painful this morning. The workout itself was painful (3,000 meters is a long swim!!!) I'm experiencing burnout on numerous fronts, but I've learned that if I keep making the right decisions - eat healthy, complete my workout, power through the difficult tasks, write my thank you cards, communicate with the world, play with my children, be there for my wife - that I'll come out of it refreshed and reinvigorated and stronger for making the right choice when the wrong one was easy.

I guess that's what they call the experience and the wisdom of aging.

To me, it's why 32 is way better than 21.

Cheers,
Ed