Back to Real Life Stuff

Today is all about getting the "real life" stuff out of the way. With all the training I had been putting in up to last weekend's race, I let other parts of my life slip a little bit. Most notably, my finances took a little bit of a dip. The bill collectors have started to call and that's never a good thing.

I think it's going to be important for me to keep ALL of the aspects of my life in focus if I am to reach my triathlon goals. I've set lofty ones for myself, so I need to be equally diligent in life matters as I am in training and racing matters.

I'm reading a couple of books right now on preparation and success in sports and in life. I've never been one to be totally into New Age stuff, but I think a lot of what is being said in these books matter. Although most of us would like it to be, life is not all about the sport or sports in which we participate. There are always other factors, be it family, career, bills, etc. that get in the way of us totally focusing on playing our games or racing our races. While a lot of these things are important to us, we must remember that it's most important to be organized outside of sports. Putting "real life" things off will only have a negative effect on our sports performance because consciously or subconciously we will be thinking about them when we need to put our focus on performing.

I'm not an organized person (except when it comes to sports) so this is going to be a challenge for me. I know, though, that if I am to succeed and meet the goals I have put out there, organization is an absolute must. As much as I hate it, I'm going to have to do those things I hate. I know that they'll only help me in the long run with triathlon, and that is what I ultimately desire.

On a completely different subject, I managed to get in 3 hours of "training" by accident yesterday. I've begun to move away from my gas guzzling car, and have been commuting to work via my road bike for the past few days. Being that I go back and forth from home to work several times a day, I put in some good miles yesterday. Couple that with a half hour run with a client yesterday afternoon, and I got in an "accidental" 3 hour training day. The crazy thing is, it felt like absolutely nothing. I'm not talking about fitness here, but simply the act of fully disconnecting with everything around me while riding my bike. I didn't worry about pace, speed, or how I felt. I just got from point A to point B a few times and then chatted with my client as we jogged. I'm not saying I could run and bike like this all the time, but it was nice to slow down and appreciate the outdoors rather than burning through it on my tribike or in my racing flats! Just food for thought...