Wednesday, October 6, 2010

It's catchy!!

There are a couple of people that are joining me for #SIU October, that’s awesome! Some people, well a lot of people in my blog/twitter/real life actually LIVE SIU. I am on the bubble. So far so good though, awesome workouts this week including my favourite run! Finally I feel that my lungs are starting to loosen up. I was coughing a lot after my run and am hoping that I will start getting rid of some of the damage I did with over 30 years of smoking. Yes that’s right folks, I started smoking when I was 12, by 14, I was smoking regularly. I struggle with this every single day, I wake up wanting to smoke, and the feeling lasts all day. I had hoped it would fade but it seems to be getting worse. Thankfully I have my eye on the prize, which is the half iron in July and there is NO way I would finish if I were to take up the habit again so MORE SIU.

We had a guest speaker last night at run club, Diane Gordon. I didn’t hear all her credentials but she is an experienced racer/athlete and she spoke about balance. At the beginning of her chat she said that she was likely going to speak to things we already knew but she hoped we would take something away with us. She did say something that resonated with me with respect to scheduling. I always struggle with getting my workouts in, life happens right. She said to make your schedule around the things you cannot change and then schedule everything else around your runs (workouts). I like this a lot!

One other note worth mentioning was John from Foottools, our local running shop.  Foottools  works with my coach and our running group and John spoke about making sure you remember it’s not just about race day but to pay attention to the journey of training. Ok he didn’t say that exactly but it was kind of like that. I sat on a yoga ball listening to this and nodding my head in agreement (and even got a little choked up but don’t tell anyone ok) because what I found out along the way was it really WAS about how I got to race day more than race day itself. When I agreed to do a try-a-tri I had a list of goals and an image in my head of what race day would look like. NONE of it was what I expected, most of all the journey to get to Sept 5, which ended up being a sprint rather than a try-a-tri. I never would have thought I would remember the training and lessons learned as much as or more than race day. Don’t get me wrong, race day was amazing and I have loads of good memories but more than that I remember getting to race day. I remember the people I have met along the way, in real life, on twitter and through my blog, I remember the good training days where I felt on top of the world and the bad training days where I was frustrated and disappointed. I remember every drop of blood on the freaking bike. I remember wiping out and finishing the sprint race simulation, I may be prouder of that than my raceday finish. I remember the support of people along the way, the encouraging words and gestures and the ribbing (SIU right).

I am a member of the TCOB (Triathlon Club of Burlington). I don’t train with them because they are well above my physical abilities but never the less, I am a dues paying member. The annual newsletter came out yesterday and they listed “all” members who had completed their first ever triathlon and my name was not on the list. Ok, I don’t train with them all the time, I did swim with them in the spring for months but that doesn’t mean I’m not part of the club and then it hit me.. I’m NOT part of that club.. I’m part of..

the Triathlon Club of twitter
the Triathlon Club of She Said I Need a Goal
the Triathlon Club of the house of Payne
the Triathlon Club of SUCK IT UP
the Triathlon Club of #trashtalk
the Triathlon Club of Second Wind Conditioning and coach Nancy
the Triathlon Club of Mommies in Motion
the Triathlon Club of Adena’s facebook
the Triathlon Club of bike wipeouts

That’s all I got

4 comments:

Matty O said...

I can harp on this one a lot. Mainly the triathlon club BS you just went through.

FIRST, good motivational/informative speakers. I love getting re-centered and focused again. It definitely helps especially with the crappy weather coming up shortly here.

Second, don't you dare pick up another cigarette!

Third, as dues paying members of the Cleveland Triathlon Club, we attended quite a bit of stuff in the beginning of the year until we got our feet wet and were able to be on our way. WELL, they gave the props and congratulations to EVERY other member that competed in races and half ironmans this year but did not mention anything about Heather or I. I felt snubbed, yes. I was pissed because I thought I was part of a caring club. Well turns out they really only cared about their core group. They get caught up in themselves and talk themselves up as an awesome club blah blah blah. Heather and I are typically loners anyways so we let it go. Our goal is to beat their entire team at races... so far we have been doing pretty darn good at this :)

I try to get the last laugh in life. If you can't join them, beat them... errr something like that hahaha.

adena said...

Matty, I promise no more smoking! There I said on out loud ON my blog and I promised YOU so I can't go back now can I. SIU!

You and Heather are definitely members of the house of Payne triathlon club.. should we tell Bryan that he has his own club? I think Heather should win athlete of the year for the beer bong.

Bryan said...

Good work on the smoking. I used to smoke cigarettes and now find cigars are much better for endurance athletes. haha.

I like the clubs you've joined and congrats on an awesome year, major gains. I think next year is even going to be better. Keep up the good work.

B

adena said...

Thanks B, I was wondering when I can upgrade to the cigars now that I'm a non smoker! I am looking forward to a solid year of training and some really fun racing next season. And ALL the shopping in between.