Under pressure

the stencil

and it's not about the challenge, more on that later.  Well it seems that Mr. Payne has done a bit of a write up about my tattoo and when I looked at my latest entry I thought it would be an awful first impression for people that might actually stop by here.  It's like having people drop by unexpectedly at your house, I felt the need to clean up a bit.. now there's no telling if this entry is actually any better than the last one but I can at least say I tried.

Bryan mentioned that I might be conservative and it's true in some ways, I have worked in insurance my whole life but what he doesn't know about me is that I also worked a downtown rock bar called Rock and Roll Heaven for many years (in my 20s), yes a very very long time ago. I doubt if my friends from back then would call me 'conservative' but it's true I have mellowed over the years for sure.  That's a way more boring story.  Anyway to prove that I was once less conservative, here's a pic of me in my 20's.  Yes, you can laugh, it's not my fault, it was the freaking 80's people!!!

I have wanted another tattoo for a very long time but tattoos are a huge commitment, obviously and I wasn't certain what I wanted and knew that in time I would know what to get and I also knew that if the time never came, no big deal.  I wanted one down my entire spine, nope, not kidding and am still considering that but based on how painful this one was, that probably won't happen.

I almost passed out at this point

Back when the whole triathlon thing started I honestly didn't think for a second it would last more than a week, hell ask my friends, my trainer, they'll all tell you I'm the queen of join and never finish!  Then on my first google search for 'triathlon' I found trainingpayne's blog and started reading.  From there I found more blogs and interesting people and then I found twitter and then I got involved.  Well as involved as "I" could be but then other people started involving me which was really scary and slightly exciting.  Before I knew it I was loaned a bike (a Pinarello no less) and there I was riding 2.5kms on Bell School line and wiping out.   And while my blog friends laughed they also cheered me on very loudly!

It's true I am not and never have been athletic at all so this was a big struggle to me but over time I really wanted to finish at least one race.  Then one day on Bryan's blog  I had made a comment saying that at 44 years old I really felt like I was a bit of a fraud, that the voices in my head were telling me 'it's too late for you, stop making a fool of yourself'.  It was meant to be just a statement but what i got back were words I will never forget and in fact, I posted them as an entry here. Over the last year those last words, 'Adena, what you want is in you' have played in my head over and over again and I knew that was it.  I have to say that I am often taken aback by the sheer size of it day to day but I love it more and more every day.  Even if I was to never do another race this journey has taught me more about myself and other people than anything in life.  PS - if you are Finnish and this does not translate to what I think it does, DO NOT TELL ME!!  It's impossible to change, let me have my illusion.

So yes, it's true Bryan did give me advice that I actually had tattooed onto my arm but I'm just joking, what it really  means is 'where did you put the beer bong!!'.  I actually just walked into the tattoo shop and asked them to put something on me that would cost me a very large amount of money and be excruciatingly painful.

finished, thank gawd!

That's all I got.

(and for those tracking the challenge, I zoned this weekend, between my roommate moving and my need to watch Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy in it's entirety today I did not train. Thank god I didn't bet anything BUT I'm moving forward and will continue, it doesn't stop here, in fact I have spin class with Mike tomorrow.. ouch! cause yea, there's that pesky 1/2 IM looming)