"Ya Gotta Believe!"

Over the course of both of my Ironman ramblings I have often used the training and racing as a metaphor for life, and/or aspects thereof. I can't think of one concept that adapts more easily than the idea of faith. Every day I work out tired, doing the things I have either learned from the experts or figured out myself, and every day I wonder if it's working. The problem is that at this point of the whole exercise you don't really get any kind of true test as to whether you are making progress. You can of course use your training results as some kind of barometer but it is very dangerous. The risks are twofold. First, that you will start "racing" your training workouts which leads to lousy workouts because you had to shorten them, or because you overdid it and got hurt. The second is a loss of faith. Then when you get dispirited the tempetation is to take days off so that you can then have that extra special workout after a rest. The great workout that will prove yourself to your self, and help you to regain your faith! Which is all very fine and dandy except for the fact that you rested needlessly and in essence wasted training time. If you're not tired you are doing something wrong.

The answer? For my training and my life? Just believe! I'm pretty confident that I am doing most things right, and that I normally adjust appropriately in response to my bodys signals, or in the case of my life, the signals of my heart and my mind. Oh wait. My training is my life!

That's why I'm gonna consider my 2 hours and 19 minutes on the computrainer today a success instead of the poor effort it seems based on past experience. I am doing weights fairly regularly now which definitely affects the other workouts, and I am generally doing 2 workouts most every day. That's gotta be tiring eh? I will continue to plug along and perhaps rest for a few days before Around the Bay at the end of March, and use that as a bit of a fitness test. If I can keep up with Roo I will designate myself fit. And I ain't kidding. Most of her workouts are faster than mine now! Of course, I'm her coach so that would explain that!

Meanwhile. "Ya Gotta Believe"!

(computrainer, 60 kms, 2:19)

"I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."---Einstein

"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."---Buddha

"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest."---Gandhi

...hmmm...Einstein, Buddha and Gandhi. I wish I was known by just one name.

Love
"Peter"