It was a random yet productive weekend filled with two solid long workouts (a 14-mile run and a two-hour bike ride) and an array of catching up on paper work and projects. It was one of those weekends that left me feeling as if I was in a good place, on solid ground, ready for whatever happens next. And so, I’m taking this Monday morning to reflect on what I learned this weekend, in nice and neat bullet points:
- No matter how long or short the run, Mile 2 always sucks.
- On long runs, by the time you’re hurting and think you can’t go any farther, you realize you are tantalizing close to being done. Suddenly, you don’t mind the pain as much and find you can actually push a little more.
- Overheard on The Accidental Creative podcast: What did you fail at this week? Nothing? That’s too bad. What if failure was defined as “not trying” instead of based on not obtaining a specific outcome?
- I do not recommend trying to eat any shot block-type products that have accidentally gone through the washer and dryer. I’ve done the research on this so you don’t have to.
- Two places came up in a conversation last week: Falling Water and Machu Picchu. That sparked an entire array of day-dreaming, which can be exciting or trouble, depending upon your point of view.
- When getting in your bike workout on the trainer, it helps to have your cell phone nearby so you can text your friend when you can’t shift into your big chain ring and need to vent your frustration.
- Sometimes the universe causes slight mechanical failures (see: failure to shift into big chain ring) in order to get you to concentrate on something else (see: cadence).
- It’s a good day when an off-handed sarcastic remark makes a friend spit water out of his nose. It’s even better when I don’t remember what the remark was. That means I wasn’t trying. I was just being myself. And great things always come from that.
- I had forgotten that Lucille Ball was so much more than a scheming, whining 1950s TV character who just wanted to be in Ricky’s show. She was a trailblazing woman. I was reminded of this by my friend Tara who posted a quote on Facebook over the weekend: One of the things I learned the hard way was that it does not pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.
And that’s the perfect mantra to kick off my race week: Make optimism a way of life.
