Enjoying the Ride

Our two big blessings on a field trip with Dad. 

Well another week came and went and the weekly blogging took a back seat to life.  Mrs. T has been really busy with work, kiddos, and training so….here you have it, a Two Ambitious Parents “first."   I, Mr. T, am picking up the creative slack and penning my first entry in our effort at weekly documentation of this crazy quest we have undertaken. I am not a creative/English person so please accept my apologies ahead of time.

The past week was overall a good week.  We got in some great training, highlighted by Mrs. T’s sbr brick workout on Saturday in which she achieved some new personal “bests” for training.  I continued in my quest for world domination, err survival by getting my strength workouts done for the second week in a row.  I also had a great training day on Sunday when I did a strength/long bike/t-run workout thanks to the coercion of my wife and a good friend.  We missed a few sessions due to other obligations (such as our 6 year old’s first birthday party with friends) and circumstances outside of our control (my long lap swim session being truncated due to the fire alarm going off at the facility & having to briefly stand outside in my wet trunks in the South Dakota winter).  These “interruptions” to the perceived “perfect” week of training are something we are learning to deal with more and more.

This brings me to the focus of this week’s post.  Enjoying the ride and not stressing about the details.  Here it is, plain and simple:

We are not elite athletes and never will be.  We are average age-group triathlon enthusiasts who have a dream to finish an Ironman.  The whole experience of undertaking this goal can easily go a couple ways, enjoyable and fulfilling, or stressful and tedious.  In the few years we have been participating in triathlon we have learned some very valuable lessons.  Sure we want to do well, have good finishes, win an award here and there, and become forces to be reckoned with.  That being said we have realized that there are MANY other things more important to us than short lived athletic glory.  By keeping our priorities in line with our desires we are on track to have one of the most difficult yet most enjoyable “seasons” of our life.  We are going to miss a training session here and there.  We are going to cut short a workout to play with our kids.  We are going to adjust the intensity of a workout in order to fit into the demands of life at that moment.  We are going to (try) and not stress about those times and look at the big picture and realize each instance/week/month is all a piece of the puzzle, a step on the path to hopefully realizing our dream.  We are going to our absolute best to train and race up to the level of the work we are able to put in.  If we can do that, the finish, no matter what time shows on the clock, will be worth every moment.

These Two Ambitious Parents will keep pressing on, roll with the punches, and not sweat the small stuff.  Hopefully next week Mrs. T will be back to enriching our lives with her eloquent blogging abilities as writing this for me is harder than doing a strength session!  Until next time, train smart and train safe!