With my suitcase once again packed up and Johnny Cash on repeat in my brain, I figure that it is high time for a blog update. After leaving Colorado Springs on November 26th, I headed to New Hampshire to spend time with my brother Adam, his wife Tricia and their awesome dog, Grete. Luckily, my parents were able to head over from Cooperstown to join in on the Thanksgiving/ Birthday festivities, as well as Tricia's sister's family. Fun fact: my 27th birthday was on the 27th day of November, celebrated in the same town where I was born, Hanover. Strange coincidence, right?
After a nice stay with Adam and Tricia, I headed to NYC for a couple of days to attend my sister's Marie Claire book event and to pick up my friend Kate to head to Puerto Rico for a week. I normally wouldn't think that travel would be the best way to unwind after a season of travelling and racing, but I found that our trip was exactly what I need. Maybe it was the crispy lechon and tostones...
I am currently typing in my sister's house in Gainesville, Florida, where I've been catching up with her, her husband Clay and baby Beckett, as well as putting in some warm weather training before I head back to the cold. While I find Beckett extraordinarily cute, I haven't quite accepted the sour milk chunks that mysteriously show up on my sleeves when I hold him. That part? Not so cute. I'm off to Cooperstown tomorrow for a week of Christmas festivities (including a Groffian gathering in New Jersey) and fortunately the Florida crew will be coming north as well, giving me more opportunity to bond with the wee one. On the 27th, I'll head back to Colorado Springs, where some of my gear has taken over my coach's basement (the rest of my stuff occupies a storage locker in Boulder).
It is at times like these that I am fully aware of how free I am. Without a mortgage, pets, kids or a 9-5 job, I am fortunate enough to be able to pick up and visit family and friends in my off-season. Twenty years from now, with kids and a mortgage, I will undoubtedly think with fondness upon the time that I schlepped up and down the eastern seaboard, visiting friends and family. While I will concede that there is a certain charm in this lifestyle, I am starting to feel that it is getting harder as I age. Frankly, I am far too old to have never signed a yearly lease. Until I shed myself of my lingering Peter Pan complex, however, "Of travel I've had my share, man/ I've been everywhere" and I don't plan on applying the brakes quite yet.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Getting back in shape
After a couple of weeks completely off training and two weeks of light training, I am back in "real" training mode and am finding myself to be surprisingly cranky as a result. Whether it is due to that fact that I finished this season less fit than in years past or because I am feeling the effects of age, I feel worse than I ever have before with my return to my swimming, biking and running. Other than questioning the "how" of my lack of fitness, I have been alternating between self-pity ("Woe is me! I will never get fit again!"), practicality ("This is necessary, both mentally and physically") and, finally, the realization that I am a big whiner with a very skewed perspective on fitness.
As professional athletes, we become accustomed to having an incredibly high level of fitness and, even at our most unfit, we are capable of training at distances and speeds beyond those of the average person [Before you assume this to be a boast about our physical superiority, please read on!]. This is less a testament to our athletic gifts than an indication of the poor conditioning of most people in this country. I fully admit that I haven't a clue on how difficult it must be to attempt to get into shape as an unfit adult. Based on how it feels to swim after getting "unfit", however, I can certainly assume that it must be a Sisiphysian task of a scope that I will never understand. To rewrite a lifetime of habits and physical patterning must seem an impossible demand.
With this realization in mind, I vow to redouble my efforts in promoting health and fitness at the Boys and Girls Club. By encouraging healthy activity and behaviour at a young age, we have the opportunity to ensure that kids will adopt practices that will keep them from ever experiencing what it means to be truly unfit as an adult.
As professional athletes, we become accustomed to having an incredibly high level of fitness and, even at our most unfit, we are capable of training at distances and speeds beyond those of the average person [Before you assume this to be a boast about our physical superiority, please read on!]. This is less a testament to our athletic gifts than an indication of the poor conditioning of most people in this country. I fully admit that I haven't a clue on how difficult it must be to attempt to get into shape as an unfit adult. Based on how it feels to swim after getting "unfit", however, I can certainly assume that it must be a Sisiphysian task of a scope that I will never understand. To rewrite a lifetime of habits and physical patterning must seem an impossible demand.
With this realization in mind, I vow to redouble my efforts in promoting health and fitness at the Boys and Girls Club. By encouraging healthy activity and behaviour at a young age, we have the opportunity to ensure that kids will adopt practices that will keep them from ever experiencing what it means to be truly unfit as an adult.
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