Honey, please don’t buy ice cream I say. Well don’t eat it she replies. And so goes the argument. Somehow, I managed to blame my wife for my inability to let the ice cream sit in the refrigerator for longer than a day without me helping myself to more that a fair share. Then I started thinking about my kids. What about them? Are they going to go without ice cream in the refrigerator? Not very fair was my thought. So I then decided to somehow concentrate on what I can do to not eat the ice cream instead of shifting blame to my poor wife.
Remember my perfect run of a few days ago. One thing I forgot to tell you was that I had planned a route that I have run perhaps hundreds of times. The route is a beautiful one. There are views of the mountains and you get to run next to a water ditch where I see many bird species and ducks. Well the ducks are perhaps not happy to see me as they almost always fly away. When I got to the beginning of the ditch I could not continue. There was this huge fence with signs posted. ‘No trespassing, certain death if entered.’ The city of Boulder has tried to keep people off this nice trail because if you enter the water ditch you can be swept away and potentially die. Well turns out one lady’s dog jumped in the water and died. So the lady decided to sue the city. So now since having forest rangers and signs did not keep the runners off the trail they decided to put up this huge fence. Thank you miss dog owner, is all I have to say.
It just seems to me that we all need to evaluate what we do and start taking responsibility for our own actions. Down in New Orleans after the hurricane all officials are now blaming someone. It is everywhere. As triathletes we also have to take responsibility. After a race if you are not happy with the results look at what you did to do better next time. Don't blame the race organizers, or the referees, or the weather conditions. Look within, not outside, During training don’t run red lights and then expect motorist to respect you. Don’t toss your energy bar wrappers on the road and then turn around and get mad if the neighbor’s dog poops in your yard. The list of example is endless and we do it all the time.
Tuesday night I managed to ride the trainer for an hour and lift weights. Riding the trainer seems easy now. I usually ride the trainer in the winter when I am not in as good shape. It went really fast. Wednesday I swam masters with another one of those sets with longer swims and fast swims. I did fine and still hope one day we do a steady set. Then I ran four miles in my neighborhood.
Thursday I fly to Chicago really early for my coaching certification class. I will see how this one goes. I hope that they just don’t brain wash us with ITU style racing information like they did at the other USAT classes and certifications I have attended. A nice balance will be fine.