Frustration to Gratitude...

So, it's time to crack down and push through the upcoming ENDLESS workouts!! Three months left before begining our one month taper. Feeling a little burnt at times but making sure sleep takes the top priority. Not sure how to spend my time or how much time to spend in France but many thoughts are passing through my mind and I'm pretty confident I'll have a plan within a week or so. Looking forward to getting things a little more solid so that all my focus can be on what else...TRAINING and MORE TRAINING!! What in the world will life be like without such a time stealer, without such focus, without such a HUGE goal??? I have no clue what most people live like on planet earth...i definitely feel like I'm on the moon with such craziness. Going for the LONG triathlons absolutely forces you to become obsessive and it gets quite tiresome ALWAYS thinking about nothing less than what to eat, when to train, when to sleep, when to wash your work out clothes, when to stretch, when to hot tub, when to recover, when to get a massage, when to take care of the routine stuff like grocery shopping and work so that I can train again and stay on track, and on and on and on. Frick! Sound frustrated? I am.

So, i read a great article today in my triathlon magazine that my sweet sister Emma gave me. This 17 year old gave some very insightful info from his 10 years of triathlon experience and made it analagous to life. He said patience is one of the greatest tools to learn and related it to staying in his own race. Not being tempted to go faster by those going faster than him. This way he kept his mind and body in direct communication and this allowed him to succeed in his own race. He said the same is true in life, not comparing to others progress, not rushing into things just because other people around you are going faster and things seem like they are going well and strong and good. He said this only leads to frustration and possible failure. Hence, this training stuff is teaching me these very lessons. To persevere, to be patient, to accept the way it is...extremely hard. To live comfortably uncomfortable most of the time.

Some days I'm excited and having fun and other days I'm dragging and asking "WHY???!" Some days I'm grumpy and sore and tired and feel lost. Other days I feel like I'm kicking ass so bad that I'm on my way. Regardless of how I feel I press on and that's what gets me stronger. The same is true spiritually and in my relationship with my God. My dad always taught me so much in physical training and how it relates to spiritual training...some days he felt strong others he felt weak but nonetheless he kept on lifting the weights and doing the workout for that day....day in and day out.

So, this week we step it up even more. In fact, in addition to our increased training time this week I am anxious to run the Kaiser Napa marathon on sunday at 7 am after working the night before. I will very much so exerience extremely cold weather, over fatigue from working and lack of sleep, and a slew of many kinds of discomforts. But, when all is said and done I will be proud of my perseverance. I will be thankful to God that I could even do such a thing. I will have a great time...several hours alone with God running to glorify Him and love Him with all that I have...my whole body, my whole mind, and my whole heart. He is my truest unconditionalist and forever best friend. Let me never forget to be thankful!!

Jen