chain reaction

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results ~Wade Boggs

As many of you know, I log my training on Dailymile now. I have ever since the other log that I had used for over 4 years completely crashed and burned, never to be recovered. I can't say enough about some of the people that I have met thru Dailymile (DM from here on out). What's great about DM is that you meet others that have the same goals such as training for an Ironman or marathon. Sometimes, they are training for the exact same one you are so that's an instant bond right there. Some even live right here in Tampa and I see them on a regular basis. Many of these people are simply awesome and sometimes they may not even realize the impact their comments carry.

Here is an example. Last week, even with all the holiday craziness and work, I somehow managed to bike 251 miles and run 26 miles. Earlier this week, I got a text message from Patrick at 3 Sport Journey, whom I met via DM. Here is his exact text message: Just a friendly reminder that 0 (zero) of your 277 miles this week were in the pool. My reply: Aaaaaaah! Cold busted! I will make it up this week, girl scout promise (insert smiley "i just got busted" smiley here). So mind you, all week, his text message has haunted me. This morning, I got up, of course I really wanted to run, but I grabbed my swimsuit, gym bag, and headed to the pool without kicking and screaming. I admit, it felt great to swim again. I have been in the pool twice since Ironman Florida, which is 2 more times than last year at this same time. I did none (ZERO) swimming for about 3 months straight after my first 140.6 and felt guilty almost every day about it but obviously it wasn't enough to make me head to the pool like a friendly text message from a friend. Here is where I tie in the chain reaction part of this story. After my swim this AM, I text messaged Patrick to say swim done and thanks for the kick in the ass! On my way to work, I got a text message from my GA buddy, Summer from Blue Line Runner wishing me a happy Friday. Of course I had to throw in that I had already swam 3000 meters. She and I have been each others swim police since this summer as we both tend to slack off sometimes when it comes to the pool. I'll tell you what, having someone to be accountable to is wonderful. At least for me since I hate to disappoint others when they are counting on me. It worked very well for us but now that all of our races for the year are over, it makes it easy to have pool amnesia. A few hours after our text message conversation, I got an email from Summer letting me know that she too had gone to the pool and swam.

How's that for a chain reaction of pure motivation and keeping each other on task and motivated? This is just one example of how we all come together and I'll tell you, it brings out the best in me and for that, I am thankful and lucky to have met many of these DM'ers. My fellow bloggers fall into this category too.

Lately life has been super busy. Work, holiday stuff, family obligations, training just to keep my sanity, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, I hear ya too and many of you are in the same boat. It isn't necessarily a bad thing either because it's what helps us keep our lives in balance. Last week and most of this week, I found myself feeling inundated by social media ...such as, facebook, twitter, text messages, dailymile, blog stuff, emails, etc... so i had a lot of conversations with myself, on my morning runs, about how to handle it. Should I just take a vacation from all of it? I totally blame myself for allowing it to make me feel overwhelmed. I came to the conclusion that I can have it all but just need to manage my time better and not feel like I have to be instantaneous about answering an email or text. Problem solved!

I'm a night rider, not to be confused with Knight Rider. Ever since daylight saving time kicked in, the day after Ironman Florida, J-Man and I decided we weren't going to let that hinder us from still being able to get our after work rides in. We both equipped the roadbikes with a front and rear light and have been flying thru the hood during the week like bad-asses ever since. The cars can see us very well and besides the occasional jackwagon who thinks yelling at us to get on the sidewalk is a good idea or just honking their horn at us, it has been awesome. There really is something exhilarating about riding at night. J-Man and I also agreed that we feel like we are cheating time. Good times!

Big shout out to all who are racing this weekend, especialmente Señor Bahamundi at Cook|Train|Eat|Race who is running the Las Vegas Marathon this Sunday. Looks like the winds have calmed down and the weather is going to be great for a 26.2 mile run.

Much love and peace out!

***side note: why does this post look like crap? I hate you Blogger!