Dreams vs. goals

Please forgive me for having piqued your curiosity yesterday and then leaving you hanging. I have been giving a lot of thought to the fact that I committed to the Mountain Goat and now I am backing out of it. I suppose most of my turmoil lies in the fact that I have been toying with the idea of doing a long-distance triathlon. I dabbled last season with “Sprint” distance triathlons, which were a ton of fun. However, I’m very inconsistent with training. I will go great guns for a few weeks, then slack off. That’s okay with the shorter distances but I will really need to step up the consistency if I want to do longer distances. So I really had to make up my mind that this is something I really want to focus on, before “going public”. For now, doing a longer distance is still a dream….I won’t consider it a goal until several things happen. But the dream is becoming more and more clear as every day goes by.

Changing Dreams

So my absence the past few days was because I was preparing for a visit from my Mom and Dad. They only live 90 miles away, but we only get together every couple of months or so. This particular visit was our first since February, so we were overdue! And this time, they came to visit us, which meant I had to do a little bit of cleaning, as I’m not the tidiest housekeeper in the world. (Mom assured me that she wouldn’t mind a little dust, but I *do* have my pride!!) I will post details of our adventures in the next few days.

As for the changing dreams….I decided today that trying to do the 10-mile Mountain Goat run was not a wise idea. I wrote to the race director and asked if I could switch my pre-registration to the 3k run instead and he cheerfully (and rather speedily) replied that yes, I could make the swap. As I was contemplating this change of plans, I realized that the first two lines of “The River” are quite pertinent here.

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin' as it flows

And a dreamer's just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what's behind you
And never knowing what's in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores.. and

So for now, some dreams are changing, some are beginning to take shape and once I get a handle on what it will take to accomplish one of my biggest dreams, I will let you know!

A little setback

I haven’t been doing so well lately with the running for the Mountain Goat. I had hoped to be up to running 6-7 miles a couple of times per week, but that hasn’t happened. To top it off, I battled with a cold over this past weekend (the cold won). So, I have less than two weeks to get my legs acclimated to long runs. Now I know for sure I’ll be walking a big portion of the Goat. Oh well. It is better for me to walk some of the distance, than run the whole thing and risk injury.

My co-worker is back today for the first time since her surgery and so far so good. Her pain is diminished (though not gone), and it is so good to see her with a hint of a smile on her face again. Yea!

Well, it’s about time!

I’ve never been one to attend church. I’ve never considered myself to have a connection with God or Jesus. Frankly I was mystified when people would ask for prayers if they were having a hard time with life. I had certainly never prayed for myself because I didn’t think I mattered. But that’s changing. Through Michelle’s blog, I’ve had the pleasure of reading her Aunt Dee’s blog and Morning Dove’s blog. I’ve also had the influence of two very kind co-workers whose conviction in their faith is absolutely inspiring. So here’s a neat story…

A different co-worker is battling a very debilitating disease and went in Wednesday for experimental surgery. For several days prior, there had been many discussions of prayer and hope for a successful outcome and so forth. I had mentioned to Kathy (the co-worker undergoing surgery) that I would say a prayer, but I wasn’t sure how much good it would do. On Wednesday morning I was talking with one of my more reverent co-workers and mentioned that I had said a prayer for Kathy but that I wasn’t sure if God had heard me. She said of course He did and that He had been waiting to hear from me! Those words are still reverberating through my soul and to some degree I’m still trying to make sense out of it. Now, I don’t ever see myself as attending church regularly or even reading the bible (though maybe someday…), but I think this is a good first step.

My “Hare-Raising” Experience

Thursday’s commute had an interesting event. I leave before sunrise and ride about 30 minutes in complete darkness, with just a headlight and taillight on my bike. The first few times I rode, I was very careful to keep my speed in check, knowing that I wouldn’t have much time to react to anything. Yesterday, I had forgotten to be careful. As I was gathering speed at the top of a hill, a rabbit darted in front of me. I gave a little yelp and instinctively hopped the bike over an inch or so (thank goodness for some mountain bike experience!) and missed him by about half an inch. I’m not sure who was more surprised – the rabbit or me!

Bike Commuting

I love riding my bike to work and back. It gives me a purpose for exercising and appeals to my frugal nature by conserving gas, mileage on my vehicle, etc, etc. I started bike commuting with my very first full-time job out of college and have continued off and on ever since. That first commute was about two miles one-way and pancake-flat. My current commute is 19 miles one-way and fairly hilly. There are logistics which have to be given some thought. For instance, at this time of year, the morning ride requires far more layers of clothing than the afternoon ride (an average temperature difference of 30 degrees between the rides). I take lighter-weight clothes in the day before and leave them at work so that I have them for the ride home. I also take a couple of outfits to work at the beginning of the week so that I don’t have to carry a backpack. The drawback is that I can’t make bike commuting my only means of transportation. I have to rely on a car one or two days out of the week. Of course, if I was a true die-hard commuter, I would find a way to give up the car, but I’m too much of a wimp to voluntarily ride in the rain. Maybe with gas prices rising, more people will consider bike commuting. Sometimes riding two days a week doesn’t sound like it would make a difference, but now I fill up the car every other week instead of weekly. Very gratifying indeed!

I’ve gone and done it, part II

I mailed my pre-registration for the Mountain Goat Run (http://mountaingoatrun.com/) today. This will be the 30th running of the event in Syracuse. I have not participated before, but since it fit in with some long-term fitness goals, I decided this was the year to try. The distance is ten miles, longer than I’ve ever run before. I have been running fairly consistently lately and am gradually increasing my mileage so that I should be able to complete “the Goat”. I may have to do a little walking, but that’s okay by me as long as I finish.