Veer Away from the Schedule- Chill if need be. It's Okay.

February 18, 2009

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny." - Frank Outlaw

A long time ago when I was seeing a sports psychologist, they recommended that every morning, I read a quote of the day. I looked up a ton of quotes, typed them up, printed them out, cut into pieces, and placed into a tin to put beside my bed. Although I don't read a quote everyday, my box of quotes have been there by my bed ever since--for years now. I decided that it would be a nice thing to include on this blog. I may write about the quote, or not. Depends how I feel. But, it's a nice thing to include...

With this quote, it seems perfect for the journey to IronMan for me. I first thought about it in my head back in October. I didn't join the team right away for it was merely a thought. Then, all of a sudden one day, I called the TNT main office to ask to be switched to IronTeam from the regular tri team. I surprised myself that day. Then another month passed and finally I went to my first practice mid-december where the action began. My actions have carried me thus far-- I'm finally enjoying the workouts and looking forward to them and getting that feeling that I can't miss them. I am transiting to the "habit" phase. Hopefully, some day soon, I will reach my destiny :)

Although I have been enjoying my workouts more and more, I didn't feel like doing my swim today. I've been pushing myself so hard in the pool, that it's becoming less and less fun. Swimming is my best event, and usually the event I love the most. I absolutely love being in the water. It wakes me up, puts me in a good mood, and just relaxes me. Lately though, it's been more and more work rather than relaxing-- I think it's bc I've been pushing myself too much. So, today, I decided to NOT do the swim workout and just swim slowly and smoothly and do what I wanted to do. I went slow and just let myself relax again and lose track of how hard it can be. I did small sets of 200s, 150s, and 100s and literally before I knew it, I did 2800. Okay for a workout that I decided not to really do and wanted to skip altogether. When I was doing the 100s, I looked at the time on the clock to see how fast I did them. I never ever keep track of how fast I am, but I was around a 1:35 pace or something like that. Seriously, I kill myself to go at a 1:30 pace. I lose a few seconds and here I am completely going slow and relaxing. It was nice to scale back my pace and keep in mind that I will be swimming 2.4 miles-- definitely can't do the sprint workouts for that!

Even though I didn't follow the exact workout, I still got something in. Something that I wanted to do and something that I enjoyed doing. I think we're all sometimes too hard on ourselves to stick to the schedule perfectly all the time. I like veering off every once in a while. Okay, maybe I do this more often than I should, but it's just how I do things. If it gets me to do the workouts, then so be it. What can I say, I like to mix things up :)