Monday, March 31, 2008

An Object In Motion

"Motion becomes my mantra. Through it, I gradually divest myself of worry and anger, of fear and depression - and the reasons for them. "

George Sheehan
I was running with a friend the other day during the dark hours of the morning, and we were discussing how our training makes us better in so many other ways than just making us a faster runner (or biker or swimmer). I like the way Sheehan puts it, that he, 'through running, gradually divests himself of worry and anger, of fear and depression - and the reasons for them.' I can totally identify with that.

It's like a purging of the toxins that creep into my mind when I am idle.

It's a fire burning off the excess in my life. All the useless worrying, the ugly thoughts, grudges, and jealousy get tossed into the fire of adrenaline. They burn to ashes left behind by my footprints.

A breath of fresh air, a pounding heart, burning quads...they bring focus and clarity to my horizon. They calm the nerves that tend to otherwise set off false alarms in my head.

When I have motion, I can wrap my hands around the world. I can walk tall. I can press on. I can fight the good fight, and I can keep the faith.

I don't get out and run because every thing else in my life has always been so great that I wake up ready and itching to bee-bop down the road at 4:30 each morning. I get up and run because I know it's what my body needs in order to be complete. I grind out 2.5 hours on the trainer because it's a small part of a big picture that is going to turn an ordinary girl into an IronMan.

One step at a time. One rotation of the pedals at a time. One freestyle stroke at a time.

One mind numbing trainer ride at a time.

One wet, windy and cold 10 miler that absolutely sucked at a time.

One swim that I was too tired to get dressed for at a time.

It wasn't the greatest of training weekends...but it was a piece of the puzzle that had to be completed.

It will make the warm and sunny bike rides a whole lot sweeter.

It will make the fresh air during pretty spring-morning long runs that much fresher.

And it will inevitably make swimming through waves and jelly fish in the Gulf of Mexico somewhat easier.

I will stay in motion.

6 comments:

Tammy said...

What a beautiful post. I was going to grab a quote out of it, but each line feeds the next... the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Very touching & inspiring. Thank you, and thank you for your support in my upcoming adventure.

I'm happy your Mom is doing well :)

J~Mom said...

Awesome post!! Glad you had a good training weekend even if it didn't feel so good at the time.

Anonymous said...

Perfectly written. Glad to hear your mom is doing well.

tri-mama said...

good to hear about your mom- her strength in no way surprises me-it runs in the family :-) working the bad days so the good ones are that much sweeter- I like that. well said

faithrunner said...

You are so in the zone girl! It really sounds like your hard work, dedication, determination, and training is going to make you the best Ironman there ever was! :) You are doing such a tremendous job with this training! Do you ever slow down?? You kick butt at the half!

greyhound said...

Keep moving forward.