Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Twenty bucks or Good Karma?

I was walking into work today, not in the greatest of moods, when I saw a $20 bill lying right in front of me as I walked through the parking lot. My first reaction was "Yes!! $20 richer! cha-ching!" And then I realized it was just outside of a mini van...and it sure did look awfully probable that whoever drove that mini van had dropped it as they made their way into work. It didn't take but a couple more steps to decide I'd much rather gamble on good karma than pocket $20. So tracked down the owner of that mini van and found out that she had, indeed, lost a $20 bill from her pocket that morning. Of course, I returned it to her. My friends are telling me that the power ball is now $222 million...I believe I will go buy my first ever lottery ticket today...bring on the good karma.

So, I've been MIA for a while again. Training has been sporadicly consistent. Does that make sense? Oxymoron or not, that is the only way to describe it. I've managed to let the Mach Tenn Triathlon fill up before registering, but I'm curious as to whether the VP of the club(that would me) that is putting on the race can get a string pulled for her in that regard? If not, maybe it's a sign that I'm so undertrained I need to opt for working the event rather than racing it. If I do get in, the goal will be to finish, and only to finish. I expect to get my @ss handed to me by many people, one of who is my sister (doing her 1st triathlon of all things! But she is fast!), but I'm a big girl, and I can take it. If you don't put in the training you can't expect to be strong, and that's just the way it is. Somehow it seems awfully lame of me to not race under these circumstances, though...especially since I have no good explanation as to why I haven't put in the training(no injuries or anything). I simply have been turning off the alarm instead of getting in good, quality morning workouts; and I've been opting to watch American Idol or sitting at the kids' ball practices instead of going to masters' swim class. The actual games, though, I do consider an excused absense, for the record.

Speaking of all this laziness, though, it's about to come to an end. I do despise such a way of life. It starts and ends with mental fortitude. Life on a daily basis without it is very nonproductive. You know I've been roaming around like a lost sheep wondering what in the hell I'm going to do now that my Ironman is over, and I'm not registered for anything. Everyone says "register for a smaller event and work toward that," but for someone of my mentality it seems like that would be comparable with snorting 1 line of cocaine when you are used to snorting 5. For the record, that analogy could be way off as I have never been a drug user and, other than Hollywood's interpretation, I know nothing much about it...unless you count 20 mile runs and 100 mile rides as drugs...and granted, you could have an argument there. Back to the point, though, having a smaller race than an Ironman as an A race for me, just isn't going to cut it right now. Perhaps at some point I'll be able realign the sensible railways in my head about this stuff, but for now I need something bigger. Like something I've never done before.

XTERRA Lock 4 Blast.

July 18th. I've been tossing it around for a while, but I made up my mind during a 20 mile road ride yesterday. Comfort zone, be gone. Back to swim class, back to the trails, back to early morning training. Back to being discliplined, and back to eating right.

I feel better already.

8 comments:

Missy said...

Rock solid! It'll be fun. Is it really July 18th? I may see you there (relay!). I'm doing a half this year and it DOES seem weird, good but weird.

Anonymous said...

The XTERRA looks like a blast. I think it is always fun to try new things. It keeps things exciting. Glad you are finding your way back.

Jill Ann said...

Go Xterra!! I'll see you at Mach Tenn this year. Can you believe...Holly and I are in? And you and Michele are out? What is up with that?? But, a break is good ya know?? See you soon!!

PS I know we can use really loud cheerleaders!!

greyhound said...

You know, Xterra is an gateway drug. Pretty soon, you'll be doing adventure races and utra-trail running and you'll have all sorts of body piercings, tattoos, and spikey dyed hair.

JP said...

Lana, I'm in the same boat, not signed up for anything, but have been on the MT Bike. May see you @ Lock 4. And I found $20.00 last week, but it was in the pocket of a shirt I had not worn for a ear !So I did spend it all on Powerball Tickets, but as you can tell I'm writing this, so I didn't call into to work "Rich".

Ryan said...

I saw that 222 million powerball jackpot so I jacked up an old lady of her cocaine, sold it to some kids for $20 and bought some tickets.

Of course that was all bad Karma so I didn't win crap!

Michele said...

I saw an ad for the muddy buddy race and thought about seeing if you would be interested in doing that with me. I wouldn't be racing so it wouldn't interfer with my "break"

Jessica said...

Looks awesome Lana! Wish I could do it with you. I bet you are looking forward to it!