Out With the Old, In With the New....

SO, my 2008-2009 season officially ended on June 14th after the Trek Women's Duathlon at Disneyland. I have to say, it was quite the interesting race for various good and negative reasons. The race course itself was a memorable one, however, when you have a race that doesn't ahve course officials on it you know a lot of people are going to find a way to cut it short or break the rules...and it happened A LOT. We started out for a 1.5 mile run through Disneyland and back out to the transition area where we set off for a 10 mile bike course (that ran long to more like 12 miles) which was a 2 loop course. Here's where the trouble began. Now, I'm not the world's greatest cyclist, hell I loathe hills with a passion. However, anyone who has ever ridden with me knows that you give me not just flat, but a false flat and I will eat the road up alive. So, I am hammering out on the course and I passed quite a few people, including the people I left transition with. I pass my first loop, it's the same on the second loop and when I am coming back for the last legt the same people I left transition with for the bike leg AND passed are going out for their run.....yes, there was a lot of disappointment. However, the only race that at the end of the day I have control over is my race. Due to the fact that I haven't run off the bike in a long, long, long, long time my legs were going nowhere. At least I know what I need to work on thise week after spin class! I finished the race and felt great. Yet, the best part was that my friend Monica finished her first multisport endurance race as well! And she did amazingly well...WAY TO GO MONI!

SO, here I sit two days later preparing for a dynamic 2009-2010 season which begins Spet 6th. There is a lot that needs to change: rededication to my sports, no longer being the worlds laziest endurance athlete, nutritional changes, and taking all the knowledge that i have and changing my "do as I say not as I do" mentality. I alone am my biggest asset to my training, and I alone am my biggest foe if I allow myself to be. Making peace with failure and dedication to success is what I did on Sunday on my way home from the race. Yes, that pain in my foot going into the LA Marathon was a bruised bone, now I have nursed it and the bruising and pain are gone. Yes, I managed to not lose any toenails, but that was simple luck, not preparation. Yes, a diet coke always sounds really good at mile 20 of a long run or marathon, but the toxins have been served and eviction notice and the no vacancy sign in my body has been switched on. The past is the past, right now I train for the future.

I've spent so much time in my life reflecting on what could have been and what I could have done differently in life, relationships, how I treat myself and how I have allowed others to treat me. I can't change people, I can change me. I'm not the type of person that is caught up in the drama of assuming that a person I knew years ago is the exact same person today. Well, that applies to me too. The person I was five, ten, even twenty years ago doesn't even remotely resemble the person I have become. I am a mother, a friend, a sister, a daughter, an athlete and a role model to my child. Everything else is just passing scenery. Now, it's time to refocus and take the time to live and train smarter.