After returning a pair that look like they belong to a soccer player-turned-superhero, I think I finally found some shoes for my trip to Japan. Now I just need to figure out what to do while I'm there, since every single person in Japan--plus a few people other places who've had strong thoughts or feelings about Japan, and maybe even their dogs--will be on vacation while I'm there.
I am feeling a sense of accomplishment after changing my own bike tire for the first time. And it only took an hour... I hope I get another good 250 suburban street miles on it before the next flat.
PJ O'Rourke says, "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free." Hehe. Oh wait, it's not funny, it's scary.
After what amounted to nearly a week off ofmy training schedule, this week has been my best week of working out ever. I'm running faster and longer. Even my swimming has been better this week--less flailing and gasping for air, not to mention fewer weird looks from other people at the pool. I'm still not convinced I'll ever be ready to participate in a real triathlon (mostly because of the swimming bit. I mean, my starting point was practicing putting my face under the running water in the shower because I hate getting my face wet so much.)
Still, I'm glad every day that I'm doing this, and for totally different reasons than I expected. I've always thought sports activities were kind of mindless, but while running, biking, and swimming themselves are not particularly intellectually stimulating, I'm learning things about myself that I never would have if I weren't trying this out. The main thing I've learned is that I am not a disciplined person. I've always kind of thought that I was--I mean, it is hard to do as well in grad school as I did or play the violin as well as I did without having some discipline, right? I'm realizing that discipline for those activities didn't come at a very high price for me, though. There wasn't much pain or suffering involved that I had to get past. I didn't really have to give up much to do them, and I gained a lot from both. Even if they required some self-discipline, there are so many areas of my life that I lack discipline that there is no way on God's great earth I could characterize myself as a disciplined person. I've spent my entire life hitting the snooze button multiple times in the morning, sometimes on more than one alarm clock. I have yet to establish a daily devotional routine for myself. I can't even manage to practice often enough to play pieces for church as well as I ought to (and could), and they're easy. I've backed down from seriously pursuing some things I'm good at, telling myself I'm not competitive. I'm kind of starting to wonder whether I'm not really just a wimp.
That's the kind of excuse I've been giving myself my entire life. Take sports-type stuff.
I never had any interest in sports growing up, and when I came in last in required phys ed activities, I told myself I just wasn't an athletic person. I am learning that athletes aren't born, they're made. Okay, genes have some role in the making of an olympic-class athlete, but I am willing to bet that there are tons of run-of-the-mill amateur marathoners and triathletes who suffer from asthma and horrible allergies like I do, for example. I don't know where I got into my head that getting a stitch in my side after a few laps meant I wasn't meant to be an athletic person. Stopping because of the stitch in my side made me an unathletic person.
Even after years of going to the gym, I don't think I'd ever learned to really push myself. Now I have goals, and I've learned I can go much farther and faster than I thought I could if I just put my mind to it. It's nice to see learning some discipline has helped me get a little more fit. Maybe it will help in some other areas of my life.