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The Olympics


The last time the Olympics were taking place, I was participating in my first Olympic Distance triathlon. Since then I have had other significant athletic accomplishments. I love the Olympics and will probably spend more time watching TV than I'd like to admit, over the next several weeks. I am partial to a few sports, and there are a few sports I wish they didn't televise because I find them painfully boring, but that doesn't discredit the athleticism that goes into each sport, even the sports I don't quite understand. 

The last time the Winter Olympics were on, there were a few gems that inspired me and motivated me in my training efforts. One gem that I still think about from time to time is this quote by Apolo Ohno:

"Before every day you go to sleep, ask yourself one question; Did you do every single thing you could today to make sure that you did your best? It's hard to answer yes, every single day. I don't want to look at in terms of me outworking the other competition; I like to look at it as me conquering myself. Me being able to face my own fears and distractions and weaknesses and say that I overcame them." 

It is interesting, if you have been around me lately, you know that I have been in a bit of a funk. Nothing to get too worried about for now, but enough for me to notice. When I'm funky I get insecure, exceptionally needy, road rage filled and generally not as pleasant and care free as I like to live my life. I started pondering this funk of mine and when evaluating what I have going this year I realized that although I am super excited about all of the activities I have planned this year, I still feel something is missing. Before anyone reads what they want to read between the lines, I want to point out the following:
  • I am training for a half marathon in Canada this summer.
  • I am training for a two day one hundred and fifty mile bike ride in August.
  • I'm trying to convince my friend to bike the Smokey Mountain loop with me in Tennessee.
  • I am doing a ten miler with my sister and company in May.
  • I'm doing a triathlon relay this summer. 
Non athletically:
  • I have the most solid person I know, as a friend, and thank my lucky stars for that daily.
  • I have a job that I love and excites me most days.
  • My family rocks, including my lovely pets (all 7 of them).
  • I have shelter, transportation, food and people who love me.
So what is the problem? Why the funk? Well I really don't know especially since I just identified some awesome stuff in my life, so I'm guessing that some stuff has caught up with me that I never finished dealing with and my diet has been less than desirable over the last several weeks (that is what a broken refrigerator does to you)? I NEVER want to discredit anything, or anyone, which is why I encourage people to NOT read between the lines of this post, because I have some very special things, people and pets, but sometimes, regardless of the awesome, a funk sneaks in.

 Which leads me to an entirely bigger discussion of the difference between happiness and joy, which I will of course compare to athletic events... But I'm going to save that post for next week.

 So for now, what am I going to do to conquer this funk? I am going to sign up for a triathlon... Oh, and watch the Olympics; that will surely help. 

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