Wednesday/Thursday: Three of my best friends flew into town for one big, obnoxious, 4th of July drink-and-eat-fest of a reunion. Late night flights paired with the obvious need to stay up and chat was a recipe for disaster when it came to my Thursday morning swim.
All I had on the schedule was an 1100yd swim, but let’s not forget it was also the 4th of July! The thoughts of sleeping in and just enjoy the day with my girls circled through my head. I mean, I was going to be drinking all day anyways, right? What’s the point of even swimming? And I don’t want to miss out on a minute of the fun – what if they wake up before I get home?!
I fought the urge, got out of bed at 5 a.m. to stumble over sleeping bodies in my apartment, jump in a very empty pool and get my workout in. As I was leaving the gym, I wasn’t thinking “man, why’d I do that? I should’ve just slept in.” I was thinking “I’m so glad I pushed through and got my training in. Every bit counts and now I can enjoy the rest of the day.” And – when I got home, did I walk into a big party I was arriving late to? Nope, everyone was still slumbering away. Didn’t miss a beat.
Friday/Saturday: These days should just be considered a wash. Best friends visiting, 4th of July and a lot of fun to be had. I know I would have regretted missing out on the fun of this weekend, so I accepted ahead of time that I would give myself these two days to enjoy. Yes, I felt a little guilty, but that just spurred the desire to reclaim my weekend on Sunday.
Sunday (scenario #1): Here’s where the real lessons came in this week. My plan was to wake up for an early open water swim practice and long bike ride on Sunday morning. Imagine my amusement when I woke up at 10:30, just four hours after I had wanted to get my day started. First thoughts that entered my mind? “Great, there goes that day. I can’t ride in the afternoon heat.” An excuse right off the bat!
After wiping the sleep away from my eyes, I thought more about it and realized “afternoon heat” means 90 degree weather. Pretty sure there haven’t been any races cancelled due to 90 degree heat. So, my next thoughts? SUCK IT UP CECILY. I ate some breakfast, got my stuff together and headed out to Boulder for a long ride.
Sunday (scenario #2): As I’m getting my bike all situated, I realized I had a flat tire that needed changing. Now, this may sound weird, but I was kind of excited about it. I haven’t had much opportunity to practice changing a tire, so I was all over this learning experience. Well, let’s just say I was all over it until an hour went by and I still didn’t have a changed tire.
Frustrated, I threw all my stuff back in the car, loaded up my bike and drove to the nearest bike shop in Boulder. Yes, I was that girl walking in with the expensive bike she doesn’t know how to take care of, asking for a lesson on how to change a tire. Luckily, they were very friendly and showed me where I went wrong (I was 99% there!)
It was close to 2 p.m. by this point and the temptation to just call it a day was so strong. Again – SUCK IT UP CECILY. I had put so much effort into salvaging this day and I wasn’t giving up here. I drove back to my starting point and got on that damn bike!
Sunday (scenario #3): I was off and riding on my bike with a plan to make two loops on the race course I have coming up next weekend. I had read that there was supposed to be a pretty monstrous hill within the first few miles of the course, so I was trying to mentally prepare for that. Unfortunately, there was no preparing. This thing was a BEAST – a 600 foot ascent in 2/3 of a mile at 15% grade. I tried powering up, but I did not have a good handle on my bike, the gears, my speed or my breathing. Then, I mentally caved. Halfway up the hill I made the mistake of stopping. Once you stop on a 15% grade hill, it’s pretty impossible (at least at my ability level) to get started again. So what did I do? I walked my bike up the rest of the hill, cursing the entire way, mentally and emotionally defeated.
When I got back on my bike I had serious thoughts of just cutting it down to one loop for today. I did not want to face that hill again. This day had been ridiculous from the get go and I just wanted to quit while I was ahead. Then, I remembered that I was going to have to face that hill again in one short week, so wouldn’t I rather face it knowing I had overcome it once? I thought about that for the next 20 (comparatively easy) miles and didn’t hesitate as I approached the starting point to loop back and start it all over again.
So, what happened five miles later when I reached that mother of a hill? DOMINATION. Yes, it was painful, but I pushed through and got to the top. After that, the rest of the ride was spent riding on the biggest high imaginable.
I reflected on the previous week as I drove home from that bike ride on Sunday evening and couldn’t help but laugh at all of the lessons in perseverance and dedication that had been thrown in my face. You will come across excuses to not do what you set out to accomplish every day. Some days they might be small temptations to get off track, while other days they may come one after the other, thrown in your face as if they’re laughing at and taunting you. Either way, giving in is a choice. I learned this weekend to start paying more attention to the reasons to do something instead of the easy excuses to cop out and go the other way. That’s really what will set apart the success stories from the “what-ifs.”