New Mantras

Well that ended quickly. I had gotten up my most recent exercise streak up to 10+ days but with family in town to visit the little man that just went out the window.

I think we've fully acclimated to having a child, at least as best as we can be. In fact, my wife actually started triathlon training too! I better watch out, I was with her during her entire labor and if she endured all that I'm sure she'll be kicking my butt in no time.

I've decided that I'm going to live by two new mantras; basically they are new phrases for me to live by. The first one, No Excuses is actually inspired by a teammate of mine. In one of his posts, Grayson gives an amazing race report describing what its like to compete for first place. The part that struck me the most though and inspired this first mantra was the following:

But many other triathletes out there felt the need to tell me why they were not on the top step today. And I could have responded informing them that I raced with a concussion, that just a few months ago I was out for six weeks with a gnarly sprained ankle. Or that my body was rejecting all fluids today and I puked all over myself multiple times in this race. Or I could tell them how I just got done with my final exams on Tuesday to finish with Dean’s List for the semester. I could tell them all my setbacks over the months and years. But that would not accomplish anything. Because its not what we face that makes us the athletes who we are, its how we respond.

Its crazy that we're considered teammates even though we might have trained together once. That's what Team Endorphin Fitness is all about. His race report and personal perspective are so inspiring I"m going to include a link to it one more time.

The second mantra I've decided to use Keep on Trucking. This has been inspired by the fact that while I'm making the personal commitment not to make anymore excuses, I've also got to keep on moving forward when things don't go my way. There were several workouts that this week where I just felt dead tired. I wanted to stick with my commitment not to make excuses but I wanted to also ensure that I did something to finish strong mentally and physically.

What about everyone else? Do you have some personal mantras that you use on a daily basis?

Past Week's Training

5/31/11 Hard bike in the morning and strength class at night
6/1/11 River swim in the evening
6/2/11 Sprint run workout in the afternoon followed by strength class