I originally posted this a little over a year ago, but as we head into the winter season I think this is a great time to take a step back and put ourselves in the best place possible to tackle the races that lay ahead.

 

 

Excuses: 

We all make them.  I’ve made plenty of them over the years.  About my school work or grades.  About my sports, training and racing…  I’ve made them about different relationships in my life, with family, friends… but I’m not really sure why.  Sometimes we use excuses to protect ourselves, but more than anything we are just selling ourselves short.  Holding ourselves back.  Why?  Why on earth would I ever want to do that?!?!

You have the training excuses…  I’m too tired, my arms hurt, my legs are sore, its too hot, its too cold, I don’t feel right, I ate too much food, my head hurts, I didn’t sleep well, my skis are slow, its raining, I’m breathing too hard, I don’t like sweat, my spandex is too tight?

You’re holding yourself back.  Intervals are supposed to be hard.  If racing is the hardest thing I do then I’m not trained well enough…

Even better are those pre-race excuses…those protect you right?  So if things don’t go so well you’ve got that excuse already in place.  I threw my arm out in that snowball fight.  The course is hard.  The conditions are slow.  I was sick two weeks ago.  My warm up didn’t feel good.  I’m not as good as these other athletes.

Why? Why? Why?  Do we want ourselves to fail?

Then when it’s all said and done we come with excuses to why you didn’t do as well as you wanted, you didn’t beat so-in-so, you didn’t live up to other’s expectations, your own expectations.  (so you can’t win them all they say…but you can sure as hell try)  They missed the wax, it was windy when I was on the range, I didn’t feel good, I went out too easy, I went out to fast, I don’t do well in long races, I’m not a sprinter, the course wasn’t built for me, its the altitude, this race didn’t matter…

Your self value, your self worth, does not correlate with where you finished on the results list….  So perhaps it’s time to stop looking for things to blame our results on and instead look for ways to make the results better.  You get to choose your outlook… so why do we love to settle on the negative?

This is what happens when I train by myself alot.  I get to thinking.  So I’m challenging myself to not make excuses.  To not settle for excuses.  Living and competing with intention and having ownership in that intention seems a whole lot more rewarding…

I do realize I promised to write you a post about our time in Utah… but in retrospect that might have been a lie?

Utah was great, the training (albeit frustrating at times) was good, the sun was appreciated and the snow was not.  I got to run in the hills, rollerski in circles, eat too much good food.  I had some of my best shooting ever.  (It’s always nice when you can surprise people by doing what you are suppose to do)

Utah was raw.  It was good and it was bad.  But I feel like I’ve moved on.

While the rest of the giggle gang hung out in Utah for another week I headed back to Lake Placid with Jonne to get in some of the coldest rollerskiing of the season… on our brand new roller loop!  HOT diggity-dog, does that not sound exciting???

Over my two week stint in Lake Placid I spent my time making more baked goods than anyone could eat, drinking an entire bottle of tasty liquid iron, and working on feeling fast while trying not to simply flail my limbs around uncontrollably.  Modest success!

Sick of rollerskiing in long-johns, mittens, and the occasional down jacket I decided it was time to find real winter.  And so the hunt for snow (man made or that natural stuff) began.  You know it is time for winter when you’ve forgotten how many layers of nonsense it actually takes to keep you warm, what snow-baskets are, and when you may or may not have found a dead mouse in your pole tube.  (Hey, my car doesn’t stink anymore….)

One direct flight  and a very generous former team mate later I arrived in Canmore with my rifle and jumbo ski bag.  I’ve been putting around for a few days, getting my feet under me, catching up on some z’s, sipping too much coffee  (that or I’m developing tremors), and logging my first k’s of the season on snow.

I’ve only been here for a few days…. but there is something about this place I’ve discovered over the past few years since I started this whacked out sport that is seemingly magical.  The kind of magical place that every time I get sick of the east and threaten to run to some where far far away… Well, that place is here.

*Photo credit goes to my team mates and their iphones. Yah cell-phone journalism!