Last Sunday, Matt and I were listening to Chip preach at Pinelake. This series of sermons has been related to heaven. During part of the sermon, Chip asked us to think of one word that would describe how we feel right now. He said he imagined that most people's word would be 'tired'. I will admit, at that moment, he was right. I WAS tired. I AM tired quite a bit lately----most busy month ever at work, triathlon season at its peak (which means mass emails from MS Heat members every day to answer ;), training, training, and more training, etc.
Matt looked at me during church and said, "Hmmmm.......if I had to pick one, it would be 'content'." I sat there for a moment, and I couldn't help but smile inside. What better word to describe how you feel but content? It sure made me feel good ;) I know I am not a perfect wife by any means, but being married means taking the good with the bad. He sure loves me, through my happy times, as well as my horrendous, PMS-stricken moody and devilish times!!!!
And although my word for the day might have initially been 'tired', if I had to pick a word for my life right now, it would be 'blessed'. I am totally, 100% blessed. I deserve nothing that God has given me, yet he has showered me with a wonderful, attentive husband, a beautiful family and friends, perfect health and fitness to partake in Ironman triathlons, and a wonderful job in which I can help others first-hand. I couldn't ask for more. Often, I just stop in the middle of the day and pray quietly, "thank you God. Thank you SO much for all you have given me." For I am BLESSED, indeed ;)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Mental Toughness
Mental toughness: Let's just say we finely sharpened ours this past weekend. Friday evening, they were predicting tornado-type weather for the entire weekend. We were due a long ride and run, as usual. Saturday morning, we woke up with plans to either drive to Vicksburg to get some hill work in for preparation for Canada, or ride with some friends in Madison.
Yeah. Neither one of those quite happened. Matt woke up early to check out the weather radar. It looked like it was heading straight for us, so we didn't want to chance being out on our bikes for that long period of time. We really didn't have any other plans for the weekend, so I guess no better weekend to have to stay inside.
Here's where the mental toughness comes in: 3 hours 30 minutes on the trainer, followed by a 4 mile brick run. Now, it really doesn't sound THAT bad when you put it into writing, UNLESS you regulary ride a trainer. 1 hour is doable, although not fun. 2 hours is not only not fun, but starts bordering on dreadful. It's where you hit that 3 hours and beyond point where the fun REALLY starts. (sarcastically put, of course ;) We decided to take a mini 5 minute break after each hour. That, combined with non-stop Lost episodes on Netflix made it bearable. The thing that made us want to pull our hair out, though, was the fact that when we got finished, the weather ended up turning out ok. We rode the trainers for that period of time, when we might could have ridden outside:(
Saturday, we also tracked our 4 friends from Mississippi competing in Ironman St. George. It was fun seeing them progress throughout the day!!! We got to watch them all cross the finish line live on ironman.com
Today, however, was another test for mental sharpness, I suppose. Plans were to wake up at 5:30am, hop on the bike trainer (oh,how I missed it SO much!! ;) for 1 1/2 hours, then a long run.
Newsflash once again: that didn't happen. We woke up to see it lightning outside our bedroom window, and could hear the rain pounding down on the rooftop. The bonus was at least that we got to sleep till 8am. Up we went: hopped on the bike trainer to get that over with for the day. We would miss our brick, but did what we could.
Once we got off the trainer, we could see the sun shining. Perfect!!! It's like this was some type of cruel mother-nature joke on the Cassell's !!!!! Ughhh. We couldn't miss church for a long run, that's not even a question, so we decided we would eat a big breakfast, go to church, then come straight home, throw on some running clothes, and get out the door to get that long run complete.
Hello HUMIDITY!!!! If today is any indication of how hot this summer is going to be, we are in for a rude awakening. "Mental toughness", we told ourselves. "Ironman Canada is going to be hotter than IM Florida was, so we need this." (at least we told ourselves that to tolerate the run.) It was 90 degrees with 89% humidity (which we didn't find out until AFTER our long run, once we were severely dehydrated and felt like death warmed-over ;) Never underestimate what hill intervals done on the trainer the day before a long run will do to your leg power!!
It was a LONG, mentally long, run for sure. We aren't used to this heat already, and our bodies showed it. I really don't feel like doing anything the rest of the day, except lay around. (which I most likely will do :)
In the end, though, even though this REALLY was a mentally tough weekend for us, we do realize it will make us stronger. The mental battle of this thing called Ironman really does matter. When you are out on the course for that long period of time, if you don't have mental strength up top, I don't think you'll make it. We have 4 months left to sharpen it up.
With that note, I am going to hibernate on the couch for a bit. My toughness has been sharpened for the day. :)
Yeah. Neither one of those quite happened. Matt woke up early to check out the weather radar. It looked like it was heading straight for us, so we didn't want to chance being out on our bikes for that long period of time. We really didn't have any other plans for the weekend, so I guess no better weekend to have to stay inside.
Here's where the mental toughness comes in: 3 hours 30 minutes on the trainer, followed by a 4 mile brick run. Now, it really doesn't sound THAT bad when you put it into writing, UNLESS you regulary ride a trainer. 1 hour is doable, although not fun. 2 hours is not only not fun, but starts bordering on dreadful. It's where you hit that 3 hours and beyond point where the fun REALLY starts. (sarcastically put, of course ;) We decided to take a mini 5 minute break after each hour. That, combined with non-stop Lost episodes on Netflix made it bearable. The thing that made us want to pull our hair out, though, was the fact that when we got finished, the weather ended up turning out ok. We rode the trainers for that period of time, when we might could have ridden outside:(
Saturday, we also tracked our 4 friends from Mississippi competing in Ironman St. George. It was fun seeing them progress throughout the day!!! We got to watch them all cross the finish line live on ironman.com
Today, however, was another test for mental sharpness, I suppose. Plans were to wake up at 5:30am, hop on the bike trainer (oh,how I missed it SO much!! ;) for 1 1/2 hours, then a long run.
Newsflash once again: that didn't happen. We woke up to see it lightning outside our bedroom window, and could hear the rain pounding down on the rooftop. The bonus was at least that we got to sleep till 8am. Up we went: hopped on the bike trainer to get that over with for the day. We would miss our brick, but did what we could.
Once we got off the trainer, we could see the sun shining. Perfect!!! It's like this was some type of cruel mother-nature joke on the Cassell's !!!!! Ughhh. We couldn't miss church for a long run, that's not even a question, so we decided we would eat a big breakfast, go to church, then come straight home, throw on some running clothes, and get out the door to get that long run complete.
Hello HUMIDITY!!!! If today is any indication of how hot this summer is going to be, we are in for a rude awakening. "Mental toughness", we told ourselves. "Ironman Canada is going to be hotter than IM Florida was, so we need this." (at least we told ourselves that to tolerate the run.) It was 90 degrees with 89% humidity (which we didn't find out until AFTER our long run, once we were severely dehydrated and felt like death warmed-over ;) Never underestimate what hill intervals done on the trainer the day before a long run will do to your leg power!!
It was a LONG, mentally long, run for sure. We aren't used to this heat already, and our bodies showed it. I really don't feel like doing anything the rest of the day, except lay around. (which I most likely will do :)
In the end, though, even though this REALLY was a mentally tough weekend for us, we do realize it will make us stronger. The mental battle of this thing called Ironman really does matter. When you are out on the course for that long period of time, if you don't have mental strength up top, I don't think you'll make it. We have 4 months left to sharpen it up.
With that note, I am going to hibernate on the couch for a bit. My toughness has been sharpened for the day. :)
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