Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

It’s getting to be crunch time in my training for athletic (I use that term very loosely) events coming up this year. In a couple of weeks, it’s an ADA Tour de Cure 55 mile bike ride. A month later, a sprint triathlon, and about three weeks after that, a 5K run.

As expected, I’m finding the training more difficult this year. Partly, that’s because I’m another year older. Partly, it’s because I haven’t had to train this hard at this time of year for a few years. And partly, it’s because I’ve been sick off and on over the last 5 months or so, making a regular training schedule a pipe dream. Oh, and let’s not forget a much colder than usual Spring this year, making outdoor workouts harder to accomplish.

None of this is an excuse, of course. Ordinarily, I’d be very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to turn in stellar times or rise to the challenge when these events happen. Ordinarily, I’d still be planning out my strategy for turning in the best times or finishing as high on the board as possible.

But I think I may have reached a point in my life where just competing, and just finishing these events mean more to me than winning (which I never did anyway), or turning in personal records.

When I ride in a couple of weeks, I want to enjoy the scenery a little while I’m pedaling down the road. I don’t have an all-consuming desire to hang with the leaders as long as I can (usually only about 10 miles) before slipping off and working at my own tough but slower pace. I still want to get the distance in, and I do not want to finish last… that part of my competitive steak is still intact.

But I really want to relish my participation in these events while I’m still in decent enough shape to enjoy them.

Let somebody else burn up the road. This time, I’m happy being the slow and steady tortoise.