Tradeoffs

I'm pooped.  Went back to work today (tomorrow on both campuses).  Back to working 6-7 days a week.  Oh boy!

Here's the official week-in-song-lyrics song for 1/1/12.  They remind me of my New Year's Eve.

Let's get it on
Yeah, ya'all can come along
Everybody, drinks on me
Bought out the bar
Just to feel like I'm a star
Now I'm thankin' the academy
Missed my ride home, lost my iPhone
I wouldn't have it any other way
If you're with me, let me hear you say
I like it like that

-Hot Chelle Rae, I Like it Like That


This morning was a comedy of errors.  Florida is having a rare cold snap (lows in the 30s for the first time all winter), but I didn't want to let that stop me.  I decided to grow a giant pair of marbles and go for my coldest bike ride yet - high 30s.  Usually I'll ride into the mid-40s but once the low 40s to high 30s show up, I'm out.  But today I sucked it up, layered it up, and headed out.

I ended up at the wrong place for a group ride, a few minutes late.  I missed the group I was supposed to ride with, but they were a new group.  (I'm trying to ride with new groups to get stronger.)  Since it was a new group about 13 miles from home, I didn't know the route, crap blew in my eyes all morning, and I had to come back to shed a layer because I got too hot.  My frozen toes were pretty painful, but otherwise the only crappy parts of the ride were getting crap in my eyes and riding alone in the crazy wind.

Wind is no fun when you're in a group, but it's even less fun when you're alone.   Add to this the fact that I didn't know the route of the ride and I was toast.  And THEN the icing on the cake: on the way home there was a traffic jam.

Sitting in the jam, I got to thinking about how nice it is to not have to drive this far for workouts anymore.  I used to belong to random gyms that were almost a half hour from home, so I had to spend a chunk of time driving to and from workouts.  Needless to say, living close to where I work out has made a huge difference - I'm a lot less likely to miss or skip workouts because of it.  My training stays on track.

I often complain about my limited pool schedule - I work out at the local high school pool, and they are only open during hours when the swim team isn't using it.  But I realized that it's a tradeoff - I could have access to a pool 7 days a week for 16 hours a day, but have to drive 12 miles out of my way each way to get there.  Or I could have limited access to the pool but be able to run or ride there if I need or want.

In life, as with training, there are often tradeoffs.  It's up to us to decide what it is worth exchanging for something that may benefit us more.  Right now I am going through a period where I have to decide whether to make some tradeoffs.  Realizing that there are always other options made me feel hopeful.

Only 2 more applications left. The apps are due in 2 weeks, but I've been saving up the money so I can submit them 2 weeks early to make sure I don't miss the deadlines or have any problems. One of them gave me a heart attack this week - the system didn't tell me how to pay for it and the campus was closed until 2 days after the deadline.  Then the waiting begins until February.

In the meantime, I'll be braving this lovely freeze we are having.   After a little rest.