Hiding Excitement

I did a strength training workout last night which has exercises to improve my core strength.   Mostly abs and back stuff, but I threw in some weight training for my arms and shoulders.   I have bad shoulders; more on that some other time.

If I was talking to a buddy or my family I’d say, “I did some stupid workout that I found on the internet.”  I’d down play the situation and pretend that I’m not excited about this at all. I’d pretend that this is all a big hassle, and that I really don’t want to do any of this working out, running and training.  I’m not good with optimistic or positive. 

I had a student evaluation a couple years ago where I was called a “bitter old man before my time.”  That’s probably not far off for work.  That’s not to say that I’m no fun in my personal life.  I like to joke around and keep things light, but I do my best not to show my interest in or passion for anything.  I suppose I’m a stereotype.  I’m ¼ German, a little more than ½ Norwegian and a little less than ¼ Swedish.   My stereotype of my ancestry would be stubborn, incapable of asking for help and emotionless. 

Anyhoo, that interpersonal part of my life probably won’t change anytime soon.  However, for the purposes of this blog, I am going to try to write my thoughts as they form in my head.  I’m not going to hide any of my excitement, optimism or disappointment (I’m sure there will be many occasions for each).  Maybe someday I’ll show this to my wife or my extended family (my wife knows the race plans, not so much for the family), but that seems highly unlikely.  For now, my thoughts will be my little blog secret.  If it’s not obvious, here is secret number one:  I’m very excited to run and complete these races.  I hope that my efforts are enough so that I don’t feel embarrassed by my results. 

My goals right now are to run my 10k in less than an hour and finish the sprint triathlon in about an hour and fifty minutes (12min swim, 1 hr bike, 30 min run, 8min for transitions).  I’d like to set my goals higher and hopefully I can do better than this, but like I said, I’m not good with optimism.

80 days to the 10k, 172 days to the sprint triathlon.