No Excuses
Thursday, February 01, 2007
As months go, January and February top the list as the hardest. Nothing much happens during these months. There are no holidays to mark the time, no holiday parties to pass the longer nights. More often than not, the days are frigid and snowy. And these two months seem about as far away from the warm, scent-heavy days of spring as you can get -- both in calendar pages and mental health.
Especially in the Midwest. Especially when you're training for an Ironman.
In the last two cases, it's easy to feel down. It's easy to feel uninspired and unmotivated. It's even easier to make excuses.
Too icy to run outside. Too much to do at work. Too much to do after work -- grocery store, exercising the dog, exercising the horse, meetings upon meetings. To borrow a phrase I heard someone say lately, "Too much too much."
A skipped workout here or there won't hurt. It's the middle of the winter, after all. Your life is busy. One can only do so much.
And then you hear about someone like Dick Hoyt, and you're exposed for what you are: a whiner and a wuss.
Dick Hoyt's son Rick has had Cerebral Palsy since he was born, but that hasn't stopped either of them from completing 64 marathons, 206 triathlons (six of them Ironmans), 78 half-marathons, and a slew of other races -- 911 in all. Lest you think that isn't enough of an accomplishment, the pair also biked and ran across the country (3,735 miles) in 45 consecutive days; biked the states of Connecticut,Rhode Island, Massachusetts with "Axa World Ride '95;" and biked from Pittsburgh to Washington DC with "Axa World Ride 95 ."
The remarkable thing is not just the races. It's the training, too. All of the training hours logged for each one of those races. All of the miles Dick Hoyt runs, bikes, and swims -- not only by himself, but with his son. Pushing, pulling, and pedalling his son.
When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly-stabilized boat being pulled by his dad.
And I think my training is "much too much" at times? As Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated says, "Compared to Dick Hoyt, I suck."
Take the time to read the story and watch the short video of this amazing duo here.
Meanwhile -- despite the cold, despite having to entertain a justifiably-bored Vizsla and exercise a cooped-up horse, and despite having to figure out what to do about dinner -- I'm going to get my workout in tonight.
No more excuses.
Posted by Erin 2:08 PM