The Week of Extra

What a day! What a week! Yesterday was our transition day that Alex organized (thanks) where we swam, rode and ran. I was so nervous going into the event. My schedule was to swim 500m then ride 5 miles. That was the first set. Second was to swim 250m and then I was leading everyone in a 30 minute spin. I opted to transition into the run as well the first round because I had a little extra time. We had 30 minutes to complete. I made really good time on the ride!

Alex had estimated how long the swim would take us and as I pulled myself from the pool, I looked at the time and thought, "damn. I didn't make it." I was disappointed in myself. I wanted to come in under time. But I kept moving and threw on my bike stuff and sprinted off to the spin room. When Kathy joined us there a few minutes later, she told me that I swam an extra 50 meters. WHAT! I had actually beaten Alex's time estimate!

The second round started and I got to about 150m and lost count. I popped my head out and asked how much further. I kind of heard the response from Shannon and Alex's brother and I kept swimming. When I completed what I thought was the set and was getting out to transition to the bike, Alex's brother was laughing. It seems I did another extra 50! A victory lap.

This seemed to be the week of extras! When I swam with Kathy on Wednesday, I kept forgetting to count and I swam way more then I needed to. On Thursday, I was running on a treadmill and I was probably more then half a mile into the run when the treadmill shutdown in error. I keep the time and mileage covered with a towel so that mileage was lost to me. Hopped on another treadmill and kept running! Ugh!

There is a lesson to be learned here. I need to focus on what I am doing. On the here and now. So often I am thinking about the finish line or what's going on around me that I forget to pay attention to my own life in the moment. I need to live it and not watch it or wonder where it is going to go. Sometimes, I'll have a mechanical failure like the treadmill and have to redo things or accept a difficult pain but if I focus on what I'm doing, I am less likely to complete a victory lap that wasn't much of a victory.