OH my god! How embarasing! I completely spaced the fact that I have a blog... Was I supposed to be typing something about my life onto this website on some sort of regular basis? I had no idea.
Well, a hell of a lot has changed since I last wrote. I'm sure my loyal fans are writhing in agony from the acute pains of motivational fuel withdrawel. Or...maybe not. Either way, I'm back.
So...without further adeu: I am an Ironman. As of last night at 917pm I crossed the line of the Grand Columbian Iron distance triathlon. 2.4 mile of swimming, 118 mile of biking (that's right, the bike was extra long) and at least 26.2 miles of running...and you can bet your ass I'll be getting the tattoo.
I'll write more about the Ironman another night, but for now that's the news. My best buddy Chris Rodes also finished, and we are both very proud of the epic accomplishment.
I now manage Performance Bicycle. I began training four weeks ago in Sacramento, CA. From there I went to Hawaii for a week for our friends' wedding, and when I got back I took over my new store. And what a night mare. I mean seriously, the first week and a half of work there was as difficult as anyone can imagine. One day(s) I worked 31 hours straight, no sleep, no breaks, just trying to get the store up to speed. And this right before my first Ironman (not smart!).
But everything is working out, we just need to sell a couple of our houses and maybe get me a cheaper car and things will be awesome. I'm tired of stressing over money, that's not what life's about. You should never have more posessions/debt than you can easily cover with a reasonable income, that's my new belief. You can ruin a perfectly wonderful life by taking on too much debt and responsibility.
Relax, sit back and enjoy. This is your life, and you only get one.
Mike
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Friday, August 3, 2007
Some Irish quotes - Enjoy!
"The Irish don't know what they want and are prepared to fight to the death to get it” - Sidney Littlewood
“Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter.Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes... That's the Irish for you!” (boy does that sum me up!)
“Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat” - Alex Levin
“Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste.” (Hah! I love it!)
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
G.B. Shaw
"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."
Jonathan Swift
For your sweet sake, I will ignore
Every girl who takes my eye,
if it's possible, I implore
You do the same for me. (Oh God, I love it!)
It's a good thing to be able to take up your money in your hand and to think no more of it when it slips away from you than you would of a trout that would slip back into the stream.
Lady Augusta Gregory
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.C.S. Lewis
Father O'Malley was going through the post one day. Drawing a single sheet of paper from an envelope, he found written on it just one word: "FOOL." The next Sunday at Mass, he announced, "I have known many people who have written letters and forgot to sign their names. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and forgot to write a letter."
We can't win at home, we can't win away. As general manager, I just can't figure out where else to play.
Jock Brown - Celtic General Manager.
“Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter.Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes... That's the Irish for you!” (boy does that sum me up!)
“Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat” - Alex Levin
“Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste.” (Hah! I love it!)
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
G.B. Shaw
"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."
Jonathan Swift
For your sweet sake, I will ignore
Every girl who takes my eye,
if it's possible, I implore
You do the same for me. (Oh God, I love it!)
It's a good thing to be able to take up your money in your hand and to think no more of it when it slips away from you than you would of a trout that would slip back into the stream.
Lady Augusta Gregory
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.C.S. Lewis
Father O'Malley was going through the post one day. Drawing a single sheet of paper from an envelope, he found written on it just one word: "FOOL." The next Sunday at Mass, he announced, "I have known many people who have written letters and forgot to sign their names. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and forgot to write a letter."
We can't win at home, we can't win away. As general manager, I just can't figure out where else to play.
Jock Brown - Celtic General Manager.
Mile 16
It's been a while since I've posted, been incredibly busy, and a lot has happened. Here's the short version:
Raced Vineman 70.3 and drank lots of wine (more later)
Raced...errr...completed Escape from Federal Way (though, interesting enough, I can't figure out what we ever escaped from - except in my case, perhaps I escaped having a good finish time) (more later)
Made good progress on Bonney Lake build...woo hoo
Been on several interviews for management positions...all good (more later)
Have 3 properties for rent...teeth are chattering
swam 1 and a half hours straight with Rodey
But it was today that I ran 20 miles, well almost 20. And it was at mile 16 that a profound realization struck (it happens more often than not with me).
It was at mile 16, with fatigue cutting up from my legs, through my stomach to grasp my heart and squeeze what little passion I had left for pushing myself out of it - it was at mile 16, with a thirst I've rarely felt wrenching my insides and leaving a chalky feel in my mouth - it was at mile 16, with a desire to stop and walk, or stop all together swelling up inside of me like a title wave, daring me to keep going and begging me to stop - it was at mile 16 that I realized - mile 16 is where the real training happens.
And so it was, that while fatigue was taking hold of, and breaking my spirit, and my very foundation was crumbling beneath me, that I reached just a little bit deeper and willed my legs to keep moving.
And that's really the point isn't it? In life, just as in racing, we are faced with incredible difficulty, overwhelming fatigue, an incredible desire to just stop pushing and walk a little; it's at mile 16 that we learn what we're made of. It's at mile 16, when we come face to face with our own limits, our own weakness, and the deepest, truest forms of our real emotions that we learn who we truly are at this moment, perhaps glimpse what we know we can be, and make the decision to accept one or pursue the other.
And that's just mile 16.
VINEMAN...BABEEEEEY!
Well, if there is anything to be said for my half-ironman race at the Vineman in Sonoma County, it would probably be this: There is a lot of delicious wine in Sonoma County.
Other highlights would probably include these:
Swimming in a relatively narrow river makes for an excellent time siting. No troubles there, my friend. Are you next to the bank, or at least looking at it and it's at the right angle? Well you're good to go then. It was a 42 minute swim for me, which is fine, not great, but I will get there.
The Pro athletes are...amazing. And what a cool experience to see them in person. Michellie Jones was there! Craig Alexander was there! Chris Lieto, Luke Bell, Samantha Mglone, I mean commmmeee on! It was very cool. They swim like a bunch of piranhas, just absolutely attacking the water, totally amazing.
You should have a spare tire or fix it junk for your tubular racing tires. That's right...that would be me that did not have any way to fix my tire. Which leads me to...
Racing 30 miles of a half ironman bike course on a flat tire sucks. I mean suuuuuuccckks. But, here is the cool part; my attitude was amazing, and my taper was superb, because I still completed the entire race in just 5:56, which is only about 50 minutes slower than a good time for me. I mean, I was really pushing on the bike, and I took a lot of risks, almost crashing many times when my flat front tire would slide out from under the bike...scary.
Running 13 miles in 93 degree plus heat, after biking on a flat tire, is very hard. It took me 2 hours. Not too good, and the run course you ask? Oh, just as miserably hilly as the bike course. Such a hard race!!!
Next up? The 'escape' from alcatraz olympic race... 6 days after killing myself in the Vineman...annnnnd...with no rest days between, because we drove home from the Vineman the same day (though it took over a day to get home), and then I began doing physical labor on the bonney lake house. So I was toasted, completely.
Here's the craziest part about this race, besides my being wasted and going very slowly; in the swim, only about 50 yards into it, I accidently hit some guys shoulder trying to pursue Rodey (by the way, it was a mass start through a 10 foot wide start chute, complete, utter chaos, people climbling all over each other, literally). So this guy, this lunatic, reaches over to me, grabs my wetsuit at the shoulder and rips it completely off. ANd I said, what the hell dude? And he says, get this, "you pulled on me first". Can you believe that? What a maniac!
If anyone reading this does triathlons, or is about to do your first, read this: If anyone punches, kicks, pulls, grabs, squeezes, climbs over, crawls under, or indian burns you - it is unintentional and not a reason to be upset, and especially, not a reason to conciously, physically retaliate against said person. If you do that, you are an idiot and should not be racing in a triathlon.
That being said, the race was well organized, very tough, even if I hadn't been completely worn out and pissed off about swimming my entire 1500 yards with my wetsuit completely unzipped. By the way, the swim took me about as long as my 1.2 mile half ironman swim the week before!
Well, I'm about spent with typing. Job wise? Well, I've had some incredible interviews, and I'm just waiting to hear back from some people to see what they are willing to offer me pay/benefits wise, and I have a couple of second interviews scheduled. The most exciting opportunity at this point is a second interview with a DM from Performance Bike. If that goes well, they will likely offer me the position managing the Tacoma location, and that would be very cool - I've wanted to manage a bike store for a while, it's the perfect fit for me, to be around cycling all of the time and be able to get other people excited about it when they come it. We'll see though, I'm only at the second interview with them
Have a great day/night/week or whatever, and stay positive, life is only as good as you make it and allow it to be. Remember, you're alive now and that won't always be the case, enjoy it while it lasts and don't sweat the petty stuff (or pet the sweaty stuff as my old friend micah would always say)!
Mike
Raced Vineman 70.3 and drank lots of wine (more later)
Raced...errr...completed Escape from Federal Way (though, interesting enough, I can't figure out what we ever escaped from - except in my case, perhaps I escaped having a good finish time) (more later)
Made good progress on Bonney Lake build...woo hoo
Been on several interviews for management positions...all good (more later)
Have 3 properties for rent...teeth are chattering
swam 1 and a half hours straight with Rodey
But it was today that I ran 20 miles, well almost 20. And it was at mile 16 that a profound realization struck (it happens more often than not with me).
It was at mile 16, with fatigue cutting up from my legs, through my stomach to grasp my heart and squeeze what little passion I had left for pushing myself out of it - it was at mile 16, with a thirst I've rarely felt wrenching my insides and leaving a chalky feel in my mouth - it was at mile 16, with a desire to stop and walk, or stop all together swelling up inside of me like a title wave, daring me to keep going and begging me to stop - it was at mile 16 that I realized - mile 16 is where the real training happens.
And so it was, that while fatigue was taking hold of, and breaking my spirit, and my very foundation was crumbling beneath me, that I reached just a little bit deeper and willed my legs to keep moving.
And that's really the point isn't it? In life, just as in racing, we are faced with incredible difficulty, overwhelming fatigue, an incredible desire to just stop pushing and walk a little; it's at mile 16 that we learn what we're made of. It's at mile 16, when we come face to face with our own limits, our own weakness, and the deepest, truest forms of our real emotions that we learn who we truly are at this moment, perhaps glimpse what we know we can be, and make the decision to accept one or pursue the other.
And that's just mile 16.
VINEMAN...BABEEEEEY!
Well, if there is anything to be said for my half-ironman race at the Vineman in Sonoma County, it would probably be this: There is a lot of delicious wine in Sonoma County.
Other highlights would probably include these:
Swimming in a relatively narrow river makes for an excellent time siting. No troubles there, my friend. Are you next to the bank, or at least looking at it and it's at the right angle? Well you're good to go then. It was a 42 minute swim for me, which is fine, not great, but I will get there.
The Pro athletes are...amazing. And what a cool experience to see them in person. Michellie Jones was there! Craig Alexander was there! Chris Lieto, Luke Bell, Samantha Mglone, I mean commmmeee on! It was very cool. They swim like a bunch of piranhas, just absolutely attacking the water, totally amazing.
You should have a spare tire or fix it junk for your tubular racing tires. That's right...that would be me that did not have any way to fix my tire. Which leads me to...
Racing 30 miles of a half ironman bike course on a flat tire sucks. I mean suuuuuuccckks. But, here is the cool part; my attitude was amazing, and my taper was superb, because I still completed the entire race in just 5:56, which is only about 50 minutes slower than a good time for me. I mean, I was really pushing on the bike, and I took a lot of risks, almost crashing many times when my flat front tire would slide out from under the bike...scary.
Running 13 miles in 93 degree plus heat, after biking on a flat tire, is very hard. It took me 2 hours. Not too good, and the run course you ask? Oh, just as miserably hilly as the bike course. Such a hard race!!!
Next up? The 'escape' from alcatraz olympic race... 6 days after killing myself in the Vineman...annnnnd...with no rest days between, because we drove home from the Vineman the same day (though it took over a day to get home), and then I began doing physical labor on the bonney lake house. So I was toasted, completely.
Here's the craziest part about this race, besides my being wasted and going very slowly; in the swim, only about 50 yards into it, I accidently hit some guys shoulder trying to pursue Rodey (by the way, it was a mass start through a 10 foot wide start chute, complete, utter chaos, people climbling all over each other, literally). So this guy, this lunatic, reaches over to me, grabs my wetsuit at the shoulder and rips it completely off. ANd I said, what the hell dude? And he says, get this, "you pulled on me first". Can you believe that? What a maniac!
If anyone reading this does triathlons, or is about to do your first, read this: If anyone punches, kicks, pulls, grabs, squeezes, climbs over, crawls under, or indian burns you - it is unintentional and not a reason to be upset, and especially, not a reason to conciously, physically retaliate against said person. If you do that, you are an idiot and should not be racing in a triathlon.
That being said, the race was well organized, very tough, even if I hadn't been completely worn out and pissed off about swimming my entire 1500 yards with my wetsuit completely unzipped. By the way, the swim took me about as long as my 1.2 mile half ironman swim the week before!
Well, I'm about spent with typing. Job wise? Well, I've had some incredible interviews, and I'm just waiting to hear back from some people to see what they are willing to offer me pay/benefits wise, and I have a couple of second interviews scheduled. The most exciting opportunity at this point is a second interview with a DM from Performance Bike. If that goes well, they will likely offer me the position managing the Tacoma location, and that would be very cool - I've wanted to manage a bike store for a while, it's the perfect fit for me, to be around cycling all of the time and be able to get other people excited about it when they come it. We'll see though, I'm only at the second interview with them
Have a great day/night/week or whatever, and stay positive, life is only as good as you make it and allow it to be. Remember, you're alive now and that won't always be the case, enjoy it while it lasts and don't sweat the petty stuff (or pet the sweaty stuff as my old friend micah would always say)!
Mike
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Quote (s) of the day
Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history. ~Joan Wallach Scott
Change your thoughts and you change your world. - Norman Vincent Peale
In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
- Author unknown
Change your thoughts and you change your world. - Norman Vincent Peale
In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
- Author unknown
The Grand Columbian Ironman...Baby
Yes, that's right, Ironman my friend...In just two short months.
Let me repeat that...two..short..months.
Chris and I have decided that we don't want to wait until June of next year to take on the mother of all races, we need the pain now.
My plan you ask? Well, yes, it's true that I can not, as of this moment, swim 2.4 miles. And yes, it's true that my marathon in May almost killed me and that was without swimming or biking. Yes, it's true, I haven't ridden 112 miles since I rode the STP last year.
So my plan? I'm going to train like mad for the next two months. Well, I guess I can't train this week, I'm sick after all (damnation!), and I guess next week really won't work since I have my big Vineman, Half-Ironman triathlon next weekend. And I guess that really puts a damper on the week after that, sooooooo... I'm going to train like hell for five weeks!
Well...I guess, really, if you think about it, I probably need a good two week taper or more before the race, so I'm feeling really good.
Oh no.
I have three weeks of training.
Oh my god.
Ok, so....plan? I'm going to do a 2 hour swim and a 112 mile ride followed by 10 miles of running once per week for the those three weeks, that should do it (who am I kidding?). If that doesn't do it, well, I suppose we'll find out on September 15th.
Who needs all those miles of training anyway? A real Ironman doesn't train, he just saddles up and faces down the demons. Or something like that.
In other news (seriously, news?...I'm not totally sure, but I'm relatively positive noone reads this, and even if someone did, are they really curious about news in my life...probably not), My ball and chain, my long time foe, the bonney lake house, which I have been 'building' for 2 years is almost complete. Haaaalllleeeluyah, Haleluyah, Hallllleeeluyaaaaaaa. Probably two more months and it will be totally finished.
I've spent many hours in the last week cleaning up debris from around the house, sweeping up the inside, and caulking the outside (I'll refrain from any caulk jokes at this time - this is a family show).
Though I have one final hurdle to overcome, that of the infiltration trench, once that is done, I'm home free. My credit and income are good enough to get a good loan, so I'm going to refinance it and rent it out, woohooo! We might, just maybe even make some money on it!
Next...I'm getting a job. I think a woman just screamed outside, or maybe it was on the tv, I don't think it was in my head, right??
Seriously though, it will be a relief to have a job again, even satisfying, which I never thought I would feel that way. Funny how things change. I may begin working for a large builder, Jerry Mayhan as a site manager, or I may get a management job at some sort of retail store, not sure yet.
WE shall see what God brings. It's in his hands. I have seriously turned it over, I can no more control that then I can the weather. I finally understand that. All I can do is put in the effort and let the chips fall where they may. But I won't get all spiritual or philosophical on you,
Mike
Let me repeat that...two..short..months.
Chris and I have decided that we don't want to wait until June of next year to take on the mother of all races, we need the pain now.
My plan you ask? Well, yes, it's true that I can not, as of this moment, swim 2.4 miles. And yes, it's true that my marathon in May almost killed me and that was without swimming or biking. Yes, it's true, I haven't ridden 112 miles since I rode the STP last year.
So my plan? I'm going to train like mad for the next two months. Well, I guess I can't train this week, I'm sick after all (damnation!), and I guess next week really won't work since I have my big Vineman, Half-Ironman triathlon next weekend. And I guess that really puts a damper on the week after that, sooooooo... I'm going to train like hell for five weeks!
Well...I guess, really, if you think about it, I probably need a good two week taper or more before the race, so I'm feeling really good.
Oh no.
I have three weeks of training.
Oh my god.
Ok, so....plan? I'm going to do a 2 hour swim and a 112 mile ride followed by 10 miles of running once per week for the those three weeks, that should do it (who am I kidding?). If that doesn't do it, well, I suppose we'll find out on September 15th.
Who needs all those miles of training anyway? A real Ironman doesn't train, he just saddles up and faces down the demons. Or something like that.
In other news (seriously, news?...I'm not totally sure, but I'm relatively positive noone reads this, and even if someone did, are they really curious about news in my life...probably not), My ball and chain, my long time foe, the bonney lake house, which I have been 'building' for 2 years is almost complete. Haaaalllleeeluyah, Haleluyah, Hallllleeeluyaaaaaaa. Probably two more months and it will be totally finished.
I've spent many hours in the last week cleaning up debris from around the house, sweeping up the inside, and caulking the outside (I'll refrain from any caulk jokes at this time - this is a family show).
Though I have one final hurdle to overcome, that of the infiltration trench, once that is done, I'm home free. My credit and income are good enough to get a good loan, so I'm going to refinance it and rent it out, woohooo! We might, just maybe even make some money on it!
Next...I'm getting a job. I think a woman just screamed outside, or maybe it was on the tv, I don't think it was in my head, right??
Seriously though, it will be a relief to have a job again, even satisfying, which I never thought I would feel that way. Funny how things change. I may begin working for a large builder, Jerry Mayhan as a site manager, or I may get a management job at some sort of retail store, not sure yet.
WE shall see what God brings. It's in his hands. I have seriously turned it over, I can no more control that then I can the weather. I finally understand that. All I can do is put in the effort and let the chips fall where they may. But I won't get all spiritual or philosophical on you,
Mike
Monday, July 2, 2007
Quote of the Day
The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Robert Cushing
Robert Cushing
Free haircuts vs 20 dollar haircuts
My wife cuts my hair. She has been for close to three years, and though she still takes a very long time to do it, seriously, sometimes it's almost maddening how slow parts of the process can be - carefully moving the clippers over a portion of my head several times without the clippers actually making any cutting noise - they turn out very well.
I'm always happy with my hair when she's done, which is pretty amazing considering the track record of professional hairistas (really, what do you want, barber?), probably 3 out of 10 haircuts I get at a hairmasters or supercuts or whatever turn out well. It's pretty abismal.
So, a couple of days ago, my hair looking pretty shaggy, I ask my wife to schedule my personal stylist for a hair appointment. She was tired, too busy and I guess feeling a little overwhelmed and insisted I go to a barber. Reluctantly, I consented.....
'There you go, you're all done...are we good?' the allegedly trained stylist inquired.
'uhhhh, yep. Guess it looks fine' Was my usual response...How the hell should I know? Let me go home, shower and have a look at it, then I'll get back to you. So I paid my twenty dollars, and went home to shower.
It was not fine. How does someone call themself a professional and cut a head of hair like she cut mine, look at it, think it looks fine, and release me back into the wild, tagged for tracking by my rediculous bowl cut?
She should have her license revoked (do they have a licensing system? if not, they should form a hair-bar association of some kind for the exclusive purpose of disbanding stylists of this kind).
There should be some kind of organization which stations highly-trained analysts outside of hair cutting places to view the customers as they leave, and judge whether or not they are being given a disservice. It wouldn't be hard right? They would have to ignore whether or not someone was attractive, just focus on their hair cut, and ask a simple question, 'does your hair normally look good? Or are you a lunatic who prefers bowl cuts?'
Luckily, my wife was able to repair the damage and safely reintegrate me back into the population, but not immediately. I walked around for two days with my goofy hair, I even held an open house, talking with potential clients about buying and selling, all the while just wondering what they were thinking about my hair.
I suppose it wasn't quite as bad as my wife and I thought, otherwise I probalby would have noticed before I left the hair cutting place, but it was pretty bad. Needless to say, Audrey has agreed to never again force me to throw away 20 dollars on a bad hair cut, so all's well that something something...
....Oh sorry, I was looking in the mirror, damn I look good. OK, just kidding, but it really makes a big difference.
Ahhhhh, anyway, I got up Sunday morning at 430 am and went on a 70 mile ride followed by a 6 mile run. Very proud. Usually I just do my workouts later in the day because I'm able to, or I just don't do them. Working out in the early morning is brutal. I drank a cup of coffee, and then headed off, up highway 410 to Mt Rainier. I couldn't eat anything, I never can right after I have coffee for some reason, so it was a hungry day. I took three baker's breakfast cookies with me, which was a good thing.
What a tough ride! Starts out with 410 up to bonney lake which is pretty tough, but then it just keeps going up, especially after Buckley, up up and away to the mountain. For only 70 miles it took a very long time for the ride, I think it was four hours, but I'm definately doing that ride again in a week, great way to build strength, especially at the very end, climbing up Janelle Estates to my neighborhood, it's a beast of a hill and at the end of a ride it will all but kill you. I've named it three-hanky hill, after Bob Babbit's naming of a hill in Kona. It makes me want to cry every time.
The day before my tough ride I swam for an hour at the lake, and I'm planning on doing between 1 and 2 hours at the lake tomorrow, I REALLY want to do well in my half ironman in California in two and a half weeks.
This coming weekend, my family is going to Ocean Shores with The Rhodies (Chris' family) for the Ocean Shores triathlon, and my wife is going to run the half-marathon. The Olympic tri has a 1500 meter swim, 400 meters shorter than a half-ironman swim, and my plan is to go absolutely, no holding back, all out on the swim. If I blow up, I blow up, but I want 2 things: I want to know how long I can really hang, and I want to get a really strong training swim in before the half.
When I swim tomorrow, my plan is to go out as hard as I possibly can for the first lap around the lake, then dial it back/try to hang on for a couple more laps. Each lap normally takes 27 minutes, so I'll judge how I do going all out on if it's quicker than that - it better be!
I'll leave you with one final thought: The secret to obtaining lasting happiness in your life is this; maintain, under all circumstances, an absolute, unwavering confidence in yourself and in this life! Absolutely never, under any circumstances give in to the doubt and discouragement that will try at every turn to pull you down. If you can master just this one aspect of life, and I mean absolutely master it, your key to unending happiness will be yours.
It's a quote from my book, and it rings true for me on an almost daily basis. Doubt is a killer, a thief of beauty, happiness and success. Blocking doubt, being almost absurdly confident, is an amazingly difficult thing, but if you can do it, you can do anything.
I'm always happy with my hair when she's done, which is pretty amazing considering the track record of professional hairistas (really, what do you want, barber?), probably 3 out of 10 haircuts I get at a hairmasters or supercuts or whatever turn out well. It's pretty abismal.
So, a couple of days ago, my hair looking pretty shaggy, I ask my wife to schedule my personal stylist for a hair appointment. She was tired, too busy and I guess feeling a little overwhelmed and insisted I go to a barber. Reluctantly, I consented.....
'There you go, you're all done...are we good?' the allegedly trained stylist inquired.
'uhhhh, yep. Guess it looks fine' Was my usual response...How the hell should I know? Let me go home, shower and have a look at it, then I'll get back to you. So I paid my twenty dollars, and went home to shower.
It was not fine. How does someone call themself a professional and cut a head of hair like she cut mine, look at it, think it looks fine, and release me back into the wild, tagged for tracking by my rediculous bowl cut?
She should have her license revoked (do they have a licensing system? if not, they should form a hair-bar association of some kind for the exclusive purpose of disbanding stylists of this kind).
There should be some kind of organization which stations highly-trained analysts outside of hair cutting places to view the customers as they leave, and judge whether or not they are being given a disservice. It wouldn't be hard right? They would have to ignore whether or not someone was attractive, just focus on their hair cut, and ask a simple question, 'does your hair normally look good? Or are you a lunatic who prefers bowl cuts?'
Luckily, my wife was able to repair the damage and safely reintegrate me back into the population, but not immediately. I walked around for two days with my goofy hair, I even held an open house, talking with potential clients about buying and selling, all the while just wondering what they were thinking about my hair.
I suppose it wasn't quite as bad as my wife and I thought, otherwise I probalby would have noticed before I left the hair cutting place, but it was pretty bad. Needless to say, Audrey has agreed to never again force me to throw away 20 dollars on a bad hair cut, so all's well that something something...
....Oh sorry, I was looking in the mirror, damn I look good. OK, just kidding, but it really makes a big difference.
Ahhhhh, anyway, I got up Sunday morning at 430 am and went on a 70 mile ride followed by a 6 mile run. Very proud. Usually I just do my workouts later in the day because I'm able to, or I just don't do them. Working out in the early morning is brutal. I drank a cup of coffee, and then headed off, up highway 410 to Mt Rainier. I couldn't eat anything, I never can right after I have coffee for some reason, so it was a hungry day. I took three baker's breakfast cookies with me, which was a good thing.
What a tough ride! Starts out with 410 up to bonney lake which is pretty tough, but then it just keeps going up, especially after Buckley, up up and away to the mountain. For only 70 miles it took a very long time for the ride, I think it was four hours, but I'm definately doing that ride again in a week, great way to build strength, especially at the very end, climbing up Janelle Estates to my neighborhood, it's a beast of a hill and at the end of a ride it will all but kill you. I've named it three-hanky hill, after Bob Babbit's naming of a hill in Kona. It makes me want to cry every time.
The day before my tough ride I swam for an hour at the lake, and I'm planning on doing between 1 and 2 hours at the lake tomorrow, I REALLY want to do well in my half ironman in California in two and a half weeks.
This coming weekend, my family is going to Ocean Shores with The Rhodies (Chris' family) for the Ocean Shores triathlon, and my wife is going to run the half-marathon. The Olympic tri has a 1500 meter swim, 400 meters shorter than a half-ironman swim, and my plan is to go absolutely, no holding back, all out on the swim. If I blow up, I blow up, but I want 2 things: I want to know how long I can really hang, and I want to get a really strong training swim in before the half.
When I swim tomorrow, my plan is to go out as hard as I possibly can for the first lap around the lake, then dial it back/try to hang on for a couple more laps. Each lap normally takes 27 minutes, so I'll judge how I do going all out on if it's quicker than that - it better be!
I'll leave you with one final thought: The secret to obtaining lasting happiness in your life is this; maintain, under all circumstances, an absolute, unwavering confidence in yourself and in this life! Absolutely never, under any circumstances give in to the doubt and discouragement that will try at every turn to pull you down. If you can master just this one aspect of life, and I mean absolutely master it, your key to unending happiness will be yours.
It's a quote from my book, and it rings true for me on an almost daily basis. Doubt is a killer, a thief of beauty, happiness and success. Blocking doubt, being almost absurdly confident, is an amazingly difficult thing, but if you can do it, you can do anything.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
