Expectations

As a reminder - I'm riding in the Palmetto Peloton Project's Stars and Stripes Challenge this memorial day to help raise money for Cancer Research and support.  If you can, I'd love it if you would help sponsor me.  The majority of the money stays in the Greenville Area locally to help with Cancer Research, the rest is donated to Amgen to help Cancer patients and survivors.  You can support me by making a donation on their website (https://secure.p3ride.org/donate/index.php?eid=1) and selecting "Brian Lube" in the drop down list of riders.


I've found it more and more difficult to blog after every workout.  It's not that I'm not going out and riding, in fact last week I managed to not only do one of my best runs ever, but I was on the bike for almost 100 miles as well!  It's more that I don't want to just post up "went for yet another 31 mile ride today" or something minor.  I feel like I need to write about more than just what I did, but how this journey is changing and how I feel.  That said, I had a fantastic run/walk last week, where Rob Dempsey from HISRadio really pushed my limits.



It was interesting, because I didn't intend to work as hard as I did there, and I really didn't expect to be running with Rob that evening at all.  I had emailed out to our Big Losers group that I was planning on doing a run/walk that evening, as I knew that I spent too much time on the bike and that the 5k was about 3 weeks away.  I got there, and Rob was just running up, and I saw a few others already out walking.  I let Rob know that the others were out on the course, and I set off to catch them.  A few minutes later Rob caught up with me, and it ended up that only two of us were really able to run that evening (a few of the others have had foot/knee issues that make them unable to run at this time).  Thus the two of us take off around the outside loop of Brookwood church.  Rob gave me some awesome advice on how to work on my pace, and he was encouraging me to push a little longer than I thought I could go.  The end result was a 1 mile lap that was faster than I've ever run, and a renewed sense of heightened expectations for myself.

Listen to my conversation with Rob and Kristen on their highlights page!


Expectations are always a weird thing to me.  Typically they are pressure that I feel from outside forces, but I am always my own worst critic.  I feel like I can do more, be faster, work harder, be stronger.  Although it seems strange, I also tend to put artificial limits on what I can do, or should be able to do for longer term goals. At this point in my journey, I see that there is nothing beyond my scope of vision that I cannot accomplish if I put my heart into it and let God determine the pace.  I may not compete in an Ironman tomorrow, but if I keep working at it I know I can.  Right now my focus is on SCTAC tomorrow night, and experiencing that level of group ride for the first time.  After that is the 5k at Eastside YMCA to cap off the end of this 12-week warm up to the rest of my life. In May is the Stars and Stripes Challenge by P3group and Amgen to help raise money for Cancer Research.  There will be new events and new challenges that I will be training for, but as long as my focus is on my journey and I let Christ be the focus and the glory, I know that all things are possible.