I Eat Triathlons for Breakfast. Part 1.

Next weekend is a big weekend for me. It will be my first olympic distance triathlon, which is twice as long as any triathlon I've completed in my past two years of triathloning. The swim is just under a mile, the bike just under 25 miles and the run, 6 miles.

Up until now, I've felt confident about this race. I haven't been worried. I've always finished, no matter how hard or intimating a race seemed. Like my friend Katie H. said, I eat sprint triathlons for breakfast. That's not actually true, but it sounds nice.

But now I'm scared. What if I can't do it? What if I can't even finish the swim? I've got all these thoughts racing through my head: It's a long race. It's in one week. I'm not ready. People will be there watching me. My family has a hotel room and my in-laws are bringing the camper. This is an event, and it's in Austin. Austin is hilly. Isn't Lance Armstrong from Austin? I wonder if he'll be there.

Even this morning during my swim, I was motivated by fear to keep going. I'm all for getting yourself through a hard workout, but that was too stressful for me. I wan't to feel proud after a workout, not doubtful.

But then I found this post/draft that I wrote in July 2010, about halfway through our big summer sales project:

I've been worried, scared even, about a big project at work.  Lets just say that I assumed "The Project" was about one eigth complete, while at the same time last year, the same project was about half way completed. Hence the fear.  The dread! I expressed this concern to my boss, ever so calmly.  After checking the figures,we discovered that said project is, in fact, right on track.  Half way complete. "Oh," I said, "I don't know why I was so worried." My boss replied, "It's because you're operating from fear, not fact."

That's what I'm doing now. Operating from fear. My goal today is to get back on track, to stop operating from fear and start working with the facts. I'm about to give myself a giant pep talk.

Another very well said thing.

I like holes in my pants.  I like the little almost-holes that just make the jean material look somewhat lighter in one spot, or a few spots.  I do not like the big holes, the strategically placed holes that display what color underpants you're wearing or the ones that reveal parts of your body that I would rather remain covered.

That's just me. And old people.  But I think dressing nicely is a valid concept rather than just one of the many cliches we've heard over and over - "Dress the part." "Dress to impress."  "Pull up your pants!"

But because people rely on these cliches to convey their opinions, no one really seems to get the point.  Yesterday, Jerret, one of the students I work with, said it perfectly when he was talking about one of his groups that presented at a competition last year.

The other members of his group wanted to wear jeans and a polo shirt during the presentation.  They didn't want to wear suits at all.  After some deliberation, Jerret asked if anyone knew what the previous winners of the competition wore during their presentation.

They wore suits.

Jerret then asked, in all of his infinite wisdom, "So why are trying to avoid wearing what the winners wear?"

Said in a way that makes sense.