“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.”
Ernest Hemingway
“If life gives you colors, paint your world”
Another flashmob rocked Facebook these days: “Positivity Challenge” – people post 3 things they found positive at a given day. A friend and an author of the blog buildingblockblog.blogspot.com shared 3 positive things of her day, asked for 3 things I found positive.
My ideas of the day were:
1). 6+ months of IM training exposed more of LIFE for me then years of no training or just marathon level / half-iron training later on. The daily demand to balance of work, social and personal life and training is all times high these days, and I love this load. It makes me cherish every second, be mindful and present, and tuned and optimize my activities all the time!
2) people. Met some awesome people through the triathlon training. I can keep on going forever on this one: it’s the main point, actually. The kind of people I met through IM training for now – I would have never get to know there are such people and that there are so many of them, Incredible, talented, hardworking type A-s from all sorts of walks of life
(please see the list of blogs by ironman athletes below)
3) nature: all the nature elements – water at swim; air on bike; earth on run , experiencing nature every single time I am out there training.
Trail running at waterfalls – water, air, earth…
All combined, this weekend I’ve experienced life, I’ve shared it with people, I was out there in nature – again.
I went to Chattanooga again. Like I did the last weekend: up at 4 am, 1,5 hrs drive, off to 2 loops 105 miles bike ride at 6:30 am. Just this time it was not about courage . It was about the positivity. I nurtured it, noticed it, remembered it.
A day before I was challenged to gather all the positivity I’ve got to balance a series of discouraging comments from an acquaintance related to my sports activities. I’ve got so used to all the hundreds of people encouraging each other at the IronmanChattanooga Facebook page , I forgot how to deal with naysayers.
And here’s the mechanism I realized while “talking to people in my head” at the long training hours: a seed of negativity, or a seed of positivity – both will grow. Which one to feed – that’s a personal choice.
A good old story, a Cherokee legend:
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy
It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies,
false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love,
hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion, and faith
The same fight is going on inside you –
and inside every other person, too
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then
asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
– “It’s pointless, you are not getting any better. What for are you doing this for – just to show off later on in social media” – at mile 65 this is not what you want to hear, but there it was, the words of my aquontance got stuck in my mind.
I haven’t heared from a friend of mine in hospital for couple of days
I had personal stuff to sort out
vs
– “Love your passion for sport, it’s contagious!” – said another voice of a triathlete friend, a lady older then me doing Ironman training over again, I admire that! ,
– “It’s going to be a beautiful weekend!” – said a voice of Shawna’s post I saw this morning.
– “Pedal-pedal” – said a voice of a friend, who introduced me to group rides on serpentine Atlanta roads. Chattanooga’s “rolling hills” are flats in comparison to Atlanta group ride routes.
– “I’m a delicate feminine flower”! – another triathlete made me smile by this funny picture a day ago.
It was my choice -which voice to follow through the next 10 miles. After that the negative side didn’t matter anymore. I was over the hump. I could complete the distance. So I did – with a perfect time for the 95 degrees heat, just few min more then my PR on the course.
IMCHOO course got a decoration today
I stopped for a min to take a pic of the same sign. The owner of the place was around, I asked her if she was the one who put the sign on. She said she didn’t, but some guy came up and asked her if it would be ok to set the sigh, she said she didn’t mind. Told her many thanks for that. She was aware of some competition, but without caring for details. Thanked her, said it felt nice to see the sign…
Kept rolling…
I’ve noticed a dry yellow leaf slowly gliding falling from a tree.
I breathed in the fragrance of water, passing by small creek.
… a snake crossing the road… sunflowers field, bright yellow 2 weeks ago, now turned black
I knew it turned out to be a good weekend.
P.S. Recently I found myself collecting those affirmation quotes, pictures with some “brainy quotes” on them, like the powerofpositivity .
P.P.S. Here’s the list of triathlete blogs:
Jessica Van Orden – a girl who pedaled IM bike distance barefoot
http://twobordens.blogspot.com
http://enduredgirl.tumblr.com.
http://www.discombobulatedrunning.com/
http://triathlonat55.blogspot.com/
avatarakali 
Great, great post. Congrats on your strong ride this weekend and for your perseverance with and dedication to your training. You will be ready! Thanks also for sharing my interview with Jessica about her incredible Ironman journey to pedal the entire bike barefoot. It is incredible that she kept going when most people would have quit. Good luck with the rest of your training! xoxo