Change it Up

Remember that there is great comfort in our patterns – if you want a different outcome then you will need to change your approach. - Coach Gordo

Alright already! Could we please see the sun for more than 1 hour a week? You are reading the blog of a guy who loves the sunrise. The above sunrise courtesy of Montana. I can’t remember the last sunny day we had. Probably goes back to the first week of January when it was -17 C.

The above quote from Coach Gordo has a great deal of meaning. We as people and we as athletes get into a patterns. We eat the same food day after day. By the way I know a guy that if what he says is true, he eats a Burrito for dinner every night. We run the same pace on the same course at the same time on the same 3 days a week. We drive the same way to work. We swim in the same pool with the same group. We read the same book, just different authors, watch the same T.V. shows just different networks and probably talk to the same people over and over again.

Now don’t get me wrong, pattern is good. Going to bed at the same time every night is generally a good pattern to be in. Marco goes to bed every night at 8:00pm. He complains that his friends get to stay up until 10:00. Yet the parents of those kids tell us how hard the mornings are where Marco is up and ready to go minutes after we turn on his lights. There are countless other patterns that make sense.

The real point to this is that if you don’t change your patterns you have a better chance of going backwards then forwards. I hear this from the people I coach in running. I run 4 days a week for an hour every time but I don’t seem to get any faster or I don’t seem to lose any weight. The great coaching that I do, is this simple, I change their patterns on a regular basis to give them different stresses. They show the improvement they want. I can’t do that for myself and that’s why I pay Endurance Corner.

If you ever feel like you are in a rut, change one of your patterns. Sometimes just driving a different route to work can do it. Sometimes though, you have to dig a bit deeper to find that thing to change. Just look at us, we moved to Germany to change our pattern.

Some updates on My Goals.
My Mother – It seems more and more that it’s becoming time to move mom into a place that can take care of her. This may cause me to take another trip across the water soon to help my big sister. I really welcome the opportunity to go help.
First Quarter Relationship Building – I picked a guy at work for my relationship building. He and I have been rubbing each other raw for the last year. So I decided to change how I work with him to better our relationship. So far, so good.
Work – We are working on the responsibility thing right now at work. I’m ready to take on a new some new challenges. We are going through a bit of restructuring and that only gives opportunity.
Training – It’s all going well right now. I’m running faster today then I was 3 months ago and it’s on a great deal less than I would think I need to do. I can feel myself gliding better in the water. 1500 meter test coming up this week. The bike is where I really feel the difference. Two hours today on the trainer went by fast and felt ultra strong.
All the other goals are in progress but there isn’t much to report on. When the time is right I’ll report on all the other goals.

Books
We are a reading family. Mary and Marco a great deal more than me. The book I’m reading right now is called Delta Blues. It’s a historical look at the Blues Music from Mississippi. It’s a great book.

A bit more sun, please….
It’s a good life…..
Dave