it's not the destination it's the journey

It's that what they always say? I'm really starting to believe that saying more and more every day.

I (we) are always looking towards some day (weekends), some hour (5 o'clock), some age (18 so you could buy smokes (never have), 21 so that you could drink; legally). Our parents/grandparents have always told us to quit wanting to be older, to quit wishing time to go faster just to get us to our "destination" but we're not happy with that. I believe there comes a time when we DO start to realize that time is moving fast and perhaps waiting impatiently for a day or time or birthday to arrive only puts us in a frame of mine that causes us to not live in the moment. When this happens we fail to breathe in that part of the journey.

I've never felt this way more than I have before in the last several months. The first time I truly remember hearing it was from a colleague of mine when I announced my engagement. She told me "enjoy the planning." At the time I was like, sweet, yes, sure will! I realize now she meant, enjoy all time spent together planning all the details that go into one day; the biggest day of your lives thus far. It wasn't necessarily the destination in this case (even though that was a big deal) but going through ALL the planning of a wedding celebration that was the focus. (We all know how this event panned out...the DAY was a rock star amazing event...the rest, well, that's for another time ;)...)

I will quote a line from a favorite film of mine...
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Any guesses on who said that? Anyone? Anyone? (ps that was your hint...)

It's true.

My current destination of choice is one I have had for several years to be honest and that is this darn race 7.25.10. After interviewing many plans I have found one I feel will fit me best and currently "week 4" is an "easy" week. I'm going crazy. I won't explain how I felt having to -lift- ONLY on Monday and Wednesday this week, but instead I will rant that tomorrow (Friday) I am only to do a somewhat specific bike workout...for 30 minutes. kas;dflj asjflaksj;fj..grrrr... That's it? 30 lousy minutes on the bike?

I keep telling myself that this plan is set up in a very specific way...3 weeks "hard" followed by 1 week "easy." The woman who designed the plan is QUITE SKILLED at what she does; I assume that this "easy" week is going to pay off next week, right? I have to keep telling myself this. I have to keep telling myself this....

The destination would cease to exist without my journey. The journey of "easy' weeks followed by not-so-easy weeks. All in all, I am loving it so far. Today's workout was a swim. A specific warm-up which I only modified slightly....a specific "main set" followed by a specific "speed set." The "cool down" was "my choice" and due to time restraints (hey, i was in the pool by 4:39am, I'm doing my best) was only 100 yds. This is what it looked like: (distance is in yds, RI = rest interval, pull = arms only w/pull buoy, kick = kickboard, no arms)

Warm up
300 crawl
150 kick
150 pull

Main set (all crawl here on out)
300 / :25 RI
300 / :25 RI
200 / :20 RI
200 / :20 RI
150

Speed set
6 x 75 (25 cruise, 25 strong build, 25 easy) :25 RI

Cool down
100
TOTAL 2300 yds in which I felt really really very very good.

Tomorrow's 30 minute ride is part of my journey towards 7.25.10

I try to stop and look around every day. I've learned that I cannot worry about what tomorrow may bring. I cannot change what happened at noon today (nothing really, just a crutch fitting and a serious cleaning out of my yahoo inbox (over 2700 emails down to 134, thank you very much). I can only live in the moment. Enjoy that moment and look forward to the next. Now, I have a tad of sarcasm in me that comes out periodically...I don't want to sound like a fool here. I'm just being real. I cherish the time I have with my family more than ever. I cherish the time I have with my friends. Getting older (22 in June, baby!) and going through some ugly struggles in the past couple of years has taught me these things. I'm just sharing them with you....
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while... you could miss it. Enjoy the journey....so that the destination rocks even more than you could have ever imagined.