Date: 2005-02-15
To: Hmmnnnn.....
Miles today: 0.0

-Can't see the forest for the trees. -Shouldn't the saying be; Can¢t see the forest THROUGH the trees, or even, Can't see the forest in the trees? !The saying essentially means the following; One cannot see the details of a situation when he becomes wrapped up in the details. I think if the saying read as, 'In the trees', or, 'Through the trees', instead of 'For the trees', it would make a lot more sense, or at least be more accurate in its intended meaning. Maybe the creator of that saying meant something totally different.I don't know.I had some pretty messed up dreams the past few weeks. In one of them, I was in this flying school bus with all of the seats taken out of the back. I was flying through this big redwood forest and I had a huge banana in the back of the bus that took up the whole bus. Someone I used to know's mother was the driver of the school bus and she said she would take me home. I don't know what the heck was going on.I also had this dream that I could walk. .No more broken leg.It was wonderful, but I still have three more weeks in crutches and a brace.Argh.Oh well,Anyways...Last night I saw Lance Armstrong on the TV and it kind of pissed me off. (It pissed me off in a positive way). I saw him on the Oprah show and he was sitting with Sheryl Crow and they were talking about what his plans were this year and Sheryl kind of slipped up and eluded to the fact that he'll probably be riding in the Tour this year. He also talked a lot about his mom and the relationship that they have since she was only 17 when he was born. Lance talked about how when he was 12 years old, he had tried to play the various normal sports that most young boys play such as basketball and baseball, etc. He said that he pretty much sucked at those sports and then he said that he finally went out for the swim team. Lance got put in the seven and eight year olds when he started swimming and he was twelve years old. He said it was rather embarrassing but he didn't care because he loved it and so he stayed in the pool, and swam daily to get better and the rest of the story became his life... He eventually became a great swimmer, and moved up through the ranks and became a world-class tri-athlete. It was nothing I hadn't heard before, but seeing him always inspired to bust my butt and work hard.    For those of you not into cycling, prior to this past year, The Tour De France had never been won by anyone more than five times. Every great cyclist had been plagued on his attempt to achieve number six, and then Lance Armstrong finally did it in the summer of 2004. After overcoming serious cancer and going through chemotherapy, he came back to cycling to do the unthinkable and win The Tour De France a record breaking six times. Many people surround that amazing feat with a lot of static as to how he did it and they knock him for various reasons, but the fact is this; The Tour De France is the most difficult, grueling, painful and challenging sporting event in the world, and Lance Armstrong won it six times because he was willing to put in more hours than the competition and give up more. He saw his goal, and accomplished it.Lance Armstrong is an inspiration to me. I don¢t really even want him to be, but he is. Every time I see him, he strikes a nerve in me to challenge myself to set a goal and accomplish it.When I started cycling I had just quit smoking after a seven-year, pack a day, freight train heading to the graveyard, nasty habit. I had been running for a year when I started cycling and I started setting goals. I rode my bike non-stop and I felt great, and I was in better shape than I ever dreamed I could be in. I took my first trip down to Gatlinburg Tennessee near the end of last summer with one goal. I wanted to cycle up the longest mountain pass climb in the eastern United States. Climbing Clingmans Dome would require me to hold an 85% max heart rate for about 22 miles of continuous mountain climbing in about a two-and-a-half hour time span. This is a CONTINUOUS climb, not one flat spot, and not one downhill the whole way, but I had trained for this. With a lot of training hours, and even more research into the physiology of exercise science and how to accomplish this goal of mine, I rode out to accomplish my goal at around 7:00 on a nice Saturday morning.I accomplished this climb successfully and it felt great.Lately, I have had no goals though. I am just trying to get by. I am just trying to graduate and do my job. Sure, I am going to graduate with honors and it is nice, and it was a challenge but I want something more. For the past two years I kept up my grades AND did all this other stuff and now I am doing nothing but getting ready to graduate since I broke my leg.Ever since I broke my leg I have sat around. For over a week now, I haven¢t done anything important or challenging but lay around and I am ready to do something more. I need to get back on track. Watching Lance last night made me realize that I can¢t let this leg stop me from doing what I need to do to challenge myself and accomplishing what I want to accomplish for the next month, and onward. So I am going to go the Athletic Club again starting tomorrow and get back on track. There is a way to do what I want, even with a broken leg, and I will find a way to do it. For two years I have trained effectively, and I won¢t stop because my leg is hurt. I rest when I need to, and train when I can, and I am now at a point where resting is no longer a benefit to me, so I must move on and start training.I don¢t know how I am going to do it, and I don¢t even know what I am going to do, but my leg won¢t stop me. I need a challenge, and I am going to have to go out and find one.