Compromise

5.5 miles. 70 F. 147.5 lbs.

Denise had an 8 AM meeting today, so I trimmed my runtime a bit. The distance was only 5.5 vice my preferred 7 miles. Every endurance athlete feels that tension between training time and the rest of life's commitments. We are in the last 10 years of our admittedly successful careers and that side of life is lessening in importance in my mind. The astonishing benefits we have both derived from our training seems to magnify every year, particularly as our cohort ages. I don't like impingements on my training; my growing physicality is a goal and benefit in itself. The sensuousness of being soaked in sweat during hill repeats or straining against the implacable descent of a barbell verges on the sensual. The training impacts your body, molding it into something better. It is small wonder that the Spartan youths of both sexes, not given over to silly trite niceties, trained and competed in the nude.

But other responsibilities demand attention. A career is a form of training, if it has been demanding enough. The drive to perform excellently in a career also molds mind and will, both components of body. If it is not hard, then no training, no adaptation can occur. Compromise to improve as many aspects of life as possible, this all lends to the final self-creation that is an individual.

Still, I love the brutal simplicity of sweat and gasping for air as I summit my hill.