I’ve been thinking about flexibility a lot lately. Not so much the flexibility of the body, but flexibility of the mind.

The King of Flexibility

You see, a lot of things that were planned this season didn’t happen. Or maybe I should say they didn’t happen the way they were planned.

I remember when I started training two years ago, I HAD to get my workouts in EXACTLY as they were written.  I HAD to hit the right type, cadence, heart rate, speed, course, you name it.  If I didn’t do it just right, everyone heard about it and needless to say, I was NOT very flexible. 

Fastforward two years, and today I have embraced the attitude of flexiblity.  Granted, I don’t have it down pact, but I’d rather be flexible than how I was before.  I have found that I get to enjoy life more with an attitude of “oh well.  What are we going to do now? ”  This is helping me tremendously to enjoy training, life and my friends more.

Here’s an example….Saturday a stack of us met at the pond to swim a lap then head to ride City View.  We decided with the crowds riding City View and with how “friendly” the locals can be sometimes, that we would head to Cyclist Friendly Boulder!  (Boulder is the BEST place to ride and be safe!)

So that’s exactly what we did.  Swam at the Pond, drove to Boulder, cycled up there….then we had Lunch, went to Newton Running Labs and had a jolly good “Girlfriend” Day! 

Enjoying Friendship

See, two years ago, I NEVER would have done that!  I would have insisted on riding City View because that’s what my plan said.  I would have been so narrow minded that I would not have gone to Boulder.  I would have missed out on a wonderful day filled with sisterhood!  What a shame that would have been.

Flexibilitly of the mind has allowed me to enjoy my life more.  It has allowed me to be more spontaneous and to “go with the flow”.  It has allowed me to enjoy the journey of training and the moments I share with friends.  It has helped me with the bumps and cracks in the road that happen in this thing called life.  I’m not sure how I came upon this flexibility of the mind, wether it was life or training that helped me find this.  All I know, is I’m glad I have embraced it and attempt to live with flexibility as much as possible.

This past weekend we held the memorial celebration for my father.  It was the most wonderful, yet hardest day.  80+ people from around the country came to honor my father Frank.

We had a wonderful time sharing stories from a microphone about my Dad.  People talked for 4 hours.  It was amazing, and sad, and fun.

Dad's Celebration- The intermission break

The themes that seemed to be repeated by everyone were that Frank was:

-A true steward of the earth.  He spent his whole life fighting for water.  He helped found CalTrout and most recently he successfully fought Nestles’ attempt to build a water bottling plant in McCloud. It was a 5 year battle and just last September Nestles backed out.  My Dad was a environmentalist and he went Green way back in the 60’s.  We grew up recycling and littering was not tolerated!

-He was a good listener and always could give sage advise.  Many people shared about the times my Dad took someone aside and helped them through a difficult time.

-He was a hard worker and could fix ANYTHING!  I mean ANYTHING!  Everyone had a story of how my Dad had come over and helped them fix, build or replace something.  A few times a hammer to whatever wasn’t working was all it took, but usually the fixes where very involved.  My Dad loved helping people fix things!

-He had a great sense of humor.  My Dad could bust you up laughing for hours.  He could also imitate just about any noise.  And if his comedic timing didn’t get you, his SMILE did!  My Dad had the best smile I have ever seen.  The world lit up when Dad smiled.

My Dad was many things to many people…and these are just a few.  I always thought my Dad was the most amazing man I had ever known.  I felt it in my gut that this was the truth, but then at times I’d wondered if I thought that just because he was my Dad.  After this weekend, and after what  people shared, I now know for certain that my Dad was truly that GREAT of a human being. 

My Dad, Frank, was the best father, mentor, friend, human being that I could have ever been blessed with. 

May you rest with the Angles Dad.  I love you and I will see you and that big smile again.

My Dad, Frank- the greatest father a daughter could ever have!

I can’t believe it. Spring is here and so is my first race of the season!
How did this happen?  How did the race that I signed up for in winter come so quickly? It seems like just yesterday I wrote out my race schedule for the 2010 season. Back in November this seemed like a good idea! HaH!

I do have to admit that I am enjoying the taper. It ’s kinda nice to feel like I have more energy and I’m not so tired. Plus it was nice to do only an hour and half bike ride Saturday.  Some of the perks of approaching a race.

So, I’ll see how it goes.  Sometimes my mind is in the game for this race and sometimes it’s not…..All I know is I’m ready to have some fun!

See ya next week with a race report!

This weekend was all about multi sportin.  There was some Splishin, some Splotin, and some heavy duty windy Woshin to be had. 

And speaking of WOoooSSSHHIN…how about that wind this weekend.  How many of you got caught out there on your long Saturday bike ride?  Pretty fun heh?  (ok maybe NO fun).  For all of us brave soles (or is it silly soles) who didn’t change our workouts around, for those of us who rode parallel to the road….this one’s for you!

There was a group of us brave soles who drove down to Castle Rock to ride the 62 mile E Rock  course. As we all gathered our gear and headed out on the rode the wind was just starting to blow.  The further we got out on the ride- of course- the windier it got! 

By mile 15 we decided to call it quits and head back… I have to be honest- I was kinda disappointed, if someone else had said “yes” to continuing I would have been all over it.  Luckily for me, no one was dumb enough to want to continue!  Once we turned around we quickly realized we would have 15 grueling miles into the wind.  I’m talkin full on head wind- and cross winds that left you riding parallel to the road if not splot on the road.

Delinda, Doreen, Liesl, Sharon...check out the sideways hair!

We made it back to the parking lot, after a few minor wind epics.  Next up for me was to finish off my mileage with a basement trainer ride and NCIS!  Oh yeah, followed by my second 20 minute run of the day.

Sunday was all about the run and swim.  And of course, being spring and all , here in Colorado…there had to be some wind again.  I headed up Waterton Canyon for a quick 5 and back down, meet some friends along the way…and was grateful it was’t as windy at the day before!

I finished the run off, jumped in my car, downed some Mix1 (love the Mango) and headed to the pool.  That’s were I spent the next 30 minutes Splishin.  And did it feel good!  After Saturdays windfest and Sundays run, I was ready for my favorite- swimming!

It was a perfect weekend….great friends, great workouts, and some splish, splot and wosh….who could ask for anything more…..except maybe a bit less wind next weekend