Training Log - 4/14/07

Distance: 30.1 miles
Max speed: 25.1 mph
Average speed: 15.1 mph

Total Training Distance: 682.9 miles
Total Time on trainer: 4.5 hours
Weight: 184.0 lbs

This morning I was rifling through one of the piles of unread books on my night stands. I truly love to spend time reading for pleasure. Its one of the great decadences in my life--one I rarely grant myself anymore. But I came across the book, "Every Second Counts" by Lance Armstrong. Its rather ironic that I never had the time to sit down and read this book. I did read Lance's first book, "It's Not About the Bike", and found it to be truly inspirational and comforting. At the time, my wife was struggling with the increasingly frequent downturns of her disease. Lance's first book remains an inspiration. I am not worthy to clean his water bottles, but Lance did inspire me to join Team in Training to ride for a cure.

Shortly after going through my unread book piles, I headed off on my bike ride. Destination: the beach at Indialantic. It was a nice day for a ride. A bit on the warm side (to say the least). And there was a fierce wind out of the east which shifted to the south as my ride went along. As I said, it was hot. When I first signed up for TNT, our coach recommended carrying two large water bottles. I couldn't imagine needing that much liquid. After today, I understood why. I drained every last drop in both water bottles.

Anyway, when you are riding thirty miles by yourself you have a lot of time to think. I thought about that phrase "every second counts." My mind drifted to the night I had to call for an ambulance for my wife. She was struggling with the effects of a very nasty infection due to her compromised immune system. She was not doing well, but we had been through this routine time and time again. She would go into the hospital, spend a week or two, get better and then come home. This was the first time we had to call an ambulance though. Once the paramedics arrived, it was a blur of activity. Then as she was being wheeled off, she looked at me and pursed her lips. She wanted a kiss. But I was in a hurry to get her to the hospital. I smiled, brushed her arm as she went past and told her I'd see her at the Big House, our pet name for the hospital. She passed away on the trip to the ER. She knew her time had come and wanted a kiss goodbye. I was so caught up in the busy work of getting her to the Big House, I had missed the importance of the moment.

You never know when the next moment of your life may change things forever. That night taught me that every moment has a purpose. Every moment harbors an opportunity. But you have to get beyond the busyness of life, the auto-pilot we all tend to put ourselves on, and seize the moment.

So if you are reading this, think about what is truly important in your life. And then use the next moment to act on that. Kiss your kids goodnight and tell them how proud you are of them. Say a kind word to a friend. Spend some time with your life partner. Grasp the opportunity of the next moment. As for me, I'm going to continue with the movie marathon of Invader Zim episodes with my daughter. She's an awesome kid.

Why? Because...

Every second counts!