I spent the weekend with my cycling buddies at the beach. No, we did not bring our bikes. But we did bring our wine, thin mint Girl Scout cookies, Jan's homemade coconut cake, shrimp and kielbasa paella, chips of every description and denomination, various imported beers, fried chicken, barbecue, and two 12-packs of Diet Coke. Oh, yeah, we did have that token broccoli salad.
Needless to say, this group lives life with gusto!
Admittedly, neon cycling jerseys and tight padded shorts failed to cross our minds this weekend. But in a few short months we will be consumed with training for our annual 150-mile bike ride. Our wine will turn back into water, our leisurely walks will become intense 40-, 50-, 60-mile training rides, and we'll be up at the crack of dawn to get in our miles before the hot summer sun takes over.
We know that meeting the 150-mile challenge depends on our commitment to training: Our muscles have to get used to the demands of the mileage, our hearts need to build up capacity for the extra work, and our minds have to adjust one more time to the vision that while we may be gray around the temples, our inner athletes can still rise again.
It occurs to me that we are all really in training all the time. Training wheels. Training sessions. Training bras. Training camps. Every minute we are practicing the skills and habits that it takes to become some future version of ourselves.
Even negative habits are a form of training for a future self. Every time we hit the snooze button instead of the treadmill, or take the elevator instead of the stairs, we are training ourselves to become sedentary. And a constant diet of vending machine snacks, fast food, and empty calories is training to become an overweight and undernourished junk-food junkie.
Since I'm in training anyway for the future version of myself, I decided to take the opportunity now to make a conscious choice about who that future self might be. Will I be the person who has trained to run on the beach or the one who has trained to sit on the deck watching other people run? How about you?
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