It's all about heart.

The theme of this post is heart.

It takes heart to push yourself out of your comfort zone or sometime to stay in it.

Todays practice was a ride-run-ride-run-ride-run and I am starting to focus on my heart-rate. My coach is having me work on staying in my "aerobic" zone which means I have to try and keep my heart-rate under 142. This meant leaving my ego in the car and listening to my heart, literally. I have been feeling great on the bike staying towards the front of the team. Today my pace was much slower than usual, it was a mental ride for me. I tried to focus on the fact that going slower now will make me faster later, it is not important to have great practices every weeklend, but great race days, and staying aerobic will teach my body to burn fat not carbs. Reason #3 is a big incentive. :)

As I plodded along on my 2nd run, getting reqally grumpy about how slow I was going to stay at my heart-rate, I came up on Gordie our team's honored teammate. Not only is he fighting cancer, he had a stroke back in December that he is coming back from. I could tell he was having a hard time, but when I got next to him he flashed me a huge smile and said 1-1! He was running one minute walking one minute...as I left him he said this was going to be his last lap (we were supposed to do 3). An hour later when I was back for my last run lap, there was Gordie. He had found the heart to keep going. He is amazing.

Also amazing in the heart department is Paul. 2 1/2 weeks ago Paul hurt his shoulder and I temporarily lost my training partner. It would have been really easy to check out for a couple of weeks while in recovery mode, but not Paul. He is committed to being my training partner...still. He braves the CA cold nights to come watch swim practice and keep me company on the drive, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be on the deck not swimming. For our Sat bike practices he brings his trainer and rides his bike at the parking/meet-up point while the team hits the road. Again, must be frustrating, but he wants to be a part of the team and support me too. Today as we biked-ran-biked-ran-biked-ran he biked-walked-biked-walked-biked walked. I was so proud of him and the amount of heart he showed. He has a couple of more weeks before getting cleared for PT, running and more, but for now he is staying positive and making me proud. I heart him.

Oh and as for the new heart-rate plan... I felt great today. Just need to get outta my head and listen to my heart.

Thanks for reading and supporting us.

Saveria