A Journey Into the Madness

I have recently decided that it's time for me to achieve something.  I need to set a goal and see it through.  Too often, I say I'm going to do something only to find it fade away after a fairly short period of time.  At 24, it's time to DO something.  I want to do something real, something exciting, something not everyone can say they have, or even, can do.  I have decided I will be attempting my first triathlon in April of 2012.

It's going to be a challenge, that's for sure.  The race I am attempting is a 500 meter swim, 12 mile back ride, and 3.1 mile run.  Back... to back... to back...  I have set a bigger goal for myself of attempting an Iron Man by my 30th birthday.  An Iron Man consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon at 26.2 miles in a 17 hour time limit.  A daunting task, but one I truly believe I can achieve.  This blog is going to follow my successes and failures as I try to reach this goal.

One step at a time. Let's go for the first Tri.  I need benchmarks or else I'll never be able to measure my progress.  Two days ago I did my first major bike ride.  I wanted to see how far I could ride a bike in 30 minutes.  After a crazy, shirt soaking, heart pumping, hardcore ride, I went 10.5 miles in 30 minutes flat.  Not bad for a first timer right?  I fear to think of what it would be like after the swim and if there were to be hills and curves and wind, etc...  Oh well, let's stay positive.  I really didn't think I would get that far in that short amount of time.  From what I have read, the top finishers are usually doing the biking leg of their race in about 40 minutes.  I'm 4 minutes ahead of pace!!!!!

Most of my experience resides in the running portion of the race.  Even though I was mainly a sprinter, I ran some long distance during high school and hopefully can translate that to this goal of mine.  Tomorrow I am going to see what my benchmark for a 3.1 mile run on the treadmill is.  My goal is 25 minutes.  By the time of the race I will need to get this down to 21 minutes to reach this goal but at this time finishing is all I can really hope for.

The reason I'm doing all of this is to prove something, but not to you; I want to prove it to myself.  I want to prove that I'm not all a bunch of talk.  I don't want to say I'm going to do things and just let them fade into oblivion anymore.  It translates into something much more than a race.  Who wants to be the kind of person that never actually finishes anything major they set out to do?  We all WANT to set ourselves apart from the crowd but how many of us actually do it?

As I said before, I went to school to be a veterinarian, and while I wouldn't change anything that has happened since that endeavor, it's the start of my list of things I said I'd do but never did.  I've said before I was going to be famous and make a million dollars, boasted I was going to run a marathon, said I'd travel to a rainforest, and dreamed of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.  All of these things are above and beyond what we do in our everyday lives, but I feel each of them are something that, if I were to set my mind to it, could be attained.

Don't we all have a list of things that we've always wanted to do?  Yes. And we all have just as many, if not many more excuses as to why we haven't done them.  Well, for me personally, and I pray at least one person that reads these, it ends two days ago.  Let's go on a journey of finding ourselves and ways to achieve our goals and stop finding excuses to put things on the back burner.  It's going to be tough.  Real life still exists and I still work in a factory making plastic.

On April 28th, 2012 I'm going to be swimming, biking, and running my tail off.  Between now and then, I will be sharing the experience as best I can.  I hope I don't bore anyone, but I'm not worried, because I think it's going to be a fun and entertaining journey.  This is just the next chapter for myself and I hope you're ready to share in my Improbable Madness.

Christmas Shopping Madness

Last night I laid in bed attempting to force myself to sleep but simply couldn't.  I had a million ideas running through my head about what I wanted to write next.  I thought about ways to try to inspire people with what I wrote, what direction the blog should go, funny stories about my past, etc...  After a while, everything started becoming a giant yarn ball of junk.  Today, I spent my time attempting to unravel that yarn ball.

I tried to write today on multiple occasions only to find that what I was writing was boring and preachy.  I don't know exactly what I want this blog to be, but I do know I don't want it to be like that.  So, in an attempt to unravel the yarn ball, I went Christmas shopping.  I didn't get much shopping done, but I did do a whole lot of people watching.

This time of year is probably the most fascinating time to people watch.  Every which way people run about attempting to get everything on their Christmas shopping lists checked off.  Bell ringers stand outside of every store hoping for passerby's change, and every cashier asks me to donate to some charity I vaguely know about.  Even people in parking lots think that everyone else needs to follow the laws of the road but for some reason a stop sign is more of an optional yield only when they approach.  'Tis the season right?

I saw people in stores they clearly have never been to, buying things they've definitely no idea why they're buying.  I saw a grandma in a Spencer's gifts today while "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot blared in the background.  There were men, myself included, attempting to pick out women's clothes in hopes of picking out something that didn't ACTUALLY need that gift receipt.  There was a kid, I swear wasn't even ten, attempting to  pick out which coffee maker came with the best features.  My favorite was the mom at the local Hookah kiosk.

People range in emotion everywhere from stressful to excited and anywhere in-between during the Christmas season.  Starting on black Friday, there's the "Target Lady" wannabes and the "keep me as far away from the madness"  home shoppers; the "I'll let my wife do the shopping" husbands to the "he better get the perfect gift no matter the cost" wives.  As soon as the Turkey is down and football is over, people basically lose their minds.

I guess it's a noble cause for all of this.  At the end of the day, what we all really want, is to give that perfect gift to that special someone and try as hard as we can to be able to afford the bill at the end of it all.  What we don't always realize is that, that special someone doesn't need us to go through the madness.  They don't need two months' pay worth of gifts.  They don't need to go to work the next day with the fanciest watch or come home to the newest video game.  All any of us really need is to spend this special time of year with the ones we love.  I think that's what the spirit of Christmas is.  I hear it's the season for giving, but I think that's mainly something made up by some really good marketing people somewhere.  Really what it is, or at least what it ought to be, is the season of togetherness.

Even after all of my people watching today, I still know that I'll be doing plenty of Christmas shopping for my loved ones, but I know that even if I can't afford everything on their wish-lists, they'll still be my loved ones come December 26th.  This world is constantly going 100 mph and this time of year we're doing more like 150 mph, but it's the simple things that keep us grounded and these times of the year that really ought to ground us as we travel through all of this improbable madness. 

Improbable Madness

Remember when we all had to take those surveys in elementary school that asked about our likes and dislikes and based off of the results it would supposedly predict our future career?  I don't think making plastic in a factory was even a possible result of the test I took.  Well... here I am, 24 years old, turning 25 in a little over 4 months and making plastic 15 days a month. 

I wake up at 4:45am, take a shower; not to get clean but to wake up, eat a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, watch 10 minutes of Sports Center and then drive across town and make absolutely enormous rolls of plastic.  I then drive home after 12 hours of work, and at this time of year I haven't seen the sun since it's set before I get off, and walk up three flights of stairs to my apartment that's on the second floor.

Anyone else have this as an option on their career prediction test?  I honestly didn't know there was a need in a year for as much plastic as I make in a single day.  I often find myself wondering where it all goes once the companies who buy it are through using it...  but that's a topic for another day.  Personally my test said I would make a great Veterinarian.  

It would seem that the test failed... I disagree.  Because of my test, I went to school and had aspirations of going to Vet school.  I met a lot of great people, some of who may or may not be reading this now, and I learned a lot about myself and who I am.  I worked full time while in college and gained an incredibly strong work ethic.  I realized I didn't HAVE to have a piece of paper to tell me I was a success. 

There were a few steps in between, some of which maybe we'll talk about one day, but all that matters is I wouldn't change my life now for the entire world.  Every morning I get to see a time that I truly believe some people believe doesn't exist.  I get to watch the newest edition of Sports Center before anyone else that day.  I eat Honey Nut Cheerios and keep my cholesterol down (according to GM).  But best of all I wake up to the love of my life every day.

I always had the dream of working in the field of science, not in a factory.  I was led to believe that without a science degree this would be impossible.  I would like someone to tell me how to turn a box of 1cm plastic pellets into 110,000 foot rolls of plastic in an 8 hour time limit.  Science. 

I work 12 hour days, I only work 15 days a month.  I work for a great company and I can pay my bills. I come home to a loving fiancé, an incredibly amazing dog, a warm home, and comfortable bed.  Every other week I get three day weekends, and I live in a state where I can hunt just about anything there is to hunt.  I love art and when I come home, my apartment is apparently the real life version of a M. C. Escher painting.

I saw a picture of a child in Africa that I only clicked on because I truly thought we had found aliens.  It was so malnourished that it was basically a little skeleton with skin around it.  Unfortunately this still isn't uncommon in today's world.  I don't say this to be extreme, I say it to make a point.  There are so many people out there who really do have it rough.  It's sad but it's a fact of life.

It's time for me to take a step back and look at my life in a broader scope and take it in for what it really is.  I have only recently realized how lucky I am.  I have decided to focus on health and vitality in order to live a long and fulfilling life and enjoy every minute of it.  I will be starting to train for my first triathlon which will be this coming year.  I have set a major goal for myself and it is to attempt my first Iron Man by my 30th birthday.  This is what I will talk about in my next blog.  It's time to get out there and take risks and LIVE LIFE!

We all can, and probably do, go into life expecting to be Veterinarians.  The truth is, some of us are going to come out making plastic.  Those plastic makers may very well end up being happier than any Veterinarian out there; and that my friends is why I look at life as Improbable Madness.