I haven’t written much lately and figured it was high time I pulled together another post. This one has been on my mind for weeks now and I think the best way to try and move past it is to write about my feelings. I HATE the spring. Really and truly. Here’s why:
- It marks the end of ski season (barring trips to the southern hemisphere). This typically sends me into a mild depression for several weeks. I really love skiing and putting my equipment and clothes into storage each spring triggers the blues for me.
- The weather. Any leftover snow at the end of the season is dirty and disgusting and then it all turns to rain and mud. We’ll have an occasional ‘beautiful’ spring day in the upper 60’s or low 70’s with sunshine and blue skies. That will immediately be followed by 39 degrees and 30 mph winds. I hate it. It’s almost as though winter knows I miss it but rather than staying gone, it shows up uninvited: like a weird ex who has decided that if they can’t be happy, you won’t either.
- Pollen. All over my car. And everything else.
- Allergies. I never had them until I moved to Northern Virginia but now that I do, I regret ever thinking that people were kind of whiny about them. Allergies suck.
- People. You can’t go a few hours without having somebody talk about how great the spring is and how glad they are that winter is over and the snow is gone. This is incredibly irritating to me since I’m busy mourning my winter. The only silver lining to this one is the look on their face when I deadpan “I hate the spring” in return.
Fortunately, the worst of the depression is now over and I have once again survived 6 stages of grief: disbelief, denial, anger, bargaining, guilt, and depression (it’s been a really upbeat household lately, let me tell you). I have finally moved onto the 7th and final stage: acceptance/hope.
As a result, I’m going to buy into the spring hype of ‘renewal and new beginnings’. I’m going to renew some of the practices and experiences that I know enhance my life but that often go by the wayside in winter. For me these include: visiting family and friends I haven’t seen since Christmas, consistently prepping my food/meals for the week (which really helps me take off the winter coat I put on), being more consistent and focused in my gym workouts, and getting my house back into some semblance of a habitat (following the winter of treating it like a strange hotel/storage facility/laundromat. For those of you that don’t know, I am gone every weekend of ski season and several weeks and weekdays in addition to that).
I’ve also got a few new beginnings I’m looking forward to. One of my ski mentors has been trying to get me to come kayaking for 2 years now. I am finally going and am pretty excited about it! Hubby and I have a mini vacation planned at the beach after Memorial Day with friends that is going to be a great time (and is now only 4 weeks away-really). Lastly, I’m excited about my new training. I’m going to expand on this one a bit.
Our facility is home to a number of excellent groups: student athlete training, collegiate baseball training, adult group and private training, AND NOW barbell and strongman training. You guys probably all know barbells but strongman…that’s a world of training and competition rarely seen in a chain gym (or any gym really). Yup – you got it. The guys you see on tv picking up cars, pulling buses, and picking ridiculously heavy, round, spheres up (they’re called stones) and putting them on pedestals. I’ve been watching them train at the gym for a few weeks now while I work out. It’s inspiring and they’re a very friendly group. They’re having a competition in June. They keep telling me I should compete. I keep hedging around – I’ve offered to help out, I’ve offered to participate in one of the side competitions, etc. I’m nervous. I’ve never done those events. I’m not ‘that’ strong. I haven’t trained for it. Then I remembered one of my favorite quotes:
“Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want, when all they need is one reason why they can.”
-Willis R. Whitney
It was a lightbulb moment. If anybody told me about a thing they wanted to do, I will always tell them they can and they should. Why would I treat myself any differently? Watching those guys workout, going to a competition, and watching the World’s Strongest Man competitions growing up has always made me want to try to do those incredible tests/feats of strength. So I’m going to.
We so often let fear stop us from experiencing life. Fear that we won’t stack up or that we’ll fail or get shot down. Fear that we’ll embarrass ourself or won’t get the job offer or promotion or raise. Fear about what others might think.
Can you imagine what the world would look like if children thought like that? Children don’t. Children see something and want to try it. Almost everything is new to them and none of them are born innately good at anything (except pooping – they all seem to have that down) but they’re happy to try. They’ll try nearly anything. Thank goodness because otherwise no one would grow up to be a professional athlete or a firefighter or an astronaut or an artist. We wouldn’t have planes or cars or computers or electricity.
I’d like to see people be more childlike in this regard. We all have something we’ve always wanted to do but haven’t. I challenge you to try it. If you need help finding a way to make it happen: ask for help. I’ll be happy to brainstorm with you. I may not compete in June (as even though I’m committing to trying this, I may not be ready in time to meet the minimum lift requirements for this competition and I’m a firm believer in preparing/training well enough to be safe and avoid injury). That being said, I’m damn well going to have some fun trying this new stuff. I’m even going to enjoy looking like an idiot while I do it. Life will be over before you know it – I challenge all of you to take advantage of this spring to have a ‘new beginning’ with something you’ve always wanted to try.
smrtraining 