The Journey

The Hagerstown Duathlon is a fun local race in Maryland. It was one of the first multi-sport races I participated in back in 2013 before I could swim.  This small town family friendly duathlon brings out the local multi-sport athletes from Western Maryland and alike.  It is well organized and great fun to kick off the season.  So I signed up.  This was my first solo multi-sport race since 2017.  For the past 2 years, I have participated in individual sports i.e. running only, swimming only or relay but just didn't have the time to participate in anything more than that.  So I figured " Hey look Stacy, you have nothing to lose just show up."  With my under-trained happy attitude, I decided to participate in this Duathlon.  The course consisted of a 1.8 mile run, 10 mile bike and 5k run.  It was relatively flat and safe.   Yadda Yadda.  As you know, my blogs are really never about the race.  It is all the BSS (Behind the scenes stuff-Mental chatter we tell ourselves).

Spark Joy in Fitness.  Today we live in a data driven world. We track everything from our food intake to how many steps we take daily to how many miles we swam, rode or ran on our watches then download all the data to analyze our personal improvement. Is this you?  If so, you are probably nodding your head, “ Yup, that is me, “ but we know that quantitative data is only one method to assess fitness. In all honesty,  how much time do you spend reflecting on how you felt about your workouts?  Quantity does not equal quality.  As Marie Kondo would ask, “Did your workout spark joy?”  According to Kondo’s KonMari method if something does not spark joy, it should be discarded. No, this doesn’t mean you get to sit in front of the TV and eat cake all day, but one can use Kondo’s concept in their fitness journey.   Are you tied to a number in the scale, race time or training schedule?  How do you feel if you do not get to a goal weight, get a PR or miss a workout?  Perhaps, it’s time to