Countdown to Triathlon – 212 Days, 30.2 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 44 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

I really did have beautiful scenery to look at while riding.  On the other side of the palm trees is the ocean.  You can just see the sand on the beach.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -

Misery is almost always the result of thinking.  Author Unknown

  What a difference my training would have been if I had taken my thoughts from myself and my daily biking and done what my son had told me to do - "Look around at all the beautiful scenery of Hawaii while you're riding, Mom!"

Although I did a lot of crying, complaining and whining, this story does have a great ending so I hope, dear reader, that you will not get discouraged and quit me because of all the doom and gloom.

The Journey - Installment Forty-Four
       

        Sometime around the fourth day of riding when I was hating riding my bike and wondering what I was doing there, anyway, I  was again complaining to the Lord  under my breath with tears in my eyes.  I told him that the training was too hard and I couldn’t’ continue. I told the Lord that I was so upset because there was no way I could get out of completing this ride now because of all the people who had been contributing to Focus on the Family ministries in my name.  It was so stressful thinking about the pressure that was now on me. Before the contributions began to arrive at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs,  I didn’t feel so trapped.  I remember riding and crying and saying to the Lord, “This is just too hard!  I don’t want to do this and now the only way out is if a truck hits and kills me or injures me so that I can’t ride.”   Then I remember thinking, “Oh, I hope a truck does hit me.”  I was delirious about then.  I am so ashamed of how I reacted when the riding became difficult or the heat was unbearable to me.  It is interesting to note that the Island of Oahu was full of people, a population of about 900,000 souls, and those people were going about their business and I didn’t see any of them crying or hoping a truck would hit them.  I don’t know how Hollen put up with me or how God could stand to listen to my whining and crying every day. 

             Hollen was pushing me constantly by saying such things as, “Mom!  How fast are you going?”  When I told him the speed, he would tell me that I could do better than that.  He would tell me to control my breathing and to look around at the beautiful scenery of Hawaii and take my mind from my riding and myself.  He would remind me to make “circles” with my feet; not just to push on the pedals, but to pull up as well making complete revolutions. He’d ask, “Are you making circles?” Usually I wasn’t and I’d have to again concentrate on this new way of pedaling.  I’d ridden a bike all of my childhood days and never pedaled in that manner because my feet were never made prisoners of the pedals.   Periodically he would ask me what I was thinking about and I never wanted to tell him because usually all my thoughts were negative and dark.  Satan was really doing a number on me and I was allowing it.

Come back Tuesday for some encouragement the Lord gave me in my darkest hours of training.  You won't want to miss what He did.