So I’ve been told to practice this foreign thing called “trekking” (I’ve never backpacked before so yes, this is a foreign concept to me;-) to prepare for the supposedly torturous hike coming up at Training Camp in the Georgia heat next month as well as the actual Race in September. Having procrastinated for a good four months, I finally decided that the arduous task of walking a couple of miles while carrying a 40 lb backpack must. be. done. You see, I love working out, but carrying a weight equivalent to that of my 3-year old sister simultaneously…..that’s a completely different story. Especially after recently recovering from prolonged back problems.
With a sigh, I stuffed my sack with various items I found laying around the house, grabbed a towel for the shower, and hit the road. It was raining out tonight, so I went to the gym instead of the outdoors. Yeh….the gym to practice backpacking. Just picture this: Sam sauntering into the YMCA, carrying this massive piece of equipment (nearly as big as me!), and awkwardly stepping up onto a ‘lil treadmill to get a “workout”. Em-barr-assing! ;PPP
The irony and frustration of this whole situation is this: for alllll these months, I never seized the opportunity to practice in the lovely (and dry) outdoors of Western North Carolina; instead, here I am, at 7 o’clock at night, driving to the gym to complete this extremely outdoorsy task indoors. Not that this particular situation is extremely odd or unusual, but it leads me to the deeper problem at hand: procrastination. Allow me to explain….
I’m not a huge procrastinator, but Satan has been stripping me of self-motivation and trying to prevent me from going on this trip ever since I signed up. One of his favorite tactics has been to distract me from the important things in my life and prevent me from being as productive as I like to be. Situations like the one described above have brought me to the realization that I, Sam, tend to complete things on my “to do lists” at the strangest times and the strangest places and most often in the strangest of manners. Knowing that I have the power to change this newly forming habit is encouraging, but actually changing it is another thing.
There are countless things that need to be attended to in preparation for leaving the country and I want to have self-motivation and drive to get each task done with greater efficiency—but I can’t seem to get myself focused! Once I actually make myself do something that’s been sitting on the “back burner” for a while, though, there comes with it a certain feeling of satisfaction and completeness; and when I go over and beyond a set goal, the rewards are even greater. For instance, my goal for tonight was to complete 2.2 miles on the treadmill (this is the distance of the hiking trip at Training Camp); however, I ended up going an extra 0.8 mi making a total of 3 miles tonight! Now I know that’s NOTHING for you runners out there reading this blog…..but just try adding 40 lb to ya back and you might just have a different story to tell—I do at least. Then again I’ve never been a runner so this type of exercise does not come very naturally ;-). But even with a good pack, this amount of weight starts to wear after a while.
Now that I have not only practiced but trudged on beyond the original goal, I felt more pumped about the trip than before! It feels oh so good to have an idea of what the Race will be like! World Race, HERE I COME! It’s gonna be legit.
