Letting Go of Fitness and Barack Obama

Yeah, it's been awhile since i've blogged but I really haven't stopped working out as it's very hard for me to let go of my fitness. In fact, with no races signed up, I found myself doing 4 x 1 mile repeats two weeks ago holding 5:24, 5:21, 5:22, and 5:22 and running 38 miles that week, the most I've run all year. This past Friday, I was able to swim 100's on the 1:10, something I also haven't done all year. I'm only riding two days a week now but one week ago, I came within 10 seconds of my best time for two climbs. Hmmmmm...I think this is further proof that if we can keep our training as a choice and not a must, we are more inclined to do it and enjoy ourselves. And now, I'll be taking this choice away as I'm signing up for the San Francisco Triathlon on November 8. What's that saying about repeating our destructive patterns? I'm definitely looking forward to watching Kona this weekend, can't believe that the race is already here. My money is on Chrissie and Macca but am just hoping that it will be an exciting and close race and not a blowout. In other news, my fear has brought out the political warrior in me. Never have I cared so much about an election or politics and I find myself doing for the first time: 1. Donating money to a presidential candidate 2. Volunteering to work a phone bank 3. Expressing my views wholeheartedly to anyone who will listen 4. Debating with others and finally 5. Giving a damn. It is my fear for Sarah Palin and my disgust over the white collar crimes happening in Wall Street that have lead me to action. It just turns my stomach when I think how quickly our administration shelves out $700 billion to bail out Wall Street and yet we have to beg for every cent when it comes to a "climate bailout" or a "famine bailout", and God forbid a "public school bailout". And yes, you do detect a much angrier tone in my writing and since I'm too much of a hothead, I best let others do my writing for me. So, check out this article by Matthew Knight over at CNN, specfically this quote from Bono: "It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G-8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases". Just imagine, what $700 billion could do for our environment, for our public schools, for healthcare, can you imagine?