Getting my Attention

This week, Rocky Mountain Institute staff were invited to join teams from a few other local organizations whose missions center around environmental issues, for a screening of the new film,  An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.  My boss had warned me “it’s not an uplifting film,” and he was right.  Still, an important one and I’m glad I saw it.

You may remember Al Gore’s first movie in 2006 on climate change, which I never saw .  Why didn’t I see it?  It was because of one of several reasons that, in my opinion, so many people don’t seem to care much about climate change or environmental issues in general:

1.     They don’t believe the science or feel like the media is just making a big deal over nothing.  (That one's getting harder to justify, IMO)

2.     They acknowledge that the science is valid and the threat probably real but

a.     They are too attached to their comfortable lifestyle

b.     They don’t feel like anything they might do would make a significant difference so why bother?

3.     They hear random bits of information but just really aren’t paying enough attention to fully understand.  (yep, this was me before joining    RMI a year ago - largely oblivious to a lot of  it)

My role on the RMI team is to develop systems to support the important work done by my exceptional colleagues working all around the world.  They are a diverse mix of world-class scientists, engineers and architects, as well as experts in political, social and financial issues. They inspire me every single day with their brilliant minds and deep passion.  As a nonprofit, RMI operates very lean – there’s certainly no one working here for the money – and our support comes primarily from people and organizations who believe in our mission to help create a cleaner, safer and more secure planet Earth.

The current political environment obviously doesn’t value environmental issues and this is a cycle we’ll just have to ride out.  Fortunately though, there are still many companies, cities/states/municipalities, and individuals in the US and the world whose priorities have not changed – here are some of them going public with that pledge  http://wearestillin.com/.  This is reason for hope for humanity.

But here’s my main takeaway on the larger picture, two days later -

Post movie conversation among my colleagues included talk about personal responsibility and personal opportunity for service, and it wasn’t just about climate change issues.  It was about the chance we all have every day to serve our communities and our brothers and sisters, to be kind and positive influences, particularly amidst the various factors generating turmoil these days.  Individuals matter, and together we can do a lot – globally and one-on-one.   In George HW Bush’s terminology, “A thousand points of light.”  In Mother Teresa’s words, “Small things with great love.”

Climate change doesn’t inspire you?  That’s ok.  Listen the voice from your unique soul and go out and make a small difference in the world, with whatever it is that does make you feel alive and happy.  Chances are, you can make someone else feel that way too - setting off that beautiful butterfly effect.

.

Return to Lake to Lake Triathlon

This past weekend I raced my second sprint triathlon so far on this “re-set” year, stepping away from long course, seeking a more sane balance of life, career, family/friends and training.  I’m training a ton less than previous years.

Racing sprints couldn’t be more different than racing Ironman.  I never thought I was suited for short-course, as I’ve got an endurance engine that can chug along all day long, but haven’t ever really worked with the goal of going short and fast.  Sprint races hurt from the first moment until you cross the finish line.  But on the plus side, they are over a heckuva lot faster.

My stress level was through the roof waiting to start the swim on Saturday, as is usually the case when I'm getting ready to jump into an open body of water.  My heart is pounding, I keep reminding myself to breathe. I look around me and see most everyone else chatting and laughing, but I just want to get this done and can’t seem to relax.  Water is 68 degrees, we hear.

Once we got started, I was able to get out of my head and dispel that nervous energy by just swimming.  The swim was congested and I found myself having to swim around people a lot, hence the usual zigzag outline of my swim got even more so.  I’m in a sleeveless wetsuit and by the time I’m done swimming, I’m getting cold.  My swim time wasn’t as bad as I expected, 2^nd fastest in my age group(clearly no swimmers in my age group) – I’ve had worse  swims – but there were those few times that I’ve had much better too. 

LOOOOONG 300m run up to Transition.  Hands cold, breathing very hard, fumbling miserably to get the wetsuit off.  I’m cold, so I took the time to throw on a light cycling jacket, which I heard flapping every mile of the ride(ugh!).  First transition time was OVER 4 minutes.  Wow.

Decent ride, fastest time in my age group.  Nice relatively flat course but I thought it was quite unsafe as we were riding right beside traffic on a highway and often there was NO room to pass other cyclists without going outside the cones.  Second transition minutes faster than my first one that day. So a slight win there.

I do love to run.  I always remind myself of that fact no matter how awkward those first few steps of a triathlon run feel.  After last year’s injury and training feeling somehow off this year, I’ve lost touch a bit with that beautiful feeling of running.   But once in awhile I’ll have a portion of a run that flows and feels familiar as something that is a labor of love.   Little by little and often when least expected, these moments seem to be returning.

Finished the race feeling quite depleted as Warren met me at the finish line, but felt much better 5 minutes later.  Second fastest run in my age group, resulting in age group second place - podium finish.  That should feel satisfying, right?

This morning I read a Facebook post from my friend Eliza where she expressed disappointment in her race that same day and it made me wonder why I wasn’t happier with my outcome.  Was it because it sure wasn’t pretty?  Was it because “it’s just a sprint distance race,” and since I’ve defined myself as an Ironman for so long, this should be relatively effortless?  (Believe me, I know better than that!)

I think it’s a shift in my head that I haven’t fully made yet, of learning to get better at a totally different game and with new self-imposed life-balance rules.  I know I can stay in shape doing just short distance races, especially if I make time to do that strength work that tended to fall off the Ironman training week when time got short.  Warren and I took the day off training the day after this race and had a perfectly LOVELY day together going to breakfast, buying a new refrigerator, getting house and yard work done and enjoying a glass of wine that evening.  Blew off a day of training in search of life balance - Worth it.

While it feels good to make the podium in a race, and let’s be honest, it’s definitely self-validation and a shot to one’s ego.  My fellow athletes standing with me at the water’s edge race day were having a lot more fun that I was at that moment and most were judging themselves a lot less harshly when the day was over. 

The desire to excel is an honorable thing but it’s so easy to let that ego to have a life of its own, in a way that may not reflect who you feel like you are as a person. I’m more and more grateful every year for a body that’s healthy and allows me to be an athlete.  I realize that my mind and spirit have expanded with the experiences of almost 25 years of multisport training and racing.  My own challenge is not let my ego and fear of failure overshadow the good stuff of life, which matters a lot more and to which I'm committed to finding the time to embrace.