The Importance of a Team
As many of you know, I started this journey for many reasons, and I set out on this path training and preparing for Ironman FL 140.6 basically alone. From the start, I made the committment to Stephanie and Kyle that all of my training would be before the sun comes up and that it would never interfere with our weekends. So far, so good. With that, I realized that my training for the most part would not jive with any local runs and rides since they mainly meet on Saturday and Sunday. That also prevented me joining the local Tri club since thier meetings, gatherings, and training all conflicted with my original promise to the family.
Along this journey I was blessed to come across TheTriShop.com who not only showed me that they had the best customer service of any running and tri shop I had done business with, but also gave this guy a chance at one of the fifty spots on the 2013 TheTriShop.com Triathlon Team. While I know I have talked about them before in past blogs and sung their praises here and on their website, I quickly realized that while this was not a traditional team as we know it, this virtual team began to quickly take on legs so to speak and the communication, training advice, and comaraderie took on an almost cult like following among my family and friends.
So instead of getting to run with my team at a work out, I enjoy hearing about the terrain Nancy Ovitt in VT worked out in, and usually I thank the heavens that I wasn't in snow like she was! Wisconsin's Matt Kohl turned out to be a fellow law enforcement officer and I've enjoyed passing along his recipes to Stephanie who has made everyone of them. David Gates in St Louis and I could talk for hours about ACC football since he is a Georgia Tech grad and I am alumni from Florida State. Instead, I've been happy to see that I am not the only guy who has had set backs due to illness this season. On that subject, I'd be remise to leave out Meg Nitka from Iowa who hasn't let her other sport's injuries keep her down too much! Her momentum has been inspiring - just like if we'd trained together. This is just a tiny example of 4 great people on this team. The other 46 rock too!
The moral of the story is that no matter how you train and gather information, being a part of a team, whether traditional or virtual, is very important to share ideas, learn new tricks, collect tri related recipes, and gain motivation. I said it once and I'll say it again, I've been blessed to be part of this national team of people who share my passion and enthusiasm for this sport.
Nothing greets me better after a hard workout than a bottle of a cold recovery beverage in my cup holder!