Rethinking this whole triathlon thing

 Cycling, Life  8 Responses »
May 132007
 

I’m beginning to learn that training for a triathlon takes a lot of time and dedication. Maybe even more time and dedication than I’m willing to give. Well at least more dedication, and if I consider the fact I’m not willing to give up on my golf game just yet, than time is also a factor.

Maybe if I were younger it wouldn’t be such a factor, but at 58 (soon to be 59), it’s just not as easy. At least that’s my excuse. The problem being, after exercising, I’m usually worn out, and require a nap.

Now when I was only cycling, I was able to overcome the feeling of fatigue, because I could always find time to rest, and still be able to golf whenever I wanted. Plus I didn’t have to ride everyday to stay in shape, providing time for my body to recover.

But now that I’ve added swimming and running to my exercise routine, sometimes even doing 2 or 3 of the events in the same day, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time left over, after resting, to play golf. Not only that, but I no longer have that extra day or two to allow my body to recover.

And worst of all, I’m not cycling as much. So far this month I’ve only been on the bike 5 times, riding a total of 188 miles. That’s a good 35% fewer miles than I would normally have ridden, plus today was the first day I’ve ridden any significant hills in over 3 weeks.

Yesterday, I even chose not to do my favorite bike ride, swimming and running instead, and all day long I felt as though I missed out on something.

So here I sit in a quandary, trying to decide what to do. I promised some friends I would do the Long Beach Triathlon, and I’ve been hyping up my intentions to just about everyone, so how would it look for me to decide not to compete.

But why should I even care? Life’s just too short to even be worrying about all this.

I know I’d rather concentrate on my cycling, and with the money I would save by not competing in the Triathlon, I could just about pay for that new driver (actually it’s used, but would be new to me) I’ve been eying.

Plus, if I still want to compete in the Long Beach Triathlon, I know two other people, one a swimmer and the other a runner, who I can get to compete with me as a team. That would be a lot more enjoyable anywaze.

Stay tuned!

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 Posted by Marc at 1:08 pm

Fortunately there’s always next year

 Golf, Life  1 Response »
May 112007
 

The Long Beach Senior Mens Championship is finally over, and even though I didn’t finish in the money, at least my final round was semi decent.

I shot an 89, which included one triple bogey and 3 double bogeys. Everything else was either a bogey or par. I could have even shot about 5 strokes better had I had a little more luck, but hey, that’s golf. Like life, the ball doesn’t always bounce the way you want or even expect it to.

Still, I had a good time except for a brief moment, when I got a little frustrated with my game, and reacted somewhat inappropriately. That is the first time I ever reacted that way since starting to play golf again, about 4 years ago. Hopefully, I won’t do that again.

In the mean time, now I can get back to concentrating on my cycling and training for the Long Beach Triathlon in September.

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 Posted by Marc at 7:32 pm

Another bad day on the links

 Golf, Life  No Responses »
May 102007
 

I am not doing a very good job of defending my championship. :(

Like yesterday, I shot a decent front nine today, and then pretty much fell apart on the back nine, ending up shooting another miserable round of 95, putting me in a tie for 12th place, 14 shots off the pace.

I don’t really have too many excuses for my lousy play except to say, because of the unusually cold winter we had this year, I wasn’t able to practice as much as I have the last couple of years, and I just haven’t been able to generate any consistency.

But there’s no sense worrying about that now, tomorrow is another day, and I still have time to redeem myself, and maybe even finish in the money.

And if all else fails, there’s always next years tournament.

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 Posted by Marc at 9:11 pm

Don’t sweat the little stuff!

 Golf, Life  No Responses »
May 102007
 

Here it is 5:30 AM on Thursday morning, and while I slept better last night than I do most Wednesday nights, I still did not sleep well. I couldn’t help but continue to dwell on my poor play of the last 3 holes in my golf game yesterday.

And to top it off this morning, I discovered that my gross score was posted as a 96 (I’m in the “B” Flight), instead of the 95 I actually shot. Now I’m not sure if the score was just entered incorrectly, or if I actually signed for a 96. I will have to verify that today.

I don’t think that one stroke will make a whole lot of difference though. Even at 8 strokes off the pace (net), unless I shoot lights out today, I don’t have much of a chance.  One good thing is I didn’t sign for a 94, in which case I would have been disqualified.  I will be more careful next time.

Still I’m disappointed, but I shouldn’t be. It’s not like this is some renowned tournament. The entry fee was only $150 for 3 rounds of golf, which included a really nice golf shirt. I feel like I’ve already got my money’s worth, and maybe I’m even a little ahead. And the maximum winnings for first place is only a $150 gift certificate plus a trophy, which last years was a wine carafe. To be honest, I was actually more proud of the trophy than the money.

So really I should be happy with the fact I’m still able to play golf, and do all the other things I enjoy doing, rather than dwelling on the negative constantly, or as I once heard someone else say, “sweating the little stuff.”

What I don’t understand is why that is so much easier said than done?

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 Posted by Marc at 4:59 am

The Long Beach Golf Festival

 Golf  No Responses »
May 092007
 

Well the LB Golf Festival kicked off today, with the first round of the Senior Amateur Championship. As the reigning title holder in my age group, I had high hopes that I would be able to defend my championship, but todays round was far from championship caliber.

All day long my short game and putting made up for my driving which, for lack of a better description, was awful. That is, it did up until the last 3 holes, when everything fell apart. The last 3 holes, I shot triple bogey, double bogey and triple bogey, finishing with a 23 over par 95, putting me about 6 shots off the pace. (Final results won’t be in until later this evening.)

Fortunately there are two more rounds, Thursday and Friday, for me to attempt a comeback, much in the same vein of Tiger Woods.

I’ll keep you posted

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 Posted by Marc at 4:08 pm

The internet: The good, the bad and the ……

 Life, My MCL  No Responses »
May 062007
 

It’s true (at least I believe it to be so) the internet has been a benefit to the world. It has brought the world a lot closer together by enabling people all over the world to easily communicate with each other and exchange ideas.

No where is this more apparent then in the case of people diagnosed with serious illnesses, such as cancers. Through medical informational sites, blogs and list serves (newsgroups/email groups), people are able to gather information about various treatments, along with their successes, failures, and complications, from around the world, making better informed patients, not only benefiting themselves, but their doctors as well.

Of course intermixed with all that good information is false information, or at the very least information that is without evidence or proof of efficacy. In that regard people have to be very astute, and able to filter out the good information from the bad, producing false hopes. Unfortunately that isn’t always as easy to accomplish as it sounds.

But one of the best things about the internet are the interactions that take place among the people in the various groups, and the personal (albeit many times long distant) relationships that can develop. But at the same time, with more relationships, come more disappointments when those relationships end, either expectedly or unexpectedly.

I typically try to ignore the expressions of emotions and sympathy that pour from the many individuals in the groups as much as possible. I seldom respond to the grieving family, and I seldom read the condolences that are passed along by the other members of the group. If I didn’t might just become to overwhelmed with grief.

But every so often, someone comes along that touches you because of their dedication to the list, and their willingness to help and offer encouragement to others, no matter how dire their own situation may be.  Such was the case yesterday.

One of the long time members, who had been on the mantle cell list serve at least as long as I have been on it, passed away. He had been sick for quite awhile, and was pretty much out of treatment options, but still, no matter how much you expect some things to happen, it can still come as a shock.

When I read the news, I just felt an emotional let down, and was compelled to write to his widow, expressing my condolences, and write this post.

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 Posted by Marc at 12:43 pm
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