Time To Race Like I Drive! :)

I absolutely love to drive my car. Freeways, road trips, anything that does not involve stopping much. High speeds are the most fun :) I hate driving slow and anything below 65 mph feels boring and I can feel myself tense up. Full throttle. Pedal to the metal is my favorite way to drive. Of course I slow down in neighborhoods, school zones, and anywhere the chance of a ticket is high. But put me on the freeway or open road and all I want to do is push my speedometer as far as I can without too much of a risk of seeing the red and blue lights pull up howling behind me. Two speeding tickets in 11 years of driving...not too bad ;) My dream car is a BMW M3, which will be my 30th b-day present to myself.. For now my Mini is incredibly fun, especially around turns without braking ;) Anyway,....

While driving the past few months I couldn't help but think about how pushing my limits while driving is something I need to do more in racing. I think racing has many similarities to driving over the speed limit. You can take the risk and get in the fast lane, typically joining those fellow drivers willing to risk a ticket going 10-20 over the speed limit. Or you could play it safe in the "other" lanes, going 5-9 over and most likely getting to your destination safely without a ticket, maybe only a minute or two later than those who risked a ticket in the fast lane. For me, driving in the fast lane, although riskier makes me enjoy driving so much more. It's thrilling to test myself, see if I have the guts to go with the FAST flow of drivers and of course it's more fun getting to my destination in record time.

Now when it comes to my training and racing, I've always enjoyed "red-lining it" so to speak, on tempo runs, long runs and certain speed workouts. In college my coach told me I was incredibly good at LOVING pain during a workout. Sometimes during the past year I found myself almost afraid to red-line my body, thinking I need to have something in the tank for the last mile or so. However I'm sick of doing that, teetering on the safe side...I need to get back in the faster, riskier lane of racing. When you least expect it, you have amazing races when you think you might blow up (speeding ticket while driving)...but most likely your body will hold up for you and you will finish just fine (no speeding ticket). During the XTERRA race last weekend I'm pretty sure my body was red-lining the last 12 miles, lol. But in the end I had a great day and I'm happy I continued to risk blowing up, saving the actual blow up until the finish line and in the med-tent, hahaha. Whenever I have had some incredibly memorable races in the past, it was when I was in that "fast" lane, risking everything and mentally a bit nervous if I could keep it up. In the end I usually did and had a fabulous finish. Now it's time to get back to training and racing gutsy, risky and FAST. After all, life is more fun in the fast lane, right? :)

Pic: My future baby

Quote for today: "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."- Goethe