Trying

A couple of new experiences today.

Firstly I did quite a challenging race on my stand up paddle board this afternoon and secondly I had a sauna.

Firstly the paddle board race. This race was challenging mostly for its duration and location, 20km of paddling "downwind" in the ocean. The idea of this sort of race is that you spend the majority of the time surfing waves generated by the wind if you can. It takes a bit of technique, practise and skill.

The finer points of the event are largely irrelevant to a blog that is about triathlon, of more relevance was my reason for doing the race. This sort of race is something that I am not good at and I would like to get better at. That's why I did it. Simple as that. It was practise.

Often we avoid the things that frighten us. Sometimes that is a good form of self-preservation (like avoiding swimming with sharks because it scares us, well duh), but often it can be quite self limiting. We find ourselves deciding not to attempt something because we are concerned about the outcome, or looking silly, or having a bad experience. The issue with this is that it can stop us trying new things, and in the worst cases it can be a barrier to us achieving something that we would really like to.

My reason for doing the race today was because I know that without these experiences I won't get better. Was I worried about the race? You bet. Did it go well? Not really. Am I a better athlete for having done it? I hope so. The real big benefit from having done the race today though is that I am now more likely to do another, and another and another etc. Each time I do one of these events I will get incrementally better, which is where the real improvements will come from. Without having the courage to take that first step, there can be no improvements. Without those improvements goals will remain unrealised. Sometimes the hardest bit is being brave enough to give it a go.

The sauna bit of the day was less impressive. I have actually had saunas before, but this one happens to be in my house and so today was in maiden voyage. It was hot and in all other ways fairly unremarkable. Nice and invigorating though. I suspect there will be more.