Relentlessly Positive

I'm not huge on New Year's resolutions... I don't think its necessary to wait until a certain day of the year to make necessary changes in our lives. If something needs to change, why wait? Start immediately. Or maybe that just shows a lack of patience on my part. Lol. ;)

So my 'resolution' to stay relentlessly positive no matter the situation is not something that is brand new in 2011... I think I actually saw this as advice that someone posted on Facebook several months ago and I just adopted it for myself right then and there. Yep. There's that sense of urgency again. Regardless, the first day of 2011 presented a nice opportunity for me to continue practicing my mantra. (Isn't that a very positive way to look at the fact that I rode through a shitty rainstorm for several hours this morning?)

On the schedule today- long aerobic ride 3:30-4:00 depending on how I felt. It wasn't raining when I started but the roads were pretty wet. Typical for an early morning this time of year. I actually didn't think much of it. But it didn't take long for the water to start falling from the sky. It fell hard. In big drops. And it wasn't stopping. In fact, I was just riding right into a dark cloud up ahead and the puddles in the road grew deeper with each mile. Lovely.

I started to get pissed for sure. I mean, really? It's been f'ing raining for like 2 straight weeks now and my bike is a mess and I can't see a thing through these sunglasses but I can't take them off b/c rain would then be pelting me in the eyes and I can't see the potholes through the puddles and I'm not even an hour in and am I really going to survive 3 more hours of this???

Didn't I do a nice job of staying positive? Ha! I caught myself falling into this pattern of thinking and actively reversed it. Here are some of the thoughts that went through my mind when I sought out the positives:

~I am riding my bike. Outside. On January 1. In a sleeveless jersey.

~I'm not cold.

~My skin is waterproof. Isn't that cool!?!

~I live in Hawaii.

~It's not that windy.

~There is air in both my tires.

~I haven't been hit by a car today!

~I'm not on a trainer.

~I am making a nice deposit in my fitness bank.

~My heart rate is right where I want it to be.

~My heart rate monitor has not zeroed out on me today.

~I'm going to have a really good reason to clean my bike this afternoon.

~I feel rather strong.

That's pretty much all I came up with but it lasted me through several more hours until the sun came out. That's the nice thing about living in Hawaii. Don't like the weather? Wait an hour. It will change! Sure enough, as I neared home the roads started to dry out and the sky went blue and I felt like I was rewarded for my positive thinking. :)

I took this picture toward the end of my ride. Nice, huh? Makes you think I was just imagining all those dark clouds and rain.

So in the end it wasn't so bad. Now I just have good memories of an aerobic ride that made me stronger.

I also had a very dirty bike. (See? I wasn't actually imagining the dark clouds and rain.)

But now she is sparkling clean! I spent some time hosing her down this afternoon so now she's cleaner than she was when we started. Perfect!

So there you go. Relentlessly positive. That is what I will be in 2011. Even while riding through a nasty rainstorm. :)