Struggling

My son's three on three hockey team is not doing good. So far they've had three games. They've lost all three. The closest margin was 6 points. The biggest margin is 14 points. The reason for this is simple - of the four teams in the squirt three on three league, three of the teams are comprised of 2nd year squirt elite (AAA) players. One of the teams is comprised of 1st year squirt and a couple of 3rd year mite silver (A) players. Guess what team we're on? Yup. The more A's the more up the food chain you are. We are at the bottom of the food chain.

In the end this will be a good thing. By playing with faster, tougher, more experienced players, it will make our kids better hockey players. We saw this last year when we got bumped up to AA but were still allowed to play tournaments at A level. We were the bottom of the barrel in the AA standings, but won three out of four tournaments and placed 2nd in the state championships when playing against A level teams. The kids rose to the challenge and were better for it.

When I first started riding with the local club I struggled a lot. The club is comprised of several competitive racers who are very strong and very fast. I got dropped on the breaks because I didn't understand tactics. I got dropped on several spots of the course because I simply didn't have the legs to keep up. But I was patient and persistent. Within months I could hang and a while after that I was taking pulls up front with the fast guys.

The lesson I'll be passing along to my son through this is: stick with it and be patient. Do the best you can do and keep pushing the envelope. Know that the point of this is not to win but to struggle a bit at the next level. Know that this will make you stronger when you drop back to your true level. Know that anything worthwhile will be difficult and that the struggle will be rewarded by the strength you will gain from it.

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Workout Summary

10.5 mile run - 1:33 - LSD - Z2/3

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Weekly Summary
Was able to accomplish my long workouts this week but had to punt for the most part on the short workouts.

Surprisingly my long swim, which usually suffers if I'm inconsistent, went really well - I felt smooth and strong throughout the 3200 meters. I was a little sore during the first 1000 but after I got warmed up and worked out the kinks it felt great.

I did a set of local loops for the long bike including a ride out to the river for some hill training - four laps on the hideaway loop. Was originally planning on 75 miles but got up a bit late and had to cut it short. Going to have to try to be a little bit more committed to getting out of bed!

Today's long run was 3 laps around a 3.5 mile loop. It was a bit rough for the first 1.5 miles but then I got warmed up (similar to the swim) and things smoothed out. Got rained on periodically throughout the run which actually felt good since it was so humid. The bird attacks resumed at mile 2.5 and were repeated each loop. This time a red winged blackbird actually hissed at me! I've never been hissed at by a bird. I guess they're changing tactics since the kamikaze attacks aren't working out for them. Oh well - bring it on!