Mental toughness training

I mentioned in a previous post that being tired from a workout is not an excuse to not spend quality time with my wife and daughter.  We all know that after a really hard workout, we just want to lie down and sleep to recover and heal our tired body.

I guess my workout doesn't end in the road or the pool.  When I'm back at home, I still have to exercise extreme  will power and mental toughness to force myself to stay awake watching reruns of Dora the Explorer with my daughter.

But then it really isn't difficult staying awake and hearing my daughter shout "ba-pack" together with Dora when Dora calls her to "Say backpack" and when she dances the "We did it!" song together with Dora.

It is images of these that I continually play in my mind to give me the strength to finish strong.

But then I still sympathize with Mitchell Pritchett of "The Modern Family" series whose daughter is equally entranced by Dora.  One of my favorite "mean" lines is:

"As much as I love Lily, which you know, more than life itself, I am, whoooo, not cut out to be   a stay-at-home dad.  But it's Cameron's turn.  It's Cameron's turn to be out in the world, interacting with other grown ups, while I get to stay at home and plot the death of Dora the Explorer... Fill her backpack with bricks and throw her into the Candy Cane River"   :-)

Dog day musings while running

I see all kinds of people walking their dogs around our neighborhood park.  One of my weirdest encounters was when I saw a 6foot, 200lb man walking a toy dog!  It was one of those teeny tiny too small to mention breeds!  Yeah sure you may have nothing to compensate for unlike the rest of us 125lb weaklings who get rottweilers but cmon!  Couldn't you at least have gotten a beagle?


Imagine this: A burly man with beefy arms and tree trunk legs, walking a dog who is no bigger than his foot.


I shudder at the thought should he trip and fall on his dog...


Another time a lady was walking her dog untethered and was trying to encourage him to run.  As I ran past them I could hear her telling her dog:


                       "There!  Run after that man!"


Sheesh!  And it was supposed to be an easy run day for me...