Happiness :-)

Five components of happiness

Happiness is a personal choice. Many people wrongly believe that happiness depends on what we get in our life, such as money, social status, or love relationship. The fact is that we are using these things to fill what is missing inside.

There are five basic pillars for happiness.

1. Self-respect
   Our self-respect is the core of our existence. Lack of self-respect or self-love is the major reason of unhappiness. True self-respect comes from within instead of from outside. It is based on unconditional acceptance of self.
2. Assertiveness
   Being assertive means we can say no to others without feeling guilty. Assertiveness creates a boundary so that our basic value and resources are protected. Lack of assertiveness leads to people-pleasing or failure to stand up to our rights. This further leads to feeling of inferiority.
3. Letting go the past
   Most sadness or unresolved anger come from our attachment to the past. Given that our life moves only forward and can never turn back, we will experience deep agony if we are haunted by the past. You can never re-live the past. It is gone, forever. Accepting this fact is the only way that we can live in the present, which is how we can enjoy life.
4. A meaningful goal
   Humans are purpose-driven beings. Lack of a meaningful goal leads to boredom, which is one reason of excessive need for entertainment, food, or addictive substances such as alcohol or cigarettes.
5. Human connection
   No one can live without meaningful contact with others. Caring for or giving to others is fundamental to our beings. Without connection with others, such as family members, friends or colleagues, we will experience loneliness and deep void.

If you are unhappy, which piece of above is missing?

* This comes from a site I came across today ilifecoach.com. There's some interesting reading here; I liked the "tools" section best.

BTW... Training is going great this week!

And... Good Luck to all those doing Oceanside (Loren, you're going to crush!)

A Day Off...

Well yesterday was Easter and it was a great chance for my wife and I to get some quality time together. We went down to Half Moon Bay and had brunch at Cetrella. The food was very good; they were doing a special Prefix menu for easter (with a couple of options). I had an onion & goat cheese tart w/ arugula and wildflower honey followed by grilled salmon with asparagus over cous cous and dessert was a warm molten chocolate cake w/ orange caramel ice cream. My wife (Julie) had a French style cream of broccoli soup with truffle oil drizzled on top followed by on interesting twist on the classic "steak & eggs". It was a mash of potatoes, spinach and very tender steak with two poached eggs on top And on top of that was a very light lobster hollandaise sauce. Her dessert was a lemon Creme Fraiche ice cream macaroon napoleon (not easy to say), very interesting but not quite what you'd expect.

Overall, the food was Very good. The hostess was pleasant and the guy who I can only assume was the manager was very nice to us. Our server, though a bit quirky was attentive and pretty on top of things. They need help with their runners though... almost spilled the soup, mixed up the position on food delivery for every course, tried to give my ice tea to the table opposite us and us their take home bag and didn't provide me with a dessert fork. Like I said, they need a little help... But the Food was very good and I thanked the cooks in the open air kitchen as we exited. I would definitely give them another try.

After brunch we drove down to the beach to take a couple of pictures and then over to the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay (a.k.a. the poor mans Pebble Beach). We mainly just walked around took a few photo's of the beach and I oohh'd and aahh'd at the golf course.

After that we took a back road from the main road in half moon bay up to skyline blvd. We drove by some cool little houses and then up a road where we saw some roadies. Let me tell you... these people (women and men riders) were EARNING their dinner! When I mapped it on mapmytri.com it was 2170 of relentless climbing. Small road through the redwoods and I'm telling you, while I was driving up it I was thinking these people are getting their butts handed to them right now. Luckily it was beautiful and it was in the redwoods so there was very little sun to beat down on them. Oh... the road is called Tunitas Creek Rd. and it starts on route 1 and ends on route 35.

From route 35 (skyline blvd), we headed home to relax for the rest of the day.

Here are a few pictures:

Julie, Chris & Ron


Beach at Ritz Carlton


Beach Flower


Golf Course at Ritz Carlton


Spring Wild Flower

Training Philosophy :: Solo vs. Group

So... in my morning swim today (which had it's highs and lows), I got to thinking about the potential advantages of training with a group. I thought back to when I was playing any sport, it's always your teammates who you don't want to let down, so you push yourself harder. Or it's your teammates who are pushing you because they know you have it in you; maybe just not on that day. There's also the camaraderie that comes with a "team"... I always loved that part.

What is it about the solo workout that you're able to justify why you should take it easy or stop all together. It's like when the alarm goes off and you do some crazy formula in your mostly asleep brain that allows you to cut something out of your morning schedule and gain even 5 more minutes of sleep (we've all been there).

But with your training, it should be different! You should be more motivated and go Harder when you get that feeling. Someone else is training harder than you at that moment and is going to kick your Ass on race day because they didn't take it easy or stop.

I talked briefly about this with Loren today (I saw him when I was picking up my wetsuit - Thanks Ben! I'll send the check right away. Address?). He raised a good point that Tri training is very specific to the individual; what's good for me wouldn't be good for him or any other person unless you are at the same fitness level and/or the same training schedule.

He's totally right. So Unless you have the same fitness level And your schedules match up to peak for a race Or you're dong speed workouts ... you're on your own (at least from my perspective).

To avoid the pitfalls of the "oh I'll just go easy" stuff, I'm going to try and put together a workout schedule (with Loren's help of course ~ he's coaching me a bit) that has me doing Very specific workouts, at specific heart rates zone, specific intervals, etc... Essentially spelling out every detail of the workout so I know that what is laid out for me, will accomplish my goals and if I don't do it, I'm only cheating myself.

And as much as I loved the camaraderie, I want to do well in my races which means my training has to be specific to me. I guess I'll get the bonding done over beers ;-)

Here's an interesting article from Endurance Lap on the topic.

Thoughts?

Workouts, Dreams and a cool Picture

Well today was my first day back from my cold. I went Super Easy (ran 2 miles at 9:13 pace and then lifted). Total workout 1 hour. Although I'll probably go for a bike ride tonight... Again Easy or coach will yell.

I've actually been looking at being sick as a motivational factor. When I get sick, I feel like I'm falling behind in my training (which I am) because I'm not working out and my lungs are taking a bit of a beating. So I have to get things back to steady state and then keep improving. It helps me mentally to have an additional goal in my training.

As for the dreams... maybe it was the NyQuil or the Afrin but I had some nasty Tri anxiety dreams. The first one was that Everything was going wrong; I was late, I was lost in transition and overall had a shitty race. The next one (back 2 back nights) was signifcantly better... I kicked ass! I was fast and doing great in all areas of the race. Whether it was the drugs or me reading to much, I need to use positive thinking to get me out of the bad place.

Lastly... Check out this picture I created. I'm doing a contract gig for Roxio (Flash based eLearning) and have been playing with the software; it's pretty cool. I created this picture by putting 6 picutures together. More like uploading six picture and the software pretty much did everything for me; order, alignment, contrast adjustments, etc... The software is Easy Media Creator 10. It does way more than photos (that's just the section I'm on). Anway check out this picture, it's the view out the east side of our condo.

Stupid Cold!!!

Ok... I'm officially Pissed that somehow I got a chest cold. I have no idea how since I'm working at home these days, But I'm sure some infectious SOB touched something that I then touched and transferred their germs to me!

Now... this is going to affect my workouts and I'm NOT HAPPY about it. Do you know how hard it is to run 8 miles w/ a chest cold? Let alone get out of bed when you feel like shit.

Here's some info for all you people out there training that don't want to get sick. And for all you dumb ass's out there who don't know how to keep your germs to yourself.

Keep your germs to yourself:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose.
• Discard used tissues in the trash as soon as you can.
• Always wash your hands after sneezing, blowing your nose, or coughing, or after touching used tissues or handkerchiefs. Wash hands often if you are sick.
• Use warm water and soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizers to wash your hands.
• Try to stay home if you have a cough and fever.
• See your doctor as soon as you can if you have a cough and fever, and follow their instructions. Take medicine as prescribed and get lots of rest.

Keep the germs away:

• Wash your hands before eating, or touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
• Wash your hands after touching anyone who is sneezing, coughing or blowing their nose.
• Don’t share things like towels, lipstick, toys, or anything else that might be contaminated with respiratory germs.
• Don’t share food, utensils or beverage containers with others.

Don't spread your Germs!!!

An Interesting Observation.

Well... It's been a little while since my last post. I got totally bogged down w/ several projects I have going.

So here's a little something funny that I observed in my run yesterday. As you run in the city you obviously run past a lot of people and to avoid colliding with them (mainly because they don't pay attention to where they're going) you have to let them know you are coming and which side you're going to pass on.

Yesterday I would estimate that I ran past 75-100 people and when I got about 10 feet from them I'd either say "on the left" or "on the right". I swear NOT ONE of them looked to the side I said. I say left, they look right. I say right, they look left. I even tried "coming through" and they would either move closer together or further apart

I basically just stopped saying anything and went around them... It worked much better.

More later this week.