The Focus
“I’ve got to make every moment count for something.” I tell myself this over and over when I’m waking up at 5AM to ride my turbo trainer. It lives in my garage. Right now, that is a real treat, ’cause the weather in Athens, GA has been hanging out at 75+ percent humidity.
The most recent addition to this ‘pain cave’ is a trainer that outputs power in watts to my bike computer. There are tons of articles you can read about this if you aren’t an ardent cyclist. If you are, you may have your own stance about training and interpreting power data. But for me, I’m looking to be steady and consistent most of the time. Holding the same number of watts for 5 to 10 minutes or even building intensity over that span of time — that is what will help me help my teammates cruise the course for Pelotonia 2018. If you have any doubt of my commitment — see the silliness I engaged in last Saturday during National Cancer Survivor Day weekend:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1612946506
Lately, when I really hit that wall that says I can’t do this for much longer, I’ve started visualizing how much time it took when I had to prepare and give myself injections of interferon. For 11 months, every other night, I would prep the needle, clean the skin, make the cocktail of water and dry materials, stick myself and push that plunger.
I make myself slowly go through these steps from my memory vault, all the while trying to maintain the power, the cadence, and the effort for just a few minutes, few seconds longer. Remember the Suffering, Block out the Hurt, Burst through that next performance barrier, and No White flags.
But that focus can wander sometimes. The real focus for me isn’t the hell I’ve been through, but how I can make it less so for others. This is one of the greatest impacts of Pelotonia and why I commit so much time to it. I’ve seen too many of my friends and family devastated by Cancer and Pelotonia is at least one wonderful conduit with which I can strike back. You can check my progress towards this year’s goal here (and maybe help me get a little closer!)
Check me out at www.pelotonia.org/carabello1014.
By assuring that every single penny raised goes to research, they are focused on the future. A future where maybe cancer is just another chronic disease or even flat out cured. Ever year I’ve participated in Pelotonia, I’ve received some token from them to extol the notion that I am Living Proof. Cancer can be beaten back, held in check, even destroyed.
