Sprint

This is it. The final week. The final state. Some might call it the "Final Frontier". Today I crossed the border into Virginia which means the next border I cross will be into Washington DC. Not only is this the final week of my bike ride, but this is also my final week in London town. What a trip. Oprah says it's ok to cry, and I think I might. In fact I almost cried on the bike this morning, but that was mostly because this morning I didn't see how it was possible for me to finish this ride before leaving London and I was feeling very discouraged, hence the measly 30 k when the morning before I had gone 60 in almost the same amount of time. This final week is going to be a sprint to the finish in every aspect of my life in London. I have one suitcase packed and ready to go. The other will have to wait until Friday night when I've had a chance to wash all my smelly gym clothes (my bathroom now officially smells like a locker room, my flat mate Lynn can vouch... sorry Lynn, but at least I'm putting the detergent in the right compartment now).

At work today some of my teammates were talking about working out as we watched the olympics on one of the screens on our floor. My other coworker who sits opposite me and away from my team was talking about how he could beat any one of the bicycle sprinters. I don't think he works out though... ever. I turned around and chimed in with a request to take a little bit of a longer lunch break to go work out. I had a chat with my coworker Andy, whose also kind of my manager... but not really, and I told him about my ride and how I wasn't going to be able to make it unless I took a longer lunch hour for the rest of the week to go ride. As I explained to him what I was doing and showed him my map and the plan of attack I made on excel (it's always good to work on excel spreadsheets at work, no matter what you're doing with them) he became more and more sympathetic and by the time I was finished explaining my goal he was getting excited about it as well. He ran the London Marathon this year so I know how much he must LOVE training plans.

I went home, changed into my gym clothes and brought my work clothes to the gym and put them in a locker. I rode 50 km faster than ever before, just over 56 minutes. With the extra riding I would be doing during my lunch hours this week, I was back on track to finish. I am again hopeful that this whole fiasco will not fizzle out in a most disappointing display of extravagant, drawn out failure. I have reason to believe that God is with me an dhas been with me the entire time, providing me with just enough guidance and hope to keep me going at every point throughout this "trip". It would be foolish of me to credit it to myself, not to mention extremely arrogant that I could actually control the external factors the have been driving me and keeping me motivated just beyond the point of quitting.

For the past two weeks there have been about 60 seconds every morning when I've debated whether or not to just give up and go back to sleep. Every morning I tell myself that if I give up today, I give up forever, and so I get up and go to the gym without really seeing how I can finish. In a Theories of Personality psych course I took my junior year I was given a test that measures your likelihood of future success based on two factors: your Will power, and your Way power. Your Will power is intended to measure you're drive and determination to succeed in any given goal whereas your Way power is intended to measure your ability to analyze exactly what needs to be done and set up a plan of attack with which to follow through. I scored very high on Will power, but below average on Way power. It seems to be hold true yet today, although I must say, with the whole excel thing I drew up I might be improving on that front :)

It should also be noted that If I were to simply have given up my social life, I would have no problem finishing, and I'd probably be done already. But I've also decided that to completely quit on my social life would also be a failure of sorts. True, I have missed out on some things here and there, but overall, I'm content with the choices I've made.

Tomorrow I have my leaving drinks with four of my other friends who work on our same floor of over 300, four other interns who are also leaving at the end of the week. (sigh)

Well, this is it. My next post will be the one that tells you whether I made it or not.