Sometimes you need to listen

God gave us two ears to listen and one mouth to speak, but I am stubburn and I forget sometimes. Sometimes you need to listen.

I have 3 weeks left to train for my upcoming triathlon. Last week, they closed all Gwinnett County pools for the week, so I was left without a place to do swim training. But I have an awesome friend LT who invited me to swim train with her at her pool. I agreed and told her to take it easy on me. She is all of 90 lbs and all muscle. I was a little worried, but I knew I had to workout. It started out well, we warmed up with 400, she passed me twice. Okay, now I'm a little more worried. Then we did 50's on a clock, as fast as we could. She wanted to do 10. I think I did 3. Ugh. I know something has been missing from my training. I get in my groove and go for distance, when I know I need to practice speed. But it's different when you have someone pushing you and telling you what to do. But I did what she said. I shut up and listened. She did do the Escape to Alcrtraz triathlon, so she knows what she's talking about.

I need to listen. And I was glad I did. I came away from the workout knowing exactly what I need to do for the next 3 weeks and a feeling that I was going to improve drastically my swim time.

Then, there's the bike. Steve got a bike. Oh dear. Big time listening now. Steve is a type-A, former bodybuilder umpire who likes to tell everyone what to do. Except me. Well, he tells me, I just don't listen. So we started biking together. Ugh. The first couple of times, he spent yelling at me and I spent blocking him out. We went on a group ride with my bike friends and he still acted like a jerk. But then I knew one of my goals was to improve my bike time and maybe he could help me. I started listening. I was not shifting properly. I was coasting. I wasn't using my biggest gear. The list goes on and on. Then just like the swimming, I started getting better and I realized this is exactly what I needed to do. Each ride we take, I get better and faster. I shut up and listened.

I feel I am a compassionate trainer and I feel I listen to my clients, but maybe I should listen more and talk less. In the span of two weeks, my bike and swim are on the way to getting way better, because I listened. What else can get better if I listen better? I'm going to try and see.