Plan(e)s change
Plans change. It's a reality of life that things don't go as we expect or anticipate. Have you ever bought a raffle ticket, one of ten-thousand, giving yourself a chance at a winning outcome? What about 9,999 raffle tickets? You expect victory. And if you went in on all 10,000? You know you're going home with the grand prize. But what happens then when the fire alarm goes off and you're outside watching the building, with your precious tickets inside, burn to the ground.
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (James 4:12-14)
Times Square, NYC. Adventure struck when flights were cancelled out of JFK, and then LaGuardia, for two days. Most tourists weren't exploring in the snowstorm so I had parts of New York City mostly to myself. It was amazing to see the swarms of city workers clearing snow in an efficient frenzy.
#everydayisanoptiwaxday, even on Broadway Street: a purple cobra was on the loose in Times Square, Central Park, and along the Hudson. So many thanks to friend Max Forton, who let me (and two other airport refugees) stay with him for two nights.
Go Hoos.
We all like to think that what we do and what we achieve is important. We like to think that plans we make are important and vital to achieving success. As athletes we make banner career goals, smaller process goals, and a detailed training plan to make those goals become an expected reality. Following the training plan to a T can be like buying all 10,000 raffle tickets; it seems the surest way to guarantee success. But, as nearly any athlete can attest, sticking to a training plan word-for-word isn't realistic, nor does it ensure success. Illness can strike at the most inopportune times. Equipment can fail on race day. Or, after experimentation with different types of training, an athlete may realize they respond better to a different type of training and the plan must be changed; the training plan is not an engraved tablet but rather a mutable, shapeless form of art.
We often hear the story of a dream denied, where plans changed and what was considered the ultimate success went unachieved. Two-time Olympian Peter Vordenberg's Momentum is maybe the most relevant to a cross-country skier or biathlete (and one of the few XC-skiing memoirs to be published). The story of a dream denied goes like this: An athlete with big goals gives everything he or she has to achieve them: time, effort, money, resources, and more. The athlete experiences early success but in the end fails to achieve the ultimate goal. Looking back, however, the athlete realizes that victory was in the process and that the joy found in the experience of pursuing that dream was worth it to the bitter end. Things didn't go as planned, but the athlete that was able to enjoy the journey no matter how many times the plan changed finds the true success.
We've all experienced the trials of when our lives don't go as planned (if you haven't, check your wiring - you're a robot). This week I was reminded of the lesson of how quickly plans can be trashed in an experience as trivial as traveling. I'm writing this on a flight from NYC-LaGuardia airport to Boston Logan airport, one more step in an ever-changing travel "day". (Hopefully) I'm reaching the end of a (hopefully no more than) 5-day travel journey from Otepää, Estonia to Lake Placid, NY. To keep from rambling, I'll give you the rapid bullet version from the beginning:
--- Lake Placid ---
Drive/Car
Bus
Fly
Fly
Train
--- Joensuu, Finland ---
Bus
Ferry
Bus
--- Otepää, Estonia ---
Bus
Fly
Fly
Train
Subway
Walk
Subway
Bus
Shuttle
Fly
Bus
Drive/Car
--- Lake Placid ----
The travel journey was fatiguing but reminded me of the futility of prideful planning. It made me look around and be thankful that I got the unexpected chance to adventure. I'm not saying that we shouldn't prepare for our travel or plan to achieve our goals, whatever they may be. We need to plan and we need to be prepared in order to succeed. But our prides and our wills can only take us so far. Expecting the unexpected and understanding the humble fragility of life will help prepare us to find success even when things don't go as planned. For me, I trust in God that His will is "good, pleasing and perfect," and that gives me peace amid uncertainty and amid changing plans.
The word "Otepää" has something to do with bears.
When I last checked in on the blog we were beginning racing in Otepää. I don't have too much to report from my experience in Estonia; I enjoyed being a part of the IBU Cup team for USA but did not ski very fast. My shooting improved in each race and I finished my last race shooting 80% (0,2). I'm not sure if it was the deceiving stress of travel catching up with me, cumulative fatigue from racing, or simply a lack of suitable skis for the conditions, but I felt slow and was without my usual "pop" during those final two races in Estonia. My ski times suffered accordingly. After starting this IBU Cup tour with an 18th fastest ski-time in Kontiolahti, where I felt like I had much room for improvement and skied with gas left in the tank, I totally emptied the tank in Otepää yet finished with a 54th place ski-time in my last race. Skiing over two minutes back in a 10km is unacceptable and serves as a reminder that I need to be committed to improving overall as a biathlete, not just merely in shooting accuracy or shooting speed.
A taste of the Otepää vibe
Otepää has a unique, almost ominous mix of old structures
Otepää town hall and city green
Estonia is as flat as a pancake; because the flowing countryside of Otepää is hillier than the vast majority of the rest of the country, Otepää is Estonia's winter sports capital. The landscape reminded me of southern/central Minnesota.
The view from our hotel. On the far left is the biathlon stadium (which felt more like a soccer stadium!), a mere 400m walk from where we stayed.
The only international "winter sports capital" with a downhill area smaller than Hyland Hills in Bloomington, MN!
For now I plan to ride this bus (since starting this entry I have progressed onto the next step of the journey, the bus ride from Boston to the New London, NH park-n-ride) and drive back to Lake Placid to get some much-needed rest for a day or two. Word has it that snow dumped from the heavens onto the Adirondacks yesterday so I will plan to invest another week and a half of quality training before US Biathlon Nationals (March 24-26 in Jericho, VT) and the SuperTour Finals 50km (April 2 in Fairbanks, AK). But plans can change...
...
Update: I've arrived in Lake Placid and the remainder of travel days 4 and 5 went smoothly and according to plan, which at this point was a surprise. I'm thankful to be able to stay in one location for a while now, and very thankful to have a roof over my head and a heated building: Lake Placid received 41" in the snow storm that kept me in New York City.
Cars are buried in Lake Placid neighborhoods
... so are trucks... sort of.
It may not be the magnitude of this year's snowstorms of the West, but it's definitely winter on Winter Street once again. That's Whiteface looming triumphantly in the sunset.
Thanks for reading. Plan on having a great day.
