A Life In Training

It's a dreary Saturday morning. The wind is blowing and the rain is coming down in buckets. Where am I? In a kayak, of course. In a kayak and loving it. I am one of those strange ducks that actually enjoys being outside in this kind of weather . . . for a while. Loving it was how the paddle started. Then, after about an hour and a half, I wanted to be home. Unfortunately, kayaking in the middle of the bay does not lend itself well to simply packing it in and going home. According to my GPS, I wasn't due to be back on shore for another 30 minutes so I decided to make the best of it and think about what I was going to blog about this week.
My thoughts drifted to the paddle I was holding. My paddle is a high performance wing paddle and I bought it from a kayak racer in Rhode Island. When I got to his house to buy the paddle, I asked to use the bathroom. Rhode Island is a long drive and I do drink a lot of water. While I was washing up, I noticed that he had written: “When you are NOT training, someone else is!” on his mirror. True as that was, I knew that I need to train in order to beat the 270 mile circumference of this island and the island does not need to train to beat me.
Then I began to think about what the term "training" really meant. According to "the Free Dictionary," training is the process of bringing a person to an agreed standard. It is a process. It involves commitment and consistency. It requires that you do something, anything. I believe that training can be physical, mental and spiritual. I believe the purpose of training is to beat the person you were yesterday. And I believe the process of continuous improvement is noble and beautiful.
Then it came to me. My blog post would be a celebration of all that I have overcome through training!
I beat my obesity by training!
I beat Diabetes by training!
I beat poor self esteem by training!
I beat joint pain by training!
I beat being unable run by training!
I beat being old before my time by training!
I beat being too tired to play with my kids by training!
I beat being ashamed by training!
I beat my limiting beliefs by training!
I beat this storm by training!
I beat negativity by training!
I beat the judgments of others by training!
I beat food addictions by training! 
. . . and the list goes on. What have you beat by training? What would you like to beat?