Quest for the Qualifiers: Discovering Potential in Mid-Life

Rear view mirrors are handy things.  You can see if there is someone tailgating you, you can see if there is a police officer getting ready to pull you over, you can see if your kids are acting up in the backseat, or even (heaven forfend) if there is kale stuck in your pearly whites.  But the best thing about a rear view mirror is that you can see where you've been, maybe not the whole journey, but certainly in the very recent past.  As they say, "you don't know where you're going unless you know where you've been."  (I actually looked this phrase up to see to whom I should attribute it but apparently its' antecedents are lost to the mists of time and the Internet so the phrase is technically a cliche -- ahhhh, knowledge) Given my last post on the grind that is my current training situation someone suggested that I take a look back to see how far I've come down the road. I suppose the easiest rear view is through pictures and I can see there ...

This post is dedicated to all my friends who hold me up when I am feeling as if I can't keep this crazy quest going.  You humble me with your generosity, thoughtfulness, humor and love.  I'm not sure how I would keep going without you. Grind :  "To  shape,   sharpen,  or  refine   with   friction," or, " To   instill   or   teach   by   persistent   repetition." The word grind has become something of a catchphrase these days, usually referring to someone who keeps at something for a long time which may or may not result in achieving a certain goal.  It's an apt description for what I've been doing over the past month as I have been recovering from a severe ankle sprain, and honestly, the past few days of the grind have been super hard.  The ankle itself has been healing nicely, something for which I am extremely grateful, but progress in the gym has definitely been set back.  I've bee...