I have to swim how far?

Once, a Taoist master sat with his disciples at the edge of a large, raging river. Suddenly, one of the disciples stood up and shouted that an elderly man had been caught in the river. Helpless, the party watched as the man tumbled over rocks, was dunked under water, and thrown about by the current. Assuming that he had been killed, they were astonished to see the old man climb out of the river, completely unharmed. Surprised, the master walked up to the man, and said:

"You have survived a very treacherous peril. You must be some sort of spirit!"

The old man simply laughed a kind laugh and replied:

"No, no. I've been doing that since I was a boy. I simply let the river take me. I don't struggle, I don't thrash about. I simply place myself in the river's care, and the river takes care of me."

I need to remember this tale.



Went to the Y.M.C.A. yesterday to swim with my wife. Did 6 really slow laps.



Did I ever mention what a horrible swimmer I am? Seriously, I do not seem to be able to get swimming down. I swallow water through my nose, I can't float and I don’t breath right. I get one length down the pool and my heart rate is elevated and I am out of breath. That’s not even 1 lap! I need to rest for 60 seconds before I attempt the next length. I read articles on swim strokes and watch videos on YouTube, but I still don’t seem to be able to put it all together. I didn’t want to admit it but, I think I need to go to swimming class.



I also need to heed the advice of the old man in the Taoist parable above. If I remain calm, and let things happen naturally instead of forced, good results will follow.



I do actually enjoy being in the water. Anyone living in the great lakes region should enjoy being in the water. Unfortunately, enjoying the water and being a good swimmer are 2 different things. Could I get to shore if the boat I was on sank? If it was a mile or so offshore then yes, I could. That does not make me an efficient swimmer; it just means I can propel myself in various forms through the water.



Now beginner triathlon books say that I can do any stroke I like so long as I swim the required length. That’s cool, I can do that. The thing is, I don’t WANT to do that. I want to do the freestyle stroke like most other people probably do. Its not that I want to be competitive and be in the front of the crowd; I just want the pride of being able to swim the course in the manner it was intended and be able to finish the swim segment in a halfway reasonable time.



Speaking of halfway reasonable times, I need to work on my running.

Oh, and while I'm at it I figure I also need to work on my cycling.

Hmm, if you are beginning to notice a trend here your right; I am not a triathlete…yet.

birds and bikes

There was supposed to be an enlightened post about my camping trip here, but it just isn’t going to be. Work and life has interfered with my schedule and the time has past…

Well here I am on a Friday night. I should have been out riding my bike, but instead I spent most of the evening browsing Cornell University Ornithology website.

Ornithology you ask? It’s a fancy name for bird watching or simply “birding”. My wife and I have really gotten into birding this year and today she came across the Cornell website because it had an audio file of a Black-capped Chickadee song. For years now we have been pestered by what we called the “nelson bird”. By nelson bird I mean that the birds call sounded to us like nelson from the Simpsons saying “ha-ha”, almost mocking us in the woods as we looked to the trees to trace this sound to no avail. Well, we will be mocked no longer because we know who it is.

Anyhow, I am not sure I wasted my time so much as realigned my priorities. Tomorrow morning I plan on riding the bike instead.

  On a bike note, I got out the huffy or should I say 39 lb “le grand noir”.
  le grand noir is a 198? Huffy 314 I acquired a few years back for the grand sum of $20. I spent some time do what some would call “polishing a turd” and I now have a pretty nice looking vintage 10 speed. In addition to polishing, the bike also required some new components. Brakes and handlebars were procured from a $10 huffy wind sprint, which I then turned around and sold for $40. Not a bad deal if you ask me. I got new brakes and handlebar AND put $30 in my pocket.  Actually I think I have a thing for old beat-up bikes. My wife accused me of being a bicycle hillbilly this spring when I had 6 bikes in the garage, all in varying states of repair. I took this as a signal and sold 4 bikes and bought 1. This leaves me with a current total of (do the math) 3 bikes: (1) 39lb black monster, (2) 2006 Columbia journey, and (3) 1990 Raleigh technium grand prix (aka the green machine) the green machine is my current “serious road bike” being that it is the fastest of the three. The huffy is going to get a rear rack to fit the panniers from the Columbia, which I have grown to dislike very much, and the Columbia will be sold. The Columbia used to be my grocery-shopping bike, but the huffy is a much better riding bike and will begin its grocery getting tour soon. Some may wince when they think of a 39lb bike but that heavy, old time gas pipe frame rides smooth as silk

Take me away!

These posts are still short on substance as I get used to blogging and find my own voice in the blogosphere. Life seems to imitate my blogging today, as you’ll see below…

an old calgon commercial from the 1970's perfectly fits my mood right now:

Take me away!

...after the first 15 seconds you'll see what I'm talking about.

Ok, here I am sitting at work and all I can think about is getting away from it all. I haven’t had a day off in two weeks, but Friday I’m off to the beautiful beaches of Petoskey on lake Michigan for 5 days of much needed rest. 

During the week I plan to:

Look for rocks

Swim

Hike

Trail run

Sit around doing nothing 

Read a book on the beach

Be not at work.

Just be

 I am hoping this will be like hitting a reset button and revive my training motivation. Its not really that I need the motivation to train its just that I need the motivation to make the time in my life for training. I suppose that lacking the motivation to make time to train is the SAME thing as not having the motivation to train. If I wanted to train bad enough, I would make the time.

A lot of things may be causing this lack of motivation. Having recently switched shifts at work, dealt with my sons graduation party and all the out of town relatives, and being sick I just haven’t been able to find a groove to fit into.

Just because you can move does not prove you're alive

Finally I feel better. Last night I had doubts whether I would make it or not. My throat was so swollen that I could not swallow, and I was scared I might have to go to the ER to get an epi-shot. Well, I took some allergy pills and Motrin and that seems to have fixed it! Turns out I may not have been sick at all this week, my allergies just flared worse than I have ever experienced.

This last week make me think about verse 148 of the Dhammapada:

All decrepit is this body,
Diseases’ nest and frail;
This foul mass is broken up
For life does end in death.

Explanation:  This form - this body - is fully broken down. It is truly a den of diseases. It disintegrates easily. Out of its nine orifices, putrid matter oozes constantly. It breaks apart. Death puts an end to it. (Taken from buddhanet.net)

So anyway, now I feel good enough to start training again (or at least what I call training)

ugh...

Well, looks like that scratchy feeling in my chest was a big nasty cold brewing. I haven’t had any energy for a week. This cold is just bad enough to be annoying, yet not bad enough for a doctor visit. I thought it was almost gone yesterday, but I was just pausing while it changed gears. Now I have a runny nose and a “productive” cough.

  I haven’t trained in almost 7 days now and I think that is what is bothering me the most right now. The weather has been so nice and there has been so little to do around the house that I have had plenty of time to get out, yet here I am, in the house trying to calculate when I can take another Dayquil.

I managed to get to the library on the way home from work and picked up “the non-runners marathon trainer"the non-runners marathon trainer” by David A. Whitsett. Could be an interesting read. Just in case it isn’t as interesting as I hoped, I also picked up “the man who ate his boots” by Anthony Brandt. This book is about the history of Britain’s search for the Northwest Passage. I have a thing for nautical stories. My wife, however, is not as much a fan. She says I talk in my sleep about “being at sea” when I read/watch nautical stories.  Better to be talking of being at sea than the hacking I've been doing the past two nights...

This entire weeks distance:

0.o

back to bike

 Graduation is over, open house went well. Relatives are on their way home now. What do I do? RIDE YOUR BIKE!!

Started out nice and slow. I was feeling a bit tired but, I took 2 water bottles with me and a pack of Honey Stingers thinking maybe I would go farther today. Ended up going much farther than I anticipated, but I was feeling good and missed my bike so I figured "why not?"

today's ride:

distance 13.79 mi
time 1:00:43
pace 4:24 /mi
speed 13.62 MPH

Not too bad for me. I have a scratchy feeling in my chest this evening though. I think I may be getting sick. The bike ride probably didn't help much either.

you call that running?

went out to run today. haven't had much time to devote to training this week as we are getting ready for my sons high school graduation and open house. lots of family coming to town for the event and the house needs to be ready.