It seems to be a mainstay in any lifelong checklist of the dream ladened would-be adventurer: Run a marathon. I'm not exactly sure how many people say this and of those, actually complete it. But I have to say, it is enticing. So, I'm in.
I started training for the Chicago Marathon a few months ago. I looked up strategies on the web, workout schedules, movies about marathons, songs to listen to while running - the whole shebang. Well, the shebang that didn't cost anything. Anywho, it was a slew of information. This site was invaluable. Not being a runner of any kind, I needed to start slow. There was a 10 week schedule that had as the only requirement "Must be able to run for 30 minutes." 30 minutes? Yeah, I think I could do that. I strapped on some old beat up cross trainers and trotted out the door. To disastrous effect. I think it might have been the trotting that did me in. I couldn't run for more than 10 minutes without wheezing. Sad.
Now don't get the wrong idea. I am by no means a sedentary couch surfer who guzzles mountain dew and snacks incessantly on hot pockets. Any more. I, despite my lack of running stamina, am a very healthy active person:
I bike to work 7 miles every day and 7 miles home.
I quit smoking a year ago and haven't cheated once.
I eat a vegetarian diet fairly regularly.
I drink plenty of water.
I'm well within my weight.
These should be the mark of a person that can run for 30 minutes. They are not. Apparently, running is a -completely- different beast and one that shouldn't be taken lightly, lest it rip your calves off. So, instead of the 10 week training, I went for the 26 week. And then some. I figure, I'll take my time and work my way into it slowly. The number one cause of injury in running is taking on too much too soon. Not gonna happen.
I started walking in the freezing January mornings where the temperature was sitting at a balmy 15 degrees, and told myself that this was the temperature of commitment. Being a winter cyclist, it didn't bother me too much, and I remember looking at the dead and barren trees and being excited that I was going to see them blossom while I trained.
I walked for 40 minutes, 4 days a week, for 3 weeks. While it sounds slow, it made me realize how little I actually used these muscles. Biking is not the same. Then it morphed into run/walks then short runs that lasted 20 minutes. As I built up to non stop runs, I could feel myself changing. my knees started hurting less, my legs felt lighter, yet denser. I started walking straighter.
The day I was able to run for 30 minutes was a small but important milestone, one that I wasn't going to overlook.
And all the while, leaves started showing on the trees.
I started the full training a couple of weeks ago. I run for 4 days a week with the longest run on Saturdays. This past Saturday, I ran 5 miles. While some may consider this a basic run, this is the farthest I've ever run. In my life.
From here on out, every Saturday is a new challenge that I've never even attempted before. It'll keep getting tougher, and I think I'll keep getting tougher too.
This coming Saturday will be 6 miles. Then 8. And on until I get to 26.2.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Frequencies, Rhythm, and New Agey Hooha
I was lost in thought on the idea of frequency and rhythm and how important they may actually be. Rhythm is everywhere. It's the rate of our heart beat. It's the speed that we walk. We find it the way that we speak and the thoughts that we think. Rhythm is everywhere. It's possible that we might be able to identify ourselves to these particular rhythms that we hold, that it becomes a frequency of behavior, an undulating frequency of personality.
I feel that these frequencies aren't, or can't be, static, that they change as we come into contact with other frequencies and rhythms around us. The music that I listen to makes my foot tap, the steps I take make my head bob. That girl on the train makes my heart race. We're operating on variable frequencies that are subject to change.
What happens if the frequencies or rhythms that we operate on are off, or dissonant to the frequencies around us. Would that make us uncomfortable? Could we sense if someone else is off? Is it possible to actively tune ourselves to specific frequencies? Is there an overarching frequency, one that is the base of all others?
How wonderful that would be, yeah? What if the big puzzle of the universe is all about finding the right tune? What if meditation is just tuning yourself in the morning to keep the same tune all day? What if good things happen to bad people just because they've found a frequency that works, that it's not a moral thing but just good timing? What if bad things happen to good people because one bad thing happened and they just couldn't get back in step? What if nothing changes for some people because they're never exposed to any new rhythms? What if they refuse to change their own rhythm, regardless of how bad things are, just because they're used to it? What if they can't dance?
The secret to someone's life may be hidden in the rhythm that they keep. How can we find this rhythm? How can we keep a rhythm? Can we tune to other people? Are other people tuning to me? Can I disrupt the rhythm of those around me? Am I doing that already? Can we get a group of people in the same rhythm without their knowing? Or are we always aware of our rhythm on some level? Can I tune other people?
Can I find my own rhythm? Can I distinguish it from other rhythms? Can I describe my rhythm? How to go about this? What to listen for?
There's a story here. I'll look into this.
I feel that these frequencies aren't, or can't be, static, that they change as we come into contact with other frequencies and rhythms around us. The music that I listen to makes my foot tap, the steps I take make my head bob. That girl on the train makes my heart race. We're operating on variable frequencies that are subject to change.
What happens if the frequencies or rhythms that we operate on are off, or dissonant to the frequencies around us. Would that make us uncomfortable? Could we sense if someone else is off? Is it possible to actively tune ourselves to specific frequencies? Is there an overarching frequency, one that is the base of all others?
How wonderful that would be, yeah? What if the big puzzle of the universe is all about finding the right tune? What if meditation is just tuning yourself in the morning to keep the same tune all day? What if good things happen to bad people just because they've found a frequency that works, that it's not a moral thing but just good timing? What if bad things happen to good people because one bad thing happened and they just couldn't get back in step? What if nothing changes for some people because they're never exposed to any new rhythms? What if they refuse to change their own rhythm, regardless of how bad things are, just because they're used to it? What if they can't dance?
The secret to someone's life may be hidden in the rhythm that they keep. How can we find this rhythm? How can we keep a rhythm? Can we tune to other people? Are other people tuning to me? Can I disrupt the rhythm of those around me? Am I doing that already? Can we get a group of people in the same rhythm without their knowing? Or are we always aware of our rhythm on some level? Can I tune other people?
Can I find my own rhythm? Can I distinguish it from other rhythms? Can I describe my rhythm? How to go about this? What to listen for?
There's a story here. I'll look into this.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The once and future Car.
The electric car is back. Hopefully here to stay as major car manufacturers are increasingly pushing the idea of the electric car on a public made wary of their efficacy, ironically by the those same manufacturers. Now with the Chevy Volt, Nissan LEAF and the All electric ford focus hitting the consumer market, major corporations are teaming up with Cisco to provide a method of controlling the household meter from spiraling out of control.
While I'm a huge proponent of the electric car, I think only aiming at the consumer market at this time is trying to fit an older paradigm to a shifting world view. The partnering with Cisco is symptomatic of a lack of infrastructure on which the electric car can sustain itself. By pointing only at private car owners the burden of allowing the electric car to succeed or fail rests solely on the shoulders of first adopters.
What to do, then? Municipal vehicles. Set up a single city on a fleet of electric vehicles, buses, cop cars, city workers, even subsidize cabs to switch over as a part of city works. By going the public route, the major car manufacturers can pipe R&D money into the infrastructure of having charging stations set up around the city, experiment with new technologies in the public sector and try to involve not just the municipal government in paying for it, but the electric company, community investors, and even federal money, all in the vane of infrastructure.
Set up the infrastructure, then open it up to the clamoring public that knows it works and the chance for making money on this is limitless. Charging stations at every parking meter. Charging lanes on the highway using short range broadcast power like WiTricity. Just ID every vehicle using RF chips that passively bills consumers as they use. A monthly bill from the city or electric company would make it easy.
Whether this comes to pass or not, the electric car needs to be the future. Let's just hope they don't drive them into the desert again to tear it all down.
While I'm a huge proponent of the electric car, I think only aiming at the consumer market at this time is trying to fit an older paradigm to a shifting world view. The partnering with Cisco is symptomatic of a lack of infrastructure on which the electric car can sustain itself. By pointing only at private car owners the burden of allowing the electric car to succeed or fail rests solely on the shoulders of first adopters.
What to do, then? Municipal vehicles. Set up a single city on a fleet of electric vehicles, buses, cop cars, city workers, even subsidize cabs to switch over as a part of city works. By going the public route, the major car manufacturers can pipe R&D money into the infrastructure of having charging stations set up around the city, experiment with new technologies in the public sector and try to involve not just the municipal government in paying for it, but the electric company, community investors, and even federal money, all in the vane of infrastructure.
Set up the infrastructure, then open it up to the clamoring public that knows it works and the chance for making money on this is limitless. Charging stations at every parking meter. Charging lanes on the highway using short range broadcast power like WiTricity. Just ID every vehicle using RF chips that passively bills consumers as they use. A monthly bill from the city or electric company would make it easy.
Whether this comes to pass or not, the electric car needs to be the future. Let's just hope they don't drive them into the desert again to tear it all down.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Indentity leads to action, not the other way around.
The new year is always the time that I, like most, look back on the last twelve months with a critical eye and look forward to the coming year with hope. This could be a post where I try to analyze where I went wrong and what I did right in 2010 but I think it's best to just let sleeping dogs lie. What I need to do is come up general sketch of what I want 2011 to look like and see how close my predictions come. I believe they calls these 'resolutions' in the parlance of the times, but I'm wary of these things as they always seem to fire a little too loud but sound flat as they echoes bounce off the following days.
T made a great point today, that resolutions usually fail because they mostly point to things that people want, and those wants change or become diluted by circumstances. We want to lose weight, stop smoking, focus, exercise more, etc. But these are feats of will, and as I've been told, cannot be sustained. A better method, one that I'm going to try to subscribe to, is to define these things as identity. You're not trying to lose weight and exercise more, you're an athletic person. You're not trying to stop smoking, you're a non-smoker. By clearly defining the person I want to be I hope to have an easier time making decisions that are more in line with that identity.
So. The question becomes not 'what are my new years resolutions' but rather 'who am I resolved to be?'
T made a great point today, that resolutions usually fail because they mostly point to things that people want, and those wants change or become diluted by circumstances. We want to lose weight, stop smoking, focus, exercise more, etc. But these are feats of will, and as I've been told, cannot be sustained. A better method, one that I'm going to try to subscribe to, is to define these things as identity. You're not trying to lose weight and exercise more, you're an athletic person. You're not trying to stop smoking, you're a non-smoker. By clearly defining the person I want to be I hope to have an easier time making decisions that are more in line with that identity.
So. The question becomes not 'what are my new years resolutions' but rather 'who am I resolved to be?'
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Of Success and Failure
Success and Failure are relative terms, a negotiation of an internal mind with an external reality. It would seem that because of their relative nature, they are meaningless, but are they? If by one set of standards you could be considered a success, say from those that would like to be in a similar position, and from another perspective a failure as from those that pity or loathe the same condition, does that make you any less a success or failure? In other words, does it help the man in the pan that the man in the fire envies him?
Can success and failure even exist without an external judgment?
Can success and failure even exist without an external judgment?
God must think my misery is hilarious
I hate my life.
Not really, but sometimes I get the feeling that something is out to make things just that much more difficult for me. I think about the idea of self sabotage, of self fulfilling prophesy and negative attitudes and creating my own reality. I even came up with a scientific version that translates it into probability fields that we generate based on quantum mechanics and the observed reality in relation to the observer, we being probability generators that change the substance of reality by holding beliefs that limit a parameter of possible outcomes and in essence being responsible and accountable for the end results. But sometimes shit just don't work.
I seriously just spent a good couple of hours trying to fix something and going through all the steps that I knew to fix it, and when that didn't work I set aside pride and looked up instructions that I followed to a tee. When that didn't work, I asked a co worker to walk me through it and I listened patiently as he described the same steps that I had taken. When that didn't work, I asked someone else to do it while I watched. And I watched the same steps. I saw the same thinking. I observed the same patterns of behavior and watched as a different outcome presented itself.
It was fixed. I was thankful that it was fixed. I didn't care that it was me that fixed it.
Really.
Then I turned it off, took it from the work bench and put back where it belonged, maybe twenty feet away, turned it back on, and it was broken. Again.
I quashed the rising frustration and set to fixing it. I ran through the steps patiently, did everything I had just seen, just watched, thinking that I must've missed something the first time I tried and now, with it fresh in my mind, I could fix it.
Still nothing.
The person that had fixed it came over, glanced at it, plugged it back in and it worked just fine.
If insanity is repeating the same steps over and over again and expecting different results, then this is crazy. And if this is crazy, what the hell am I?
Not really, but sometimes I get the feeling that something is out to make things just that much more difficult for me. I think about the idea of self sabotage, of self fulfilling prophesy and negative attitudes and creating my own reality. I even came up with a scientific version that translates it into probability fields that we generate based on quantum mechanics and the observed reality in relation to the observer, we being probability generators that change the substance of reality by holding beliefs that limit a parameter of possible outcomes and in essence being responsible and accountable for the end results. But sometimes shit just don't work.
I seriously just spent a good couple of hours trying to fix something and going through all the steps that I knew to fix it, and when that didn't work I set aside pride and looked up instructions that I followed to a tee. When that didn't work, I asked a co worker to walk me through it and I listened patiently as he described the same steps that I had taken. When that didn't work, I asked someone else to do it while I watched. And I watched the same steps. I saw the same thinking. I observed the same patterns of behavior and watched as a different outcome presented itself.
It was fixed. I was thankful that it was fixed. I didn't care that it was me that fixed it.
Really.
Then I turned it off, took it from the work bench and put back where it belonged, maybe twenty feet away, turned it back on, and it was broken. Again.
I quashed the rising frustration and set to fixing it. I ran through the steps patiently, did everything I had just seen, just watched, thinking that I must've missed something the first time I tried and now, with it fresh in my mind, I could fix it.
Still nothing.
The person that had fixed it came over, glanced at it, plugged it back in and it worked just fine.
If insanity is repeating the same steps over and over again and expecting different results, then this is crazy. And if this is crazy, what the hell am I?
Friday, September 17, 2010
Clean start to a new year
So I just got back from my buddy's birthday party. I had made plans to get out of work a couple of hours early so I could head down there and be social for a spell, not too many chances of that these days, and I was really looking forward to it. Things didn't quite work out as planned and I got swamped at the job leaving late rather than early. I show up just as things are winding down, and everybody is in the slow haze of a good evening just past, the drunken conversations not making as much sense as they did earlier but a helluva lot funnier. I have a beer as a few more people filter out and even the birthday boy calls it quits while people are still packing it up. Stuff is everywhere and the few of us left start a meandering pick up but interest quickly peters out.
Eventually I find myself alone, surrounded by the aftermath of a party that I essentially missed.
I didn't mind though. I kept picking up and it reminded me of the holidays and the times I wanted to do something nice for my Mom but couldn't afford anything fancy. So I would clean the house while she was asleep, she being a very tidy and fastidious kind of lady. She loved that kind of thing. It meant a lot to her that I did that, and she would gush about what a nice job I had done. I think my friend is the kind of person that would also appreciate that kind of thing.
While I was reminiscing, picking up this and that, bringing things inside, tidying up here and there, I found that I had completely cleaned his kitchen. I'm not sure if he's gonna be weirded out or not, I'm not sure if I'd be weirded out, but I'm not sure if it matters.
Eventually I find myself alone, surrounded by the aftermath of a party that I essentially missed.
I didn't mind though. I kept picking up and it reminded me of the holidays and the times I wanted to do something nice for my Mom but couldn't afford anything fancy. So I would clean the house while she was asleep, she being a very tidy and fastidious kind of lady. She loved that kind of thing. It meant a lot to her that I did that, and she would gush about what a nice job I had done. I think my friend is the kind of person that would also appreciate that kind of thing.
While I was reminiscing, picking up this and that, bringing things inside, tidying up here and there, I found that I had completely cleaned his kitchen. I'm not sure if he's gonna be weirded out or not, I'm not sure if I'd be weirded out, but I'm not sure if it matters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)