Getting in Gear

Labor day looms ahead of me, a sorry day indeed. The reservoirs close until next season, leaving me dry, dry dry.

I didn't make it out a single day. Amazing.

I would have never guessed our summer would shape up like this if you had asked me back in April. I'm excited, though. Yep. Here's why:

I BIKED TO THE TOP OF NCAR!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Okay, so this won't mean anything to you out-of-towners, but it's a big hill for a cycling weanie like me. And it's fairly steep. And I ride a mountain bike since road bikes are as costly as my dream race-boat. I am a happy camper. I don't usually post pictures, but this made me really happy. I'd also like to thank Kerry for accompanying me, and Zane, for his overall influence on my lifestyle. (See those saddle-bags, Zane? They are much loved! woohoo!)

And it's my new workout lover. I shall climb this hill, near my house, at least once a week from now on. I'd like to make it my pre-skiing substitute, and start getting up to ride at 6am a few mornings a week. I have a second similar hill not too far away, and if I can alternate, I'll be getting a nice workout. Then once the snow arrives, I'll be skate skiing in the mornings.

Happily, the biking will continue: now both kids go to preschool, but at different times. I now have 6 opportunities to ride 5 miles round trip just for that. So I'm hoping to ride 20-25 miles a week right there (can't do it every time due to schedule constraints), plus other errands. I might not be paddling, but I'm improving my overall fitness still.

Add to that the tai chi (starting that back up today YAY!) and the farming, and I'm feeling good. Oh, and with our first litter of baby bunnies even the poo-cleaning chores feel more fun. Maybe I can make this work still, even with my husband's crazy work schedule. :)

The many shades of greatness

Okay, so my inspirational reading begs the question: did Diana Nyad make it? Did she swim the distance of 103 miles between Cuba and Florida? The now-obvious and somewhat disappointing answer is, no, she did not. But come on! She made it about halfway, despite massive asthma attacks (she was prepared for some difficulty, but not debilitating) and strong pains in her shoulder which she had never encountered before that day. She fought hard, and in the end, she had to stop.

Am I sad for her? Yes, and no.

I would have loved to see her make a statement to the world about what women in their 60's can achieve with the simple completion of the distance. After all, society wants little sound bites to judge quickly and simply if there was success or failure. So I'm sorry that many will see this as failure. It wasn't, though. The training, the effort, still leave her better off than if she hadn't tried at all. She inspired others, and touched their lives. Now she's helping people take a good hard look at 'success' and hopefully deepen their understanding of it.

And I would have liked to see her do it for her own vindication and joy. I relate to the process she underwent to set the goal, have the courage to make it public, and to go for it all-out. Her spirit is indomitable. I'm sure she cried in frustration when she was in the boat, but her interview afterward demonstrated what a winner she is: an amazingly strong lady mentally, emotionally, and physically, who had the grace and wisdom to appreciate the experience for what it was- team work, hard work and training, and the best her body could offer on that particular day.

My husband made a good point when we were reading her report and watching the interview: she swam 50 miles in the ocean. Fifty. Miles. 24 hours. Really. My hat is off to her. I hope I put up as good a fight in my own life-challenges.

Inspirational reading

I have some stuff in the works to talk about soon, but for now, check out this victory for us all:

"Diana Nyad attempted it once before. It was 1978 when she was 28, but 42 hours into what's supposed to be a 60-hour swim, her team pulled the plug. Nyad, a world-class endurance swimmer, had been defeated by nature: the water temperature was a tad cool and the wind produced sizable waves.
A year or so later, Nyad did manage to swim 102.5 miles from Bimini to Florida before she retired at 30. But, as ESPN says in its profile of Nyad, just before her 60th birthday and following the death of her 82-year-old mother, she started to think back to 1978 and said "Would I? Could I?"


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/08/139082543/from-cuba-to-florida-a-61-year-old-starts-the-103-mile-swim?sc=fb&cc=fp

Sanity riegns

The impatient, ambitious, burn-it-all Viking in me lost out to the more mature, mellow part, I'm sure all of you will be relieved to hear.

I was 75% sure of that even when I wrote my last post, but liked entertaining the idea of a mad push for September anyway.  *sigh* If given the opportunity to actually focus on my own goals and work towards them, I suspect I could achieve great things... but I never get the chance to have single-pointed focus on *anything*.  It's ironic that passion burns bright in the 20's, but we often lack the discipline or wisdom to take advantage. Then in the 30's, we know how to execute what we want, but in my case, there are kids and other tasks that require multitasking, watering down my effectiveness. I wonder what the 40's will look like?

In the meantime, I have small goals. I feel like I'm starting over, but really I'm not. I'm in much better shape this time around. I'd like to add tai chi back into my life again this month. I also have brought up the exercise gear we have: balance disks, small weights, an ab roller, elastic bands for resistance training, and a mat. I'm going to do the 100 Push-up challenge again that I did last year, and just start doing little things when I have 5 minutes to spare here and there. I'm also going to put this computer back downstairs, and only let myself check it once in the morning, and when I need to write a new blog post.

I'm going to resurrect the monthly Exercise Confessional too. Accountability helps with getting things rolling again. I think I'll do it weekly just to get myself going, and then cut back when it becomes normal again. Bear with me- I swear I have more things to post beside my exercise! ;)