Day 22 – Weight Lifting

I had not idea lifting weights would feel so good. Last November my eldest son, Brian, encouraged me to join him in a sport I had never before tried. Albeit, growing up I did my fair share of throwing hay bails and sacks of grain around the family farm.

I remembered feeling very awkward and weak those first few weeks. My arms wobbled under the free weights. It felt like everyone was watching me. I lifted only 30-40% of the weight that Brian lifted, but I still pushed and pulled the weights to the right position only with intense effort. The days following that first week of lifting left my muscles stiff and sore.

Now, eight months later, I understand why he goes to the gym so faithfully. For one, he likes to look good and his finely tuned and muscular torso provides evidence. More importantly, though, is how good it feels to be in sturdier condition. I’ve regularly cycled now for over 10 years so my legs and glutes are in pretty good shape. After lifting for these months, I’ve noticed my cycling has improved as a result of a better-conditioned core and torso. I walk more confidentially and with better posture. I think our bodies were made to be active. Our legs give us mobility and our arms the ability to pick up and carry things. We bend in the middle so we can sit down, but I don’t believe that’s our most natural position. Walking suits our structure better. Our spine is more naturally curved. Our frame is sturdier. It’s harder to push over a person standing than it is if they are sitting in a chair. If people exercised more, they’d be healthier, happier and clearer minded.

Day 12 – Hard Ride

Today Scott, Carol, Chris and I rode various parts of Tour de Blast. Chris and Scott finished the whole thing. Carol rode the 54 miles up to Elkhorn Ridge and back. I only rode the first 57 miles. Earlier this week on a ride up Cougar Mountain my back wheel went out of alignment very suddenly. I noticed it on the decent as the back end of my bike wagged like an excited dog. When I got home I was able to adjust a couple spokes and get most of the wobble out.

Today however about 30 miles into the ride I noticed a crack in the rear wheel. Slowly the wobble returned and gradually worsened. I made it the 42 miles to Johnston Ridge but on all the descents I had to keep it under twenty. To get back up to Elkhorn Ridge on the other side of the river I had to remove half of the rear brake to keep the wheel from rubbing the brake. I wondered why it seemed so hard to ride up the grades on the ride, but riding uphill was still much easier than going down. I decided not to attempt the ride down from Elkhorn back to Toutle and caught the shuttle. Although I’d done all the climbing in the ride, it was a bummer not to finish. This is my third time on Tour de Blast and I’ve never done the whole ride.

Routines

Day 2 Again – Routines bolster discipline. Routines also automate some of life’s menial tasks. Today I relaxed through an oatmeal breakfast so much that I had to sprint to my bike right passed the bathroom routines that include objects like a toothbrush, contact lens and deodorant. So later in the morning I ended up smelly and struggling to read.

So Routines are helpful, although I do not fully ascribe to their value life. They do take time, and time spent is never recaptured for the serendipitous moments that breathe life into monotony. If Job’s friends of the Bible were here they would commend me to prudence and balance. These lifeless attributes also smell in their own way.

So for now I’m left to writing larger than normal and to sitting outside in the breeze so the smell is carried away. None-the-less I greatly enjoyed today’s cycling, and the annoyances, that would have been avoided by following a routine, will fade away by the end of the ride.

Discipline

Mulligan, Day 1 Do Over - Discipline, too easily conceived, rapidly turns into unfulfilled dreams. Friday the goal to write for 350 consecutive days fizzled to a wisp of smoke like a fuse on a dud of a firecracker. The jam packed day full of wants and needs pushed out time for writing. Now I'm left with a hollow feeling in my gut carved with the knife of a broken promise to myself.

But today is a new day for crawling back on the bike. Last Wednesday I avoided a small fall by planting my left foot firmly on the ground as my front tire squeezed into a crack on the bike trail in Renton. The near miss did not keep me from clipping in and riding on. So too, I'll move forward and write a little every day. I have to write to keep ideas moving from mind through pen to page. A part of last week's failure melts with each stroke of the pen. Word by word I regain the commitment to myself.

365 Days of Writing for 31 Minutes

Day 1 – June 3, 2009

My mind and my feet spun along easily and automatically. The zone I was in surrounded me completely. I sensed time only in the periphery of movement and ideas. Ideas floated into thought like bubbles surfacing in seltzer. Two prevailed on the surface of my memory throughout the two-hour ride. The one demanded discipline and commitment. Would it last?

Yesterday a friend emailed a short article to me about committing a short time each day to work on a big project. I’ve had a long-term goal to do some writing, but not being a writer, I seem to put of “official” writing into some future time. The article quoted T.S. Elliot, “When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its upmost–-and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.”

So, I’m setting a goal, a commitment to write for 31 minutes every day for one year, 365 days! I hope the discipline improves my writing and my life. I chose 31 minutes because it is small and arbitrary, just like the article suggests.