RFN

"When I'm in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit, and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it's a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long--six months to a year--requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity." Murakami

A nice synergistic smoothie this morning. Tossing two of my favorites into the blender to mix up a tasty post-workout treat. One part creative (highly stylized) writing and one part (long distance) running. Add a dollop of vanilla yogurt, a dash of protein powder and a handful of fresh berries, then punch the start button to puree.

The Fast Company.com article uses the immense talent of Haruki Murakami to illustrate a couple of health and fitness points. It is a good read (both) so please cheek it (them) out. My take was the importance of consistency in our programs. Balance and structure. Here with but 60 days left to us in 2011, we should be building our event calendars for 2012. Because we need to work it backwards. If you want to do a summer marathon, your first Olympic Tri, or merely drop twenty for your nieces wedding, the time to get going is RFN. You can use the f-word of your choice as the meat (or PB&J) to the Right Now bread, but this training sandwich must begin. You cannot stop by a Subway on your way to the event and order a race-ready cardio with cheese. There exists no animal called a foot long muscle-tone on honey oat. We must make them from scratch (with local and organic ingredients). And this takes time, meaning the time to get yer arse in gear is

RFN.

A couple of additional foot (long) notes:

Saturday's DAWG-DUCK DASH starts at the Duck Pond (duh pond) parking area on the Frey side of the park. Please show up with enough time to get your bib number and warm up. The main event starts promptly at noon, plenty of time for you spinners to recover from our 90 minute HoM session.

On the advice of my always overworked and underpaid legal team, the $1 needs to be called a donation, not a fee. Your acceptance of a bib number is your agreement not to seek litigation should anything less than perfect occur. How is THAT for a disclaimer?

We kick off the two person team racing season tomorrow night at 1800. We'll do a fifteen mile course. I am riding with RCVman special counsel, and long time VBA chair, ej. We are looking for two kids who think they can beat us in the combined time format. Any takers?

All for today. Run, read, race and ride. RFN.

Pix: Indoor racing at the BAC starts tomorrow night. Sometimes the line between the virtual and the real becomes blurred.