Day 11.244 A Little Slice of Heaven

We attacked the moving target this morning. Searching for a little slice of Heaven.

There are precious few concepts that we can accurately label as absolutes. Things that eventually, if we hang around long enough, we will experience. Suffering, death, taxes, loss of health, disease, disappointment all fit the category. To be fair, so might love, joy, tranquility, success and creative inspiration.

We isolated the health one early today. We meet at 0530 every Monday morning for an hour of indoor cycling. It is my job to design the workout, explain the components and lead the session. I also have the additional duty to add a musical accompaniment and appropriate commentary and motivational messaging.

The absolute in question is the need for movement. The target is some combination of good health, enhanced fitness, performance preparation and calorie consumption. By mutual agreement we feel that this is an important part of reach day. We also recognize the myriad other benefits in this routine, the cardiovascular, bio-chemical, fuel processing, muscular adaptation and stress management upgrades.

But today was about experimenting with a visitation to a rather nebulous location known as The Comfort Zone. The moving target of mapping one's response to the stepping outside of it, more precisely.

We witnessed, again, the phenomena known affectionately as the fatigue factor as the protocol demanded relentless output; muscles, lungs and wills quickly tested in their ability to maintain the power requirements.

We also saw the reality of the moving target metaphor. As our power dropped, in some cases dramatically, the point was to define in the present moment the current sweet spot and add 25 watts to it. Our wattage was reduced but the target, as goal, remained the same.

By 45 minutes I was cooked, basting like a roasted turkey, ready for knife and fork. I was amazed at the speed with which this power protocol impacted my ability to sustain my former robust output.

That target had not only moved, it was hiding in deep cover.

My comfort zone was now a small percentage of what it had been at the start. I was hanging on by a silver thread, desperate in my attempt to finish with whatever pathetic degree of oomph musterable (I will coin that one here - and hope you take my meaning).

And it hurt like hell.

That little slice of Heaven.

Day 11.243 Just Write a Check

I am working on another promo. It feels sort of like doing dumbbell biceps curls.

I do that a lot (the promo part).

I have the vision that the 'scene' will take place with an infinity background, pure white, with talking heads in the forefront, changing with every utterance of the tag-line theme dialogue consisting of three words:

DO YOUR BEST.

After ten seconds we will pretty much get the idea. The inflection will change as will the tone as delivered by each of the 'actors'.

At the ten second point will will begin to interlace the head shots with an alternating combination of indoor cycling and outdoor footage.

After twenty seconds we will pretty much get that idea, too.

At the crucial and critical thirty second point the graphic will appear:

BEST INDOOR CYCLING.

Dot com.

I am working on the fantasy of this spot airing as the defense trots off the field after a dramatic goal line stand late in the fourth quarter,

I'll just write them a check

Day 11.242 Somewhere Else

 I wish I had thicker skin.

One would think that as a former softball umpire, journalist, sub-contractor for the Department of Defense and Marketing Director, that I, by now, would be immune to comments that do not perfectly fit into my idea of 'positive'.

But they kill me. Intentional or otherwise. I die a thousand slow and painful deaths with every insensitive, uncaring, off-target, off-the-cuff, crass, callas or uncalled for comment.

My Mom told me one time that if I had nothing nice to say about someone, then don't say anything at all. That used to be fairly easy, but now in the age of tweets, texts and instant messaging about everything, we lose the art of the delivery. Non vis-a-vis and conveniently anonymous. Thank God for emotions and emojis, eh?

Like the fine art of the Italian slam that opens. 'with all due respect.' Right.

This is totally my fault. If I was better at my job perhaps they would stop sending insults and send flowers.

But I am not. As much as I try to improve, to gain a better, or cleaner, perspective I feel like I continue to trot innocently into the same ambush day after day.

Worse, I am out-manned, out-gunned, and in a compromised logistical position. They have elevation as I scurry for cover.

I would ask, naturally then, why do you do this?

Why not direct all that angst, anger, fear and negative drama in a direction that will come back to help, not haunt you?

I am not the bad guy.

If I have truly pissed you off and you feel the need to retaliate, defend or argue for your limitations, let's set up a time and place and talk. You don't need to slander the pure or libel the wholesome standing upon an on-line soapbox.

It is hard enough.

Let's make it better, not worse.

Mom was right.

Say what you like.

Somewhere else.

Day 11.241 Home Sweet Home

One of the more graphic ideas with regard to fitness and how we attempt to obtain it with indoor cycling as core, is another gem from Joe Friel. In his marvelous work, Fast After Fifty, he says:

"Health is the foundation upon which fitness is built." I really like the way that one rolls. I also think it needs a modifier. So I will attempt an amendment, with all due respect to Joe.

Good health is the foundation upon which fitness is built;
Performance is the trim, finish and decoration.

Together they form a blueprint for the architecture of you.

They combine the two critical components, the very materials used in the construction of that home we call 'self'. The place where you live. The body in which you inhabit. Your energy levels, your personal power and the quality of life that you demonstrate to others on a daily basis. This is so important. Because people look at your house as a model. They say, 'I like that style, that color, those materials', making value judgments and inner commentaries as to how they would also like a home like that.

Health and fitness lead to performance enhancements. They do not need to be athletic. It is not necessary to be an Ironman Champion to have a high QoL. One needs not dominate the local 5K to be seen by others as a winner.

To me, this interesting thing about this is the natural progression that it inspires. It is simply the next logical step. A fact I am sure even Mr Spock would appreciate.

Good Health>Fitness>Performance>Quality of Life.

Put another way, once, the very moment, your body is in perfect sync with your mind, the spirit wants to play a part too. That synergy, the alignment and fellowship of mind, body and spirit, the Zen of Satori, is so full of power a quality that most of us are unable to contain it. It spills, drains, empties and vanishes like a chilly Decembral wind. What the heck was THAT? we say ex post facto.

In what should be by now an easily recognizable recurrent theme, the way that we stop those leaks, plug the drains and keep our tank full of this magical and miraculous life force, is to practice.

Every day.

Do something today to improve your health, enact the routines your body desires, perform to your highest capabilities, train mind and body together, embrace the alchemy of the combined soulful experience, and I think you will quickly see that the result of that effort is a robust quality in the experience we call life.

In the home you have built.

For your extended family.

Day 11.240 All the Gibberish

This is getting old. All the gibberish.

Getting old fast.

After the power outage that left me cold and unconnected for two days, my wi-fi is still out. You know the message, server could not be found. I sit at Starbucks mooching theirs.

Regardless, we are on the last leg of a mission with a manageable 35 days remaining. So I will endure the ignominy.

That streak is about to come to a close. It has been two years since my commitment to post daily. It has been both an enjoyable process as well as, sometimes, a pain in the rear. Streaks are like that.

As soon as this one ends, actually with a touch of a cross-fade, we will embark on a new mission with a new goal. Here is the fun part:

This fresh start will begin where this one left off. I will take all the experience, understanding and wisdom (yes that) learned from this web-log since its inception way back in 2007.

Further, if I may, I can tell that there has been improvement. I know that sometimes when I use a word for the first time, finally get the punctuation right or connect two diverse ideas into one, I smile a fleeting grin of instance celebration. I will also editorialize that spellcheck is both a blessing and a curse. You know what I scream.

Today, being Thanksgiving, we staged our annual Turkey Day spin. I have the audience for 75 minutes, trying to create a synergy of exercise and gratitude. In a rare moment of weakness (my classes are more a dictatorship than a democracy) I invited anyone in the session the mic if they wished to offer thanks. To anyone, anything or anyplace.

Community.
Family,
Food.
Friends.
Teenagers.

One of our regulars even summoned the courage to publicly thank me. For what I do, for what I share. Humorously, he ended his offering with the hilarious kicker that all this was despite my occasional verbal gibberish. ????? was my knee-jerk reaction. I share with you the secrets of life and you audaciously call that gibberish???? I repeat ?????

Once the laughter had died down and decorum reestablished, we continued our merry practice.

And I thought to myself, he is right - it is all gibberish. Still I am grateful for the opportunity to try to improve.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

Day 11. 239 The Important Thing

The important thing - the TRULY important component in all of this is that once (and that is a huge assumption on my part - assuming that there is something of importance to YOU that you have begun the steady march towards - as I have) is simply this:

KEEP MOVING IN THAT DIRECTION. Take one more step up the staircase.

It needs not to be at maximum velocity or non-stop 24/7 intensity, but some type of effort that pushes your marvelous agenda…

…TOWARDS COMPLETION.

You know what that means. In fables and epic sagas of conflict resolution it is the hero's relentless loyalty to the rally-cry that a little of something is better than a of nothing. Once begun you had better finish.

That can mean one step. One step closer, a tiny movement in the direction that has your commitment and obsession and passion.

Should that commitment and obsession waiver, this is exactly the treatment. DO SOMETHING!

However small and however seemingly humble.

BECAUSE IN UNIVERSAL TERMS IT IS MONUMENTAL. The Universe wants you to win.

You will feel the power and the reward as you go.

You just need to go.

And do what must be done.

That is the important thing.

Day 11. 238 Of Those I Care

It's not that I don't care, because I do.

It's more that I accept the inevitable.

It is going to happen. One fine day.

We don't know when and we don't know where.

Nor do we know exactly how.

I find myself saying 'It's OK' a lot these days.

I find some comfort in that, a minor chord consolation.

I am not apathetic, although perhaps a bit agnostic.

Nor is this pessimistic. My glass has always been half full.

It is simply the fact, reinforced daily, that there is only one way out.

Therefore we have a choice.

It can be with suffering, or without.

It can be quick and painless, or long and drawn-out.

This then, can be seen as a form of practice. The better I get at suffering and dealing with the associated degrees of uncomfortability, and those celebrated zones outside of it, the better I might be when that big moment finally arrives. Because I get only one shot at THAT too.

Practice then, is the key. Preparedness, readiness, acceptance.

And of those I care deeply.