The Casual Blog

Category: fitness

May 9, 2010

More fun at Red Hat, trying Mirage, yoga, and mindful driving

After the intensity of the trial in Texas and a great win, it was another intense week back at the Raleigh office of Red Hat, digging out of the pile of backlogged work and dealing with new emergencies.  Not for the first time, I felt on Friday as though I’d done a months’ worth of work in a week.  The range of activities was typical, but as always, varied — from solving specific IP problems to formulating strategy to addressing customers’ legal questions to being interviewed by reporters to writing and editing for opensource.com to drafting commercial agreements to dealing with management challenges — and along with these dozens there were literally dozens more still on the short term to-do list. I deal with one interesting issue after another, some of them important, all day every day.  I am never bored.  Is it stimulating?  Yes.  Exhilarating?  Yes.  Stressful?  Yes.

So as a matter of surviving and flourishing, on weekends I try to find some space to recharge and rebalance — some social time, some time alone, some time to care for the mind and body.  As to the social part, on Friday Sally and I went to Mirage, a  brand new club on the ground floor of our condo building which was having its pre-grand-opening.  It’s large (capacity 650) with a dance floor, large island bar on the ground floor, sushi bar in the back, second floor balcony space with another bar, and various side rooms.  The decor uses Egyptian motifs in a Vegas way, large video projections, a mirrored ball, and the waitresses in short gold-plated dresses.  The over all effect was glitzy but not gaudy.  We ran into Charles, who did a short speech as part of the dedication, and Ann and several people who live in the building.  We enjoyed talking to friends.  The sound engineering seemed good — very loud, but somehow tweaked so that it was still possible to talk.  Also, happily, the sound was not audible in our apartment.

I woke up early on Saturday and started to head over to Pullen Park to swim some laps, but then checked to see whether there was a  yoga class at Blue Lotus, which is next door.  There was:  Yvonne was scheduled for 8:00 to do an hour and a half open level class.  From past experience, I’d learned that open classes with Yvonne are fairly advanced classes, and for less advanced students, there’s no quarter given.   So it proved to be.  Yvonne likes to share inspirational words on such themes as oneness and truth, and she pushes the class past known limits of strength and flexibility.  After the first half hour, I wondered whether I could just hang on to the end.  I did, barely, soaked in sweat.  But I felt good the rest of the day.  I have no well-developed theory of why yoga helps over all well-being, but for me, it does.

I took my little German sports car out for a run in the afternoon.  Just east of Raleigh, Old Milbournie Road winds through farm fields and pastures, forests, lakes, and country stores.  It’s got some great curves and hills — an excellent road for just driving for fun.   When I got there, there was a caravan of minivans and pickup trucks led by someone proceeding 10 miles under the speed limit (45).  I had in mind the possibility of exceeding the speed limit (no worries — not too much), but this was clearly  not going to happen, so I tried to practice patience and enjoy the beautiful countryside.  Coming back, though, I had a stretch of the road to myself.  I felt the subtle weight shifts as the vehicle took the curves at speed, and the G forces as I accelerated out of them.  The sound of the exhaust note rising and falling as I shifted between third and fourth was like music.

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February 14, 2010

Olympic Victory and Luck

Sally and I went to an early Valentine’s day party at David and Kelly Beatty’s last night.  It was our first visit to their North Raleigh place, which was not as far out as we expected, and sits on the edge of an old deep forest.  The house is spacious and beautiful in the transitional style, and Kelly has used color and form to make it lively and personal.  She also made a great lemon vodka martini and fantastic hors d’oeuvres.  It was good talking with Kelly and David, and meeting a few of their friends.  Because my car lease end date is in sight, I had some car questions for David, who proved, as always, a font of knowledge.  Kelly said little Reid was resistant to bedtime without parental attention, and so we headed out.

The winter olympics, which we enjoy, got started this week, so after the party we picked up some food from Royal India and came back to watch.   The commercials were ridiculously frequent and dumb.  But the competitions drew us in to some intense drama.  For years now, Sally has had a lively interest in speed-skater Apolo Anton Ohno.  Though I also find him interesting, she seems to have a different kind of absorption.  (I’ve noted this same absorption as to Brad Pitt.)  It so happened that Ohno was featured as the American hope in the short track speed skating 1500 meter semi-finals and finals.  The network showed a short documentary about him, emphasizing his extraordinary work ethic — four two-hour workouts per day.  He said, at one point, that at the end of every day he asks himself whether he’s done everything he can to be his best.  I was impressed.

In the 1500-meter race final, he quickly passed five or so competitors to claim the lead.  In the last three laps, though, the lead changed repeatedly, with passing maneuvers that looked impossible.  In the last lap, three South Koreans went to the front, and Ohno was in fourth place coming into the last turn.  Then one of the Koreans lost his edge and went over, taking one of his countrymen with him.  Ohno took second place, rather than nothing.

At the party I told David about The Drunkard’s Walk:  How Randomness Rules Our Lives, which I also posted about yesterday.  The Ohno race illustrates it nicely.  His years of effort put him in position to compete for another olympic medal.  But the South Koreans were stronger.  There was nothing he could do to stop them.  They were unfortunate in falling at the final turn, and he was fortunate.  That’s a typical success story:   hard work plus amazing luck.

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January 3, 2010

Skiing at Telluride with love and fear

We went to Telluride, CO lasts week in part because of it jagged mountainous beauty,in part to be together with Gabe and Jocelyn, and in no small part to ski.  The town is a repurposed Western mining town with squared-off storefronts and Queen Ann style houses, and has part of the vibe of  a college town, with a wholesome, natural charm.

The ski resort is famous for its rocky alpine beauty and high level of challenge.  The stats are impressive:  4,425 of vertical (3,845 served by lifts), base elevation 8,725, lift served elevation 12,570, maximum elevation 13,150, longest run 4.6 miles, 2,000 skiable acres.  The significant percentage slopes are classified as double black diamond, and a few double black slopes have the further warning EX, which stands for extreme.   The place gets about 300 inches of snow a year, and we had about 17 inches arrive in the middle of our stay.  It was extremely light — snow champagne.

Gabe led us on some substantial journeys down the double blacks.  We did one “hike to” — Genevieve — and felt we earned our turns.  In the deep fresh snow of our  last two days there , we did, among other runs, Dynamo (“EX”), Electra (“EX”), Genevieve again, the Rose, Apex Glade (3 times), Northern Chute, and Locals, the last of which is a fairly tight glade run that does not appear on the official trail map.  Sal and I also had memorably challenging runs down Allai’s Alley, Kant-Make-M, Mammoth, and Lower Plunge.

As we followed Gabe, I hoped he had not overestimated our experience level.    Hiking up Genevieve, Sal was heard to say “Holy God,” which appeared to relate not only to the beauty of the sheer walls around us, and the rigors of the hike, but also to the question whether the very steep and  narrow way down was going to kill us.  Skiing with Gabe, I was reminded that I was not 25 years old, but I also noted that I was skiing fantastic deep powder with new authority, which made me cheerier.  Sally also raised her game to a new level, taking on more mountain at higher speeds.

One afternoon we met up with Jocelyn and her friend Britt for lunch yesterday in Mountain Village.  At 1:00 pm every eatery was jammed, and there was no possibility of a seat inside.  Although it was too cold to take off hats and gloves, we ended up eating deli sandwiches at a table outside while it was snowing.  At least we had food.

We skied one run with Jocelyn after lunch, after which she said she was calling it a day for reasons of tiredness.  At dinner that night, she acknowledged that fear was a significant issue for her skiing.  I said that this is true for most people.  Those that end up loving it are those who overcome some of their fears.  But as Gabe noted, good skiers are continually seeking a new level of challenge, which means a new confrontations with fear.

It is one of the satisfactions of skiing to confront and overcome personal fears, but there’s much more to it than that.  At times it’s hard —  cold fingers and toes, weary thighs, fogged goggles, wind blowing snow.  But at times the struggles fade, and there is something pure and clean remaining.  On demanding slopes, there is no faking.  It’s time for truth.  Everything is in sharp focus.  There is kinetic harmony, turns perfectly suited for a particular stretch of rock and the snow, the human body synchronized with the moment, the season, and geologic time.

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December 6, 2009

The China Study Shows Why We Should Eat Plants

Anyone who is interested in health and nutrition should read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell.  http://tiny.cc/rnQye The Campbells bring good news and bad news.  The good news is that by changing our diet, we can dramatically improve our risk profile for the deadliest diseases in the developed world.  The bad news is that if we continue eating a normal American diet, we will continue to increase our risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and other killers.

The basic message of The China Study is simple:  a plant-based diet is much healthier than an animal-based diet.  The book backs up this claim with abundant scientific research.  The China study of the title was a huge epidemiological study of diet and health, but a number of other studies cited.  What is striking is the coherence of the results over time and different populations.  There is massive support for the proposition that eating animals and their products as food is bad for us.

Admittedly, as a vegetarian I was particularly open to this message, but my reasons for adopting this diet were primarily ethical rather than nutritional.  If the Campbells are right about the science, and we want to take reasonably good care of our health, we need to find a way to quit eating animal-based food.

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October 17, 2009

Returning to swimming

Swimming has always seemed to me  like it should be easier and more fun. Our distant ancestors were all water creatures, and our bodies are mostly water, so it seems like something we’d enjoy naturally.  Immersion in a different element is naturally exciting.  Water does all kinds of interesting things, and splashing in it is fun.  But actually traveling under human power for any distance is hard.  I find it much more difficult than running.  Also, it evokes in a small way a primal fear (drowning).

I first took swimming lessons at age 9 at a YMCA.  Initially, and in retrospect, it seemed strange that they required the little boys to take the class naked.  The stated explanation for this was that it was for hygienic reasons.  More likely, of course, it was a matter of some adult pedophiles getting a thrill.  At any rate, I was never molested and had no lasting ill effects.  I was initially successful in the class, and won the prize for holding my breath under water the longest.  But moving from one end of the pool to the other was hard.  Our graduation ceremony involved swimming the crawl up and back for our assembled families (with suits, despite the possible risk to health).  I hit the exhaustion/panic wall on the last (that is, the second) length and had to get towed out with the long handled hook.  It was an embarrassing disappointment.

But I did not give up.  I participated in the swim team at our pool at age 13.  The practices were exhausting, but it was good to be with other kids and talk to girls.  I’m confident I never won a race,  but I believe I collected at least one ribbon for third place in the breaststroke.

The next summer, at Boy Scout camp, I obtained the swimming merit badge and undertook the mile swim with my friends Jimmy and Don.  The mile was across the Raven’s Knob lake and back, and was done with a row boat escort.  Jimmy and Don quickly determined that we could possibly set a new camp record, and we began to pass other groups and their boats.  Unfortunately, I hit the wall again, and had to limp along with some side stroking to regroup.  We didn’t set a record.  I’ve always felt I let the team down on that one.

Perhaps that feeling of a job undone was always in the back of my mind.  Certainly I’ve always believed that swimming was a healthy exercise, with low risk to the joints and large benefits to the cardiovascular system.  Last January I decided to take the plunge and do some regular swimming in the pool at Lifetime Fitness in Cary.  I quickly discovered that it was every bit as exhausting as I remembered.  My heart felt quickly reached the red zone.  I set a goal of swimming a mile.  Two or three times a week I got up at 5:30 a.m., headed to the pool, and pushed ahead.

This summer I observed a group of master’s swimmers at the pool being coached by a young fellow who seemed both knowledgeable and pleasant, and I asked him if he’d give me some private instruction.  He agreed, and ultimately I took four lessons.  It was a good move.  There are definitely better and worse ways to move through the water.  I learned some better ones.  It didn’t suddenly become easy, but it was definitely more pleasant.

My coach advised the following approach to the 1500:  25 meters (one length) and 5 seconds rest, 50 meters and 10 seconds rest, 75 and 15 seconds, 100 and 20 seconds, 125 and 25 seconds, 100 and 20 seconds, 7 and 15 seconds, 50 and 10 seconds 25 and 5 seconds, and repeat till finished.  It worked.  Last week I set a personal best for 1500 meters of 33:07.

I’ve had a small taste of the satisfaction of greater efficiency and grace in the water, but it’s still true for me that the best thing about a hard swim is the aftermath.   The endorphins are terrific.  It feels good.

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