And Then What Happened?

I saw this church sign the other day and wondered....well, I wondered a lot of things. First, the sign.







Here are some of the questions I came up with:

But did he give it back?
Did the hotel charge for it?
Was it fluffy?
...and then, snapped it?

No, I don't think it's blasphemy for me to laugh at this sign. Maybe close, but definitely on this side of the line.

And yes, I do think I can speculate what that day's sermon would have been about.

But come one. That's some good stuff!

November Goal

Last year the local YMCA sponsored its first annual Turkey Trot -- a 5k/10k run -- on Thanksgiving morning. I signed up to participate for a variety of reasons:
-- I run about 5k on my morning runs, so I figured I could do that
-- I had never entered a formal "race" before
-- I work at the local YMCA
-- I would go running on Thanksgiving morning anyway to justify the over-indulgence the day naturally brings, so why not get a t-shirt out of it?
-- It's for a good cause

I finished in about the same time I do my standard three mile run in my own neighborhood, and had fun, and still wear the free t-shirt on occasion. I started thinking back then, that it would be fun to try and do the 10k next year.

Here's next year. The Y is having its annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day again. I hadn't officially decided to do the 10k portion until I found myself telling an entire class of mine that I was going to run 6.something miles on Thanksgiving morning.

So...I'm committed now. And probably should be committed. I don't know how I'm going to actually do it, but I'm already registered, and Thanksgiving is four weeks away. I have managed to get up to 5 miles on two of my training runs, and figure that doing six shouldn't be that much harder. Three is definitely comfortable, but I guess the idea of this type of thing is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, right?

My goal is to complete it under 70 minutes. Given my average speed, that shouldn't be a problem at all, if I were able to run the whole thing. I'm sure there will be plenty of walking in there as well.

But....PIE! That's my motivation. Pie.

Every Day?

Years ago someone in the world wide interwebs decided that November would be the perfect month to start writing a novel. The reasoning was that people have spare time at work due to people getting ready for the holidays and generally having more time. A website was started for people to write a little bit of their novel each day. It was a perfect idea for aspiring writers who are convinced they're the next great American novelist and just don't have time to write. It was called NaNoWrMo -- National November Writer's Month, I think is what that stood for.

So now that the everyone who can navigate Gooogle thinks they're the next great American blogger, NaNoWrMo has transformed to NaBloPoMo -- National Blogging Post Month -- the idea being that bloggers should post a post a day during November.

My November is just as crazy as October, September, July....were. And December won't calm down at all.

I am not really a blogger -- I'm one of those yahoos who can navigate Google well enough to create my own blog. But if I don't post today, November 1, then I count myself out of the running altogether.

Happy November, everyone! Between you and me I am extraordinarily glad that 2011 is almost over. I know there are two months left in 2011, and it hasn't been a total bust, but .. I'm done.

There have been highlights -- I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer, but when I say Happy November, I really do mean it! Only two months left of 2011! Woot!

Meanwhile, we'll see how long I can keep this daily blogging thing up.

My World Through My Lens

My friend hosts a monthly fun photo submission...thingy. Not a contest, really, although there are bragging rights to be had. Each month she posts eight words and the participants take photos of their interpretation of those eight words.

I enjoy doing this -- it is a good motivation for me to take out my digital SLR and unstifle my creative side.

Since work has been so busy, it's been more difficult for me to make time to do this. The deadline for June's submission was looming and I still hadn't taken one photo. I knew there was no way it was going to happen in time, so I made do with the tools and locations I had available at my disposal. I was still able to be creative.

I probably don't need to point out that I did not win any bragging rights for these photos. I made the deadline, but that's about it.

The eight words were:
Shadow
Trash
Sky
Ring
Music
Door
Action
Food

Here's my interpretation for each. What do you think?



"Trash." The women on my floor are apparently pigs. The restroom floor is littered with used paper towels they can't or won't put all the way into the bin. Slobs.




"Sky." This is my view of the "sky" for roughly nine and a half hours a day. Jealous?




"Shadow." No, it's not blurry.




"Music." This is where mine resides. I use this at work, or while I'm on my morning run, or while teaching exercise classes or while cleaning the house.




"Food." V8 and peanut M&Ms are generally on my daily menu.




"Door." No, this isn't one. That's the point. No door to my cube. My SHARED cube. I know that if I'm not careful all of you are going to want my job, aren't you!?!?



"Action." It's an action-packed movie.




"Ring." My personal favorite. Get it?

My Life: Third Zone

At the beginning of each of my indoor cycling classes, one of the things I talk about is the four zones. The zones are a way for each student to level-set his output of effort. Everyone has a different capacity and ability. There are beginners in class who are either just starting or it's their first time. There are people who are struggling with weight or other fitness issues and may not be able to work as hard as an intermediate participant. And there are people who have been doing this for longer than I have and think they already know everything there is to know and are just begging for a good workout.

For all of these people, my challenge is to challenge each of them, regardless of ability or capacity. For this I use zones.

Zone 1 = totally easy level of output, no big deal, no tension or resistance on the wheel, however fast you want to go, simply used to start warming up the legs.

Zone 2 = the minimum level of output needed to achieve an aerobic workout. This is a "working pace," or the level that can be maintained for the duration of class. It should feel as though you're working, but not so much that you can't maintain that pace for an hour. I also call it "comfortably challenged." That may sound like an oxymoron, but when done correctly, you're being challenged to work hard while staying in a level that's still comfortable.

Zone 3 = uncomfortable challenged. This is where the student will most likely start to hate me and wonder why he came to class. This level or pace can only be maintained for a few minutes before needing to go back to zone two to recover. This is also a level that I encourage my more intermediate or advanced students to try and maintain for longer each time. The longer you can stay in zone three, the better your endurance will be overall and your fitness will increase.

Zone 4 = breathless. Self-explanatory, no? This level is reached when you're working so hard you can only hold it for several seconds or less than a minute. It is anaerobic, meaning working without oxygen. (I personally believe that few students actually allow themselves to get there properly, or at least only get there during a spring, rarely during a climb.)

These levels are achieved by a combination of speed and resistance on the wheel. I personally prefer working with heavier tension rather than just sprinting. Any good physiologist will tell you that to increase muscle strength and aerobic endurance, you must work with heavier weights than what is comfortable.

Notice some of the key words that keep repeating here: tension. Resistance. Strength.

My life is in a constant state of zone three, it seems. I don't say that to brag; it's merely an observation. I was in zone three for several months at the end of 2010 and the first half of this year. When I was finally able to come back down to zone two to recover, it felt strange. I missed the consistent growth. And oddly, I missed the challenge of resistance. It felt unnatural to relax, to be able to breathe. I realized I needed the period of recovery even as I knew that a ramp-up to a new zone three was coming soon.

I'm back in zone three again. I'm grateful for the growth opportunity, again -- for the blessing of being trusted to grow beyond my current capacity. But I wish I could pick my own zone three, my own challenge. When I design a class format, I get to create the challenges for my students. But I am not in my own class. I am a student in a Master Teacher's class. One who can see the end, who knows what the class design is (and it's custom-made for just me), and who knows where each peak (zone three, sometimes four) and valley (recovery in zone two) is. I have to trust that the end result will be increased strength and endurance through the trial of resistance and tension.

I just wish there was a clock on the wall of this classroom so I knew how long it was going to last.

Facebook Juxtaposition

These two entries were on my Facebook wall the other day. The only editing I've done is to remove real names. The juxtaposition is real. The humor is interpretive.

Enjoy.

It's the End of the World As We Know It (Carpocolypse Now)

No, the world really isn't ending, but for some Angelenos, it might as well be. You may have heard something about how much we southern Californians love our cars. Since we all love our cars, that means we're in them. A lot. That results in a lot of traffic. And there are a lot of us. There's a lot of traffic. You may have heard about this phenomenon here. Some of this may not be news to you.

What may be news to you (the three of you who read this who don't reside in California. For all one of you who read this who does live in California *Hi Wendy!* this is not news to you), is that one of our major interstates is closing over the weekend for some major construction. The 405 will be closed between the 10 and the 101 on the weekend of July 16-17. Freeway ramps will begin closing at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 15. The 405 won't reopen until 6 a.m. on Monday, July 18. (See how cool we are here in LA? We love our private transportation so much that freeways get a THE for an article in front of them.)

It's a huge whoop-dee-doo deal. At least, that's what they want us to believe. Such a huge big deal in fact, that they've coined a name for how tragic it will be for us to be without a major freeway (thereby impacting other freeways and ALL our traffic) all weekend long: Carmageddon.

Yes, that's right. They are comparing this to the end of the world.

I came up with my own term for it. (Which is really the point of this post. I want to show you how clever I am. That, and see how many parenthetical asides I can throw in.)

Carpocolypse.

Which, if you ask me, is more fitting. I think "Carmageddon" implies a battle between good and evil, which if you break it down, doesn't really make sense. It's not like there will be Decepticons invading the freeway, for heavens' sake. Just a bunch of bulldozers.

"Carpocolypse," on the other hand, really is a much more fitting term for the end of the world where automobile traffic is concerned.

So if you start hearing people using that term, you heard it here first. I expect royalties.