Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

So, brief notes on the course:

Great swim conditions – flat, no waves. Too warm (85.4) for wetsuits, and no one in recent memory could remember ever being able to use one there. Buoys well placed to measure progress.

Bike was challenging, but not overwhelming – this wasn’t Columbia. Still hilly, but not bad.

Run was hot, hot, hot. Rolling hills, blazing sun with no shade, but plenty of aid stations. A shame they can’t move us across the road to run on the shady side of the street.

Personal notes:

Getting there early was sooooo worth it. Got parked, got set up early, got time to go to the port-a-johns a couple of times. So worth the earlier wake up for the lack of race stress. And in general, I wasn’t as stressed about this race this time. As I started to get some pre-race jitters Saturday, I looked in and said to myself, “You know, you’ve been doing this for 5 years now, you know what you’re doing, you’re going to be fine.”

Best swim ever. Well, aside from major, major chafing. And overdoing it, heart-rate wise. That said, I got my groove relatively early, with very little in the way of stopping to do side or breast stroke, and just powered through. Seeing those buoys slip by at a regular clip was nice. About halfway through I realized I had forgotten to put body glide on my arm and armpit, as I normally do for a pool swim, because the right arm area just got chafed to hell. I did a practice swim beforehand (a first for me), which helped with the comfort level. On the practice I was able to do bilateral breathing. On the real swim I ended up breathing just on my right side to keep my face out of the sun – the reason the right arm is chafed more than the left. I also pushed a bit too hard, because I was feeling pretty good, until I got out of the swim and realized I’d pushed my heart rate too high. Walked rather than ran the distance from the water to transition.

Started the bike with a seized up calf. When I went to mount up my left calf just screamed at me. Came back down (off to the side so I wasn’t in the way) and let it settle down before trying again. Did get back up on, and did ride pretty well, though I used some of the downhills to stretch out both calves, and spent a lot of time worrying if I was going to be able to run at all. Need to work on uphills – I crawl uphill, then fly downhill. Muscular endurance? Will have to check that out. Got tired of flying past people on downhills and flat only to get passed like I was standing still on the uphills. Also, they seemed to like Busch Lite out there because there were a lot of cans of it all over the less populated parts of the bike course (these are the things you notice while trying not to pay attention to how slow you’re going uphill).

Did manage to run – some bouncing up and down in transition after I switched shoes showed that it was going to be okay, so I zipped out on it. The course, as I noted above, was very, very hot. All in the sun (except the immediate start and finish). The aid stations were good (though I’m still glad I carry my own water bottle so I can sip at my own pace), and volunteers were fantastic. I got a cold washcloth early and put that on my neck, recharging it in the ice pools where drinking water was stored as I was able. I think that’s the only reason my neck isn’t as red as my shoulders (which aren’t bad, just a little red – and I did start with sunscreen on, but didn’t reapply in transition). Felt fantastic to have it on there, and to get more cool water on it. Walked most of the course because of the heat, came in running the last bit.

Total time: 3:40:17. Not my fastest (Columbia 2008), nor my slowest (Mooseman 2006). Did learn from the experience, and had a fun time challenging myself, which is why I do these things after all.

Good: Got a new, faster work blackberry today.
Bad: It’s still not fully activated.
Good: I don’t have to listen to it tonight.
Bad: I still brought work home.
Good: Picked up clean dress shirts from the dry cleaners.
Bad: Blew a bike tire while dropping off another load of dress shirts.
Good: I was close to home.
Bad: I don’t think the tubes I got for the bike fit closely enough, hence flat #2 in as many weeks (pinching).
Good: It’s cooler out than yesterday.
Better: The conditions are perfect for thunderstorms, which are currently on their way.

Is there anything better than a shower after biking home from a sushi dinner? Doesn’t seem like it right now.

Not a lot of wildlife out this morning.

Very grateful for the trash cans on Hains Point, so I can toss my empty gel packs immediately.

Had a cut on the side of my lip for about a week, couldn’t figure out what caused it. Wrong place for shaving, not a cold sore, just a little cut. It became evident this morning – sliced the side on an energy gel last week. Grrr.

Ran the entire distance this time. No shortcuts, no walking breaks, all run (6.48 miles). Felt good.

Forgot that the beepy-thingey cuts off after an hour. Was on the waterfront and wondering why it had gotten so quiet – beepy thingey had done its thing and shut down. Do think it’s a good aid, though, for keeping the legs moving at the same rhythm.

Two thoughts from from this morning’s bike ride:

1. Rain, rain, rain. But hey, at least the trail wasn’t crowded! Even before it rained, because I’d started at 7:30 (as opposed to 11:30 last weekend), it was a much more pleasant ride with fewer people out.

2. Cyclist warned me that a tree was down on the trail, and boy was he so not kidding! There was a small path next to the fence where others had pushed through, so I was able to get past it, but what a mess. Was right before mile 8.5 on the W&OD, just as you crossed the highway, turned the corner and have (normally) a nice downhill slope to zip down. Quite a surprise there.

Not a bad ride, though. 3 hours, a little over 44 miles. Felt good to get it done.

Training, that is. Ran and swam yesterday, biked this morning, running a long run tomorrow. Definitely feeling it tonight; almost didn’t do laundry as planned, but managed to get off my butt and get it done (yay for clean sheets). It’s a good kind of tired though – good, honest physical exhaustion from exercise.

Work’s nuts, which seems par for the course these days. I wonder if all political transitions are this crazy or if the economy being in the crapper has substantially added to it. I’d prefer not to find out for a while. What would be nice is to stop stress eating (why couldn’t I be one of those people who can’t eat when they get stressed instead of the opposite? silly body).

Long run planned for the morning, first in a while. Was prepping things for it tonight (water bottle, etc.) and I think I need to hit Conte’s or the like and pick up nutrition this weekend – down to two gels and two things of shot blocks. Not enough to make it through training or the two races, by a long shot.

First, I’m loving not having to shift gears. You just get on and start pedaling – no worrying about whether you left it in the right gear, whether it’ll be too loose or too tight to get going, you just go. If there’s a hill, it’s harder to pedal, if it’s downhill, it’s easier. Simple.

Second, it has a kick stand. I cannot express how awesome that is. For years now the “cool” bikes did not come with kick stands (and probably still don’t). And certainly, if you were using your bike for racing (which I’ve done on each of my other bikes), you didn’t want a kick stand, for practical as well as “cool” reasons. But being able to prop the bike up on its own while I fumble with getting the lock and cable out and in place? Priceless.

The brakes are still a little noisy, especially on a quick stop, but I’m sure that’ll work out as they get worn in.

The other bike store I tried also did not have shoes in my size (grrr!), so it looks like I may have to order some from online. Not my favorite choice, as my feet seem are odd enough that I pretty much always want to try shoes on right in the store to ensure proper fit, without endless back and forth shipping of shoes. Blah. But not having clips on the pedals, while not fatal, was kind of annoying. I wanted the increased power of being able to do the full rotation of the pedal and not just mash down on them; I’m definitely far more comfortable being clipped in as it gives one a better control over pedaling and balance.

Anyway, so far so good. Won’t be able to bike to work tomorrow as I have a long night planned with my friend Drew beginning right after work, but I do look forward to trying it out on the morning and evening commutes.

For some reason the reintegration back into real life has been a bit difficult. There was the inevitable backup of work at the BGA (“vacation is its own punishment”), breaking things off with someone I’d been dating, adjustment back to east coast time (which means I have to try and fight my normal nature to be a night owl), and just doing the little things like unpacking everything and putting it all away, sorting mail, grocery shopping, etc. Still haven’t done the grocery shopping, so I’ve been subsisting on ever-shrinking supplies of staples from the freezer and cabinet. Not a bad thing, it’s good to clear those out every now and again, but not perhaps the healthiest meals I could be eating.

One thing I’ve been doing to integrate some of our practices from DLOC has been to post “appreciations” over on FaceBook. Just little things to acknowledge those things I’m appreciative of for whatever reason. It does help to make one more mindful of what’s going on in your life, which has made it a useful tool for me.

Past that I’m trying to find my motivation to get back to tri training for my last two races this season, and finish up my commitment with the club’s volunteer work this month. “The Pile” of books has grown since coming back, including some re-reading of classics I feel the need to reexamine in light of the DLOC and SF experiences (The Ethical Slut, the Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing). I’m about 1/2 an inch from finishing sock #2 on pair #2, and I have another pull ball ready to go on the next set, but the one sock’s been sitting here unloved as I try to work myself back into life.

Picked up another bike yesterday. I wanted something a bit better for zipping around town than my mountain bike (which is a good bike, but not the best for commuting). I went in a slightly different direction, a single gear, and put “campus pedals” on it (clipless on one side, regular pedal platform on the other), so I don’t have to throw on bike shoes just to zip somewhere if I wish to bike out. My goal there is to bike about more to things in town, and sweat be damned. It even came with a kickstand! I feel so retro with a kickstand on a bike – I don’t think I’ve had one of those since high school. With the bike, though, comes the last big purchase for the year, I think. Need to back off and pay off the remnants of vacation and the bike and plan for the end of the year and Giftmas. And to plan for the next body electric workshop next year, of course.

It’s hard to fully describe the changes wrought by DLOC, but I’ll be working on them this year.

I still have a lot of stuff to process from this past two weeks. Dear Love of Comrades (DLOC) was simply amazing, and precisely what I was needing. It revealed a lot of things to me which I needed to see and experience to help clarify where I am in my life and where I might want to go. But it’s going to be difficult to reconcile those with my daily practices. There are changes I will need to make, and I’m not entirely sure where I’m going to make them yet.

Two of the big things that were revealed were the extent to which I have let fear dictate so many of my actions. Fear of change and fear of my body being at the top of that list. And then, as I dwelt on those, the incredible sense of anger I felt at how I’d let that fear dictate things, and especially anger at my body and how it sets me aside from the norm (more specifically the lactose intolerance and all the problems associated with that, and the extensive history of cancer in my family and how that affects me and my behaviors). Most of this was revealed on Friday, first during the daily movement practice before breakfast (an exercise where we were visualizing our obstacles and chopping, pushing, dropping them, and then pulling toward us what we wanted in our lives), then in a large heart circle we had before and after lunch.

I knew there were emotions that were going to be revealed as part of the week – no one gets through Body Electric without some sort of emotional experience, large or small – but I don’t think I expected these particular ones. Of course, my previous experiences with Body Electric have all been ones where I felt this overwhelming joy at the connections made. I got a lot of that joy during the week as well; the big draw we did on Wednesday was the most intense, and the most intensely erotic, that I’ve experienced to date. Unlike last fall where I felt the build up of energy in me, but didn’t know what to do with it, so released it, this time I held the energy, moved it over and around my body with my hands, and claimed it as my own. It was incredible to hold that much energy and be able to channel it rather than simply releasing it into the cosmos. I did laugh again, from giggling to full body, shaking laughter. Even thinking about the experience now, a week and a half later, gives me goose bumps. There was one moment where the masseur was working on my lower body and one of the assistants came over and put his hands under my back, helping me arch up and throw my head back as I lost track of where was up and down, simply concentrating on how awesome (and erotic) the whole thing felt. I spoke first when we were done, describing the marvelous experience I’d just had, and started by repeating the word “wow” over and over again (when asked to breathe into it, the coordinator said to breathe into “Wow to the ninth power”). I don’t normally speak first for those, but it just came bubbling out this time.

Comparing that amazing experience and connection to the much more mellow and introspective weekend after Friday’s revelation feels somewhat unfair, but they’re part and parcel of the same body of experience. There is incredible joy to be found in the connections with other people, but there are barriers I’ve erected to fully giving myself over to the connections I could be making, and I need to change that.

One of the hardest things about coming back into the Bay area from up on the mountain in Guerneville was the lack of practiced movement. Each morning at DLOC you got a choice between a walk/hike or practiced movement (yoga, sufi meditation, etc.). All but one morning I did the movement exercise, all of which were wonderful (and, as written about above, cathartic in one case). Even when we were getting together during the day we were able to move and dance and stretch, experiencing the wonder of being fully present in (and thus mindful of) our bodies. Wandering around SF I kept wanting to stop and drop into yoga poses when the feeling arose, but of course even in SF there are expectations of behavior (and public sidewalks aren’t conducive to yoga). I had to content myself with stretching my arms above and to the side when I was able, and that just wasn’t the same. I suspect one thing I’ll have to do more is that type of spontaneous stretching during the day – close my office door and take a few moments to stretch out and be present in my body. It can’t hurt, and I’m lucky to have that freedom to be able to close that door and take a brief break, even in work drag.

One thing I’ve already brought back into my life is posting those things I appreciate, both to FB and to my main countfour blog (it wasn’t like there was anything else going to it!). Just noting something every day which I’m thankful for has been a good practice. It helps to focus on the positive, and to be more mindful of the experience of living.

The school set up a yahoo group for our class, at first to share rides up and otherwise coordinate travel, but also to keep in touch after the experience. Thus far it’s been pretty busy, with folks posting regularly to describe their transition back to “normalcy”. I’m glad to have this group of men, and this forum to stay in touch with them. It’s all too easy to let these experiences slip back into the background and fall back into old patterns, and I don’t want that to happen if I can avoid it. I can’t go on living as if this had never happened; I’d be miserable if I did.

I don’t think I could’ve shown myself a more stark contrast this morning between running and cycling. I went out and did 20 miles on the bike just now, came back in and plugged in the heart rate monitor to download the data, and it turns out I was out cycling for less than a minute less than the time I ran yesterday (1:09:35 cycling cersus 1:09:43 running). Perfect way to compare the two.

The starkest difference, and the one that I knew was there but hadn’t had matching data quite like this, was calories burned. Now, I know it’s an average, a suggestion based on my height and weight and all that, but the running showed 826 calories burned, and the cycling showed 1,278 calories burned. Meaning in their estimate running burned only 2/3 as many calories as cycling did. No wonder I was losing all the weight last spring when I was cycling all the time! (and yes, the running and swimming helped, too, I’m sure, but still)

This tells me I need to stop staying up so late and get my tail out on the bike more often in the morning.