raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and workout details
"Marathon runners talk about 'hitting the wall' at the
twenty-third mile of the race.
What rowers confront isn't a wall;
it's a hole
an abyss of pain,
which opens up in the second minute of the race."
-- John Seabrook, "Feel No Pain"
Yeah, screw it. I'm going to race in Long Beach. What the hell.
My time in the race a couple of weeks ago was actually 13 seconds faster than last
year's at Long Beach -- but I don't remember what conditions were like and anyway
that was right after I raced a double with Hardcore. My last time isn't even too
bad compared to the the ones at last year's Regionals -- though again, conditions
male a difference. On the other hand, I'm not changing my basic schedule. For one
thing, I like the variety. I like sleeping in (until 5AM!) three days of five in
the workweek. (I usually get up at 4:30 on Wednesday so I have enough time in the
gym, but I let myself read for a couple of minutes before getting out of bed, so
it feels leisurely.) I like rowing on TTh instead of MWF, when there are fewer
other boats, and more importantly fewer coaching launches creating wakes out on
the lake. So I'll up the intensity a bit but otherwise keep diong what I'm
doing.
I did get proof, though, that the rowing machine gives me less of a workout than a
real boat -- not too surprising, since my erg pieces are 5000m (or 1000m if I'm
just warming up for the gym) while I generally row at least 10,000m. Normally I
erg on Monday and row of Tuesday but I'd switched the days this week due to an
early meeting. This morning I went to the gym as usual and found myself erging
faster and lifting a bit more weight than usual, and I'm thinking it probably was
from having less of a workout the day before.
Just to prove I am interested in things other than rowing, here's a list of some
of my favorite things I just wrote for one of my mailing lists. It was supposed to
be 10-15 items, but I sort of got on a roll, and ended up with ... well,
considerably more. And I've added another one or two I'd forgotten. Or rather,
another five or ten. Or fifteen. I'd better post this now.
- Rudder -- I think he deserves pride of place.
- Men, real and fictional, who insist on women who are equal partners.
- The Internet, especially email, mailing lists, online diaries, shopping,
and books
- Snyder's sourdough pretzels
- nicely bound books printed on creamy paper
- a full or nearly full moon hanging above the lake when I'm rowing before
dawn
- sunrise over the lake, ditto
- my sweet boat
- the feel of a classical guitar, all made of polished wood with silver
and nylon strings (even if I hardly ever play any more and never did play well)
- new books
- free libraries
- massages
- the smells of rosemary, mint, pine, cut grass, cinnamon, and rain on the
desert (hence, I really like Aveda's Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner)
- summiting a mountain after hiking up it
- seeing the world from 3000 feet above it in a small airplane
- aircraft and spacecraft in general
- pictures of Earth from space
- taking pictures of clouds, mountains, and landscapes
- skies that stretch from one horizon to the other
- seeing rainbows
- old books
- getting new clothes or shoes.
- connections in linguistics and history -- that Aha! moment when you see
how things are related to each other
- words in general
- learning things
- discussing ideas with people who know how to disagree on a point while
still respecting a person
- authors of books
- wind - soft breezes, winds that carry the feel of spring or fall, winds
heralding a storm
- watching a fire, with the sparks shooting up, in a fireplace or
campfire. Even forest fires are beautiful, though in a terrible way.
- water - both the feel of being immersed and the way it reflects moons
and skies and light.
- hot showers when I'm freezing cold.
- traveling and seeing new places
- good beer
- breathing clean air with the scent of plants instead of the usual car
exhaust
- sniffing baby hair
- people who have strong beliefs and accept that other people believe
differently -- and that those other beliefs might be completely right also
- people who accept that they may be mistaken, in general
- John Donne. Gerald Manley Hopkins. Wallace Stevens. Robert Frost. Poets
who can say unexpected but perfectly right things, in general.
- books on tape and tape players in cars
- well-loved falling-apart paperback books
- popcorn
- down pillows and comforters
- flannel sheets, even in summer
- seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting -- not everyone can do all
of these
- running dowhill at full tilt, just for fun
Posted by dichroic at February 26, 2003 04:59 PM