The Aloft Blog

Doesn't take much to rip us into pieces...*

Add me to the list of folks who are going to talk about the big East Coast earthquake today.  This was definitely the first earthquake I have ever been in - there's the potential for one when I was on senior week right after I graduated from high school.  We were in Lake George, NY and I woke up from a deep sleep around the same time that a small earthquake was reported in Albany but I certainly didn't feel it.

But today we sure did.  I had heard earthquakes described before - the rolling, the sudden movement but it's one of those things that you can't really imagine until you are in it.  Philadelphia is alive and well and has something to buzz about that's a lot more friendly than the other stories going on in the city right now.

As you may be able to imagine, an earthquake can get a coach like me thinking.  

Dictionary.com defines an earthquake as:

1.a series of vibrations induced in the earth's crust by theabrupt rupture and rebound of rocks in which elastic strainhas been slowly accumulating.

2.something that is severely disruptive; upheaval.

Earthquakes can be scary.  The literal ones where the earth shakes and the figurative ones where you feel like your whole world is shaking.  Those earthquakes, the ones that often happen when no one else even realizes?  Those are the really powerful ones.  Those are the ones that allow you to stop, take stock and look at what is and what might be.  And the real beauty of those earthquakes is that often no one else even knows about them.  You may be ripped into pieces and the world continues to spin on its access.  People go about their lives.  YOU go about your life but you know.  You know in your heart and your soul that something big has changed.  Your earth has quaked.  It is in that moment that any and all of us are heros for setting the new course and following the new path.  The path set after the shift.

When has a major shift set you on a new path?

*-"Little Earthquakes" - Tori Amos

I wanna stand up, I wanna let go...*

Fear not -- this is not becoming a blog about exercise and weight loss.  While these are things that are on my mind these days, that's not the point here.  However, this post is going to belie the above statement.  Oh well.

Over the last few years I have done a lot of work on the internal.  I wouldn't say I am the poster child for self-esteem but I am definitely much more confident in my own skin...who I am and what I am capable of doing.  I have done a lot of work on my spiritual self.  I spent many, many years feeling like I didn't have a spiritual center or home and I can say with a great deal of comfort (and certainty) that isn't the case any longer.

But how I take care of my physical being?  Well, that could use a lot of work.  So work we are doing.  In light of that, this evening I found myself at the gym.  There was a period of time when I worked out 5 to 6 times a week.  It's been a loooooooooong time since we've been there.  But right now I am 2 for 2 days and that's a good thing.  I have noted a few things in the last few days:

1. I never really want to go to the gym but I am never sad when I am finished.  In fact, I generally feel really great.
2. Music makes a HUGE difference.  I did some work on my exercise playlist last night and today was easier.  I did skip over some songs but that was mostly because the tempo didn't match what I was doing at that moment, not because I didn't want to hear it.
3. A little discomfort while doing something will not kill me.  Today I was doing a 30 minute program on the elliptical.  I wanted to quit after about 10 minutes because I was "tired".  I kept going through the whole thing.  I was totally spent when I was done but I felt so accomplished.

Now these points really don't have a ton to do with exercise so much as they do with life.  

1. I often don't want to do tough things but I am very rarely sorry I did them when they were done.
2. Music makes a HUGE difference.  Enough said.
3. A little discomfort will not kill me.  Not in the gym, not in the office, not out in the world.  Doing my best will make me feel accomplished.  That's universal.

Today I was watching a video that a friend of mine had posted on her blog about 2 years ago.  It is a video from the end of the Ironman Florida competition in 2009.  If you are not familiar with the Ironman races, they are a triathlon - but not just any triathlon.  In an Ironman, the participants complete 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles on a bike and then a marathon - which is 26.2 miles.  And you do this in one day...all in a row.  You have 17 hours to do it.  The winner at the 2010 World Championship in Kona, Hawaii finished in 8 hours and 10 minutes.  

Ironman is one of those things that in theory totally appeals to me.  It's tough -- I mean, crazy tough and it is an accomplishment that parallels few other things.  I went through a period where I read dozens of IM race recaps and found myself in tears for almost all of them.  The reality is that I don't think I have nearly the drive for an IM to do it.  Never say never, of course but it hasn't made my life list and I would be WAY more surprised doing it than not.  That being said...this video?  Well, let's just say it helped keep me on the treadmill this evening.

 

Ironman Florida 2009 at Midnight from Ray Maker on Vimeo.

What keeps you from doing the tough thing?

*"All These Things That I've Done" - The Killers

"I try and ...let my body do what it knows"....*

It was a warm summer's day.  I took my place on the block as my stomach turned somersaults one after the other.

"Swimmer's take your mark"

And off the gun went and with it I launched myself into the cold water.  

I was racing in the 25 yard breast stroke for the 6 and under age group at Baker Park in Phoenixville, PA.  I knew this was my race to lose.  I wasn't a tremendously fast swimmer and I knew I could swim the entire length of the pool without coming up for air.  The way I figured it, breathing took up valuable time and if I could cut that out then I would have the edge.  I knew I could do it.  

So I swam the entire length of the pool under water.  I burst out of the water just as I grabbed the wall and looked around me to realize that I had, in fact, won.  

Then I was immediately disqualified.  

And totally heart broken.

You see, there is a rule in swimming that I didn't know.  Once you dive off the block, you are only allowed to take 2 strokes under water and then you must come up and your head, in fact, can not go completely under water for the balance of the race.  As you can imagine, I broke all of those rules.  

I was thinking of this yesterday morning as I found myself in the local Y pool doing laps.  I was in the lane where I spent all of my high school swim practices and it felt just like slipping back into an old, very comfortable pair of shoes.  I have never been much of an athlete but swimming has always been the thing that I just knew how to do.  That my body knew how to do.  As I swam up and back down the lane yesterday, I executed some beautiful flip turns, my stroke glided me through the water and I was reminded that when I left it, my body will do what it knows.  

What does your body know to do?  What does it take for you to remember that?

* - quote by Australian Olympic gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe

Welcome back!

So you may have noticed that I have been on a bit of quiet-blog period.  I have been but it has been mostly intentional.  As you can see we've had a major redesign.  My first blog design was done by my fabulous friend Keet Leibowitz .  She is an artist of amazing ability and I highly recommend you checking her out.  For my 2nd blog incarnation I decided to employ the skills of Smitten Blog Designs.  I love what they did to give the Aloft Blog a face lift.  

Now that the blog is done -- we are BACK.  I am so excited to be ready to blog again and to share experiences with you and offer you a place to share yours.  Sit back, join in, enjoy.  It's going to get exciting around here!