Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I am pre-coffee this morning, and feel as if I am yodeling up from the bottom of a swimming pool to reality that walks around above the water…

I am just about to finish my 3 week break from real training, and then will be able to get back to my “real job” of training and feel like my normal driven self.

I can’t stand being this inactive! the worst part is that I can feel my body/soul slow down, I can feel the couch calling… non-moving is the magnetic attraction to me now, I see a beautiful snowy day outside, and I think “brrrrr…frigging cold” not “hey, an easy run through the falling snow would be nice and thoughtful/sweaty”…..

I was even intending spinning on the indoor trainer yesterday, just for 30 minutes, to keep the blood flowing, but, naaaah, there was a special on the discovery channel about “the last days of pompeii”!!

my father always said “if you want something done, give it to a busy person” I think there is an athletic corollary to that.. I think people are like those little flywheel toy cars that you push along the ground, and then they just keep going on their own for a while…

and this is not just true of athletes visualizing how they want to race, but true of all of us, we get our mental routines, pointed in a certain direction, and after we put the initial choice of effort (or the initial choice in how we want to live) in, they can simply carry us along…. I have come to that simple belief that life (at least for me) is in great extent about those fleeting moments of choice where we push the car of our souls in a chosen direction, and get the flywheel of our days going.

of course there are limits to choice, and certain choices do preclude others, I can already hear people arguing with this, but to a great extent, as 21st century Americans, our ability for choice dwarfs our lack of choice, we can do whatever we friggin want! (and so many never find how to grab the little toy car of their lives and give it a push.. how sad)

is it as simple as that saying “believe and therefore achieve”? Is it as simple as me believing in myself will put me on the Olympic team? Nope, since there are others who believe in themselves too (and there are 4 slots for the games in the 500m, and the top 6 or 7 guys are still waaaaay faster than me)… but believing and choosing how to push the flywheel of self can help you/me be the best you/me can be..

Its more fulfilling than just watching tv, too…

we only have one “right now” so choose well!! (I am choosing to go get some more coffee, and then I am going to choose to work on more CCS, after being totally inspired by the CCS zen garden a few days ago)

a week from now, I will give that flywheel a huge shove!!

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