And Thus, I Emerge

I want to share how my vipassana meditation course went, but I don't even know where to begin. I certainly wouldn't call my experience "good" or "fun" -- it was transformative. We spent our time trying to train our minds. As an athlete, someone who spends a vast amount of his time training his body, I assumed that training my mind would be similar. The factor I utterly failed to take into account was how untrained my mind was before starting the course.

Let me put this in cycling terms, so that I, and perhaps more of my readers can understand:

Imagine a ten-day course where people are asked to pedal their bicycles for eleven hours each day. Now imagine that a wide range of people sign up for this course. Some people, having completed the course before, know exactly what challenges lie ahead, while others don't even know how to ride a bike.  Everyone, regardless of fitness, will find this course challenging; however, someone like myself, who rides his bike constantly, will adjust to this extremely intense environment much easier than someone who hasn't ridden his or her bike since childhood. A good athlete, with a solid understanding of what his body can do, is likely to choose an appropriate pace to pedal for those eleven hours. An out-of-shape person, fresh off years of sitting on the couch eating Arby's, will almost certainly overdo it on the first day, and spend the course floundering.

So it felt with me in this meditation course. My mind was utterly unprepared for the challenge -- prior to this course, I'd never meditated more than ten minutes at a time. My mind, never having exercised like this in it's life, tried to keep up the first day or so, but, let me put this lightly, imploded catastrophically shortly thereafter. I found this experience traumatic, painful, and yet somehow inspiring.

I found that training my mind, especially my sub-conscious mind, is like training a large, powerful, extremely distractible, and extremely hyper labrador retriever named Shredder how to sit. I showed up at canine obedience school thinking I'd get Shredder to sit on the first day, while in reality this goal was totally unattainable -- "Sit Shredder," I'd say, and Shredder would go bounding off into the distance to hump legs, sniff butts, and fight the other dogs. I've taken the first step, but Shredder will need weeks, months, or years of steady, patient, persistent work before he'll be a good dog.



Keep at it Shredder. You'll be sitting in no time.

Meditate on This!

For the next ten days, I'm going to be taking a course in Vipassana meditation outside Sun Valley, Idaho. I'm slightly nervous about what I'm getting myself into -- ten days of not talking and sitting still sounds pretty challenging. To date, I think the longest I've remained both silent and still was for roughly two hours and forty minutes. I was sleeping at the time, and this happened over ten years ago, so "challenging" might be an understatement. Learn more about what I'm doing here. Needless to say, blogging is not allowed during meditation courses, so as much as I'd love to give you detailed, firsthand accounts of the changes taking place in my psyche, I can not do so. I will, however let you know how it went once I get back. Good night, and good luck.
-S

Krogg Review Garmin Edge 500

So Krogg have splendid new toy to play with: Garmin Edge 500.

This pretty much best invention ever -- better than fire, better than wheel, and even better than spear! Garmin Edge 500 allow Krogg to train with the legs of 1,000 woolly antelope (fastest animal known to caveman), and the brains of 1,000 snow weasel (craftiest animal known to caveman). Garmin Edge 500 have GPS, which stand for Giant Pigeon in Sky. This giant pigeon fly waaaaay up high, and keep track of where Krogg go on training ride. Then Krogg can look at route afterwards on computer, and share with blog like this: 

See? Krogg climb Bogus Basin! Click "View Details" to see more magic Garmin Edge 500 information. Krogg never imagined in craziest caveman dream he have so much information at fingertips! Krogg can view useful training data (like wattage or lap time), or Krogg can see crazy things (like temperature, %grade, and distance to nearest mammoth herd). Here photos of Krogg's ride:

Bogus Basin great! When you reach ski area, you think you at top of mountain, but noooo, road keep going! Climb several more miles and finally get to spot where you look down on ski area! How sweet this? 

Garmin Edge 500 have many other amazing features. It easy to attach to bicycle, and easy to set up. In fact, Garmin Edge 500 so easy to use, Krogg wager even cave sloth could use one (stupidest animal known to caveman)! All menus are easy, and Krogg never need to use instructions to make Garmin Edge 500 work -- this good thing, Krogg hate instructions! Garmin Edge 500 very smart toy: not only does Garmin Edge 500 talk to Giant Pigeon in Sky, it talk to other new toy, Powertap SL+.

That way, when Krogg pedal, Krogg know exactly how many woolly antelope Krogg worth. Krogg can also look at powerfiles on computer too! See?
Krogg love Garmin Edge 500. And Krogg excited to share many more rides with blog.

STOP. Training Time!

Allrighty Sports Fans, pop quiz:

1: Let's say you finished Nationals feeling a little worn down, a little beat up, a little burned out -- and you have to get ready for the mighty mighty Cascade Classic a mere three weeks away. What would you do? 

A) Go home and cry for three weeks.
B) Go to Idaho where the weather is nice, and the roads are smooth, and the birds are singing, and cry for three weeks.
C) Go home and rest for a week (or cry, depending), but then go to Idaho and train your mother-lickin'-legs off!

The answer is C.

2: Let's say you've decided to go to Idaho and train your legs off. Where should you go: 

A) Boise, because you know the roads like the back of your hand, and it's nice and hot so you can acclimatize to the heat, and there's lots of fun stuff to do while you're not training.
B) Sun Valley, because you know the roads like the back of your hand, and it's high altitude, and it's downright gorgeous there right now.
C) A and B
D) Nampa.

The answer is C. Never go to Nampa.

3: Ok, so you're going to Idaho to train. How are you going to measure your workload? 

A) Well you don't own a working power meter at the moment, so you could leave a trail of bread crumbs on your rides, and go back in the car and count your milage with the car's odometer. Then you could go in a wind tunnel and calculate your drag coefficient, and finally hire a scientist to calculate your wattage.
B) You do own a broken power meter. Maybe you could fix it?
C) Nope. You don't have enough time to do that -- plus your old power meter doesn't work with your new Garmin Edge. I'd suggest contracting that psychic octopus, Oracle Paul, to predict what your wattage will be on your rides.

There is no answer to life's biggest questions. Or this idiotic one.

4: By the way, how the hell did that octopus predict Spain would win? 

A) He's a psychic dude! Psychics know!
B) He's actually the supreme master of the universe and his will becomes manifest, always. Spain won because the Oracle Paul wishes it so.
C) He's a patsy! The Germans needed someone to blame if they lost, and Oracle Paul happened to be in the wrong aquarium at the wrong time.

The answer is B. All hail Oracle Paul!

5: Anyway, none of those power meter ideas sound like good ideas. What about just getting a new one? 

A) Holy shit. I hadn't thought of that.
B) Are you a genius or what? Psychic octopus? How did you know that's what I would do?!
C) Say hello to my new power meter.

5: Awesome. Now get out there and train. How's it going? 

A) So far, so good!
B) So far, so bad!

The answer is A