Michael: Between the New Years

The heat of the day
Runs away like a spoiled child
When the sun goes down.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

My problem with making resolutions is that if I don’t jump into them right away, I feel like a failure and then my enthusiasm for following them quickly peters out. I wish there was a way to progress incrementally into my resolutions without feeling like a cheat.

Well, my friends, there is and the solution was sitting right between January 1st and our wedding anniversary, February 9th. That happens to be the Chinese New Year.

The way Kimme likes to think about it, and what I’m co-opting from her, is the idea that the period between January 1st and the Chinese New Year is a contemplate/trial/grace period for resolutions.

I think this notion of testing new routines out, keeping the ones that are feasible and either altering or dropping the ones that aren’t is a winner. And that way come February 10, I can begin the New Year feeling more comfortable about continuing the resolutions that made it through the trial period and not be so disappointed about dropping the ones that didn’t make the cut.

Michael: The Other Side of the Coin

The stars make no sense;
Their scattered flickers of light
Say nothing to us.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

It’s very easy to get around by bus here, but again, it’s those little things not mentioned by the likes of International Living that could make it difficult for some ex-pats to find getting around by bus manageable.

Today, for instance, we were waiting for a bus to take us back into town after our Wednesday trail run and often this particular bus can be quite crowded. Today was no exception. Kimme was fortunate as she was seated in one of the little fold out seats up front. On the small buses here, even at 5’10”, when I have to stand I’ve got to bend my head quite a bit. On a long ride that can get pretty uncomfortable.

Another uncomfortable position to be put in happened just a little further down the road. A passenger got off and that freed up a small padded area next to the bus driver for me to sit on. In that seat I was the only passenger facing rearward.

Directly across from me sat a young mother with her child in her lap. It’s a pretty cramped arrangement where our legs were locked together. If we both had been traveling to the end of the line and had to keep our seats, we would’ve been locked together for over an hour. That kind of forced intimacy could get very uncomfortable for a lot of people. To be honest, I’m not keen on it, but one good thing about sitting up front is your far more likely to be sitting next to a woman. And even if it were a man, it would sure beat standing in the back squished between a bunch of other men.

Not coming from a touchy feely background I still find this a bit unnerving, but I’m adapting, and I still prefer getting around by bus than buying a car and driving with some of these crazy drivers out here.

Michael: Nickels and Dimes

The lingering mist
Hovers below the mountains
Like a preacher’s hand.

Tuesday, January 3, 2016

Whatever resources one looks at to determine where to live or retire, sometimes it’s the small change items that can make the difference.

For example, I don’t care whether it’s in the states or here, if I lived next to someone who blasted their stereo enough to annoy me on a regular basis, it wouldn’t matter what my mortgage was, I’d want to get out of there.

But what sneaks under the radar are the small, almost priceless, kindnesses that can really turn your heart toward a place. Particularly at this time of year, when we’re feeling a little homesick since we missed the holidays with our families.

Today, for instance, when I was taking a bus downtown to meet Kimme before going to the gym, the assistant who is a very thin man, and for some reason, has taken a liking to us purposely undercharged me. And maybe that’s not enough to deserve a paragraph in International Living’s reasons to move to Volcan, but it sure meant a lot to me today.

Michael: Attention Earthlings

The hills hold their breath
Before smothering the plains
In a cold exhale.

Monday, January 2, 2017

Our new neighbors, as we were strolling past their place, invited us over for a New Year’s dinner. We did the neighborly thing and accepted mostly because were anti-social klutzes who rarely get invitations to anywhere and haven’t worked on a good excuse in advance. That’s one of our resolutions for the New Year.

We were hesitant to go because I was fearful that at least one of the other guests would be a right wing loon. They may have been, but no one brought up politics or religion.

However, as to be expected, in any gathering around here involving more than a handful of people, you can bet there’s going to be at least one conspiracy theorist, and that person is very likely to hone in on me I suppose because I can feign interest much better than I ever thought was possible.

This time round it was a spin on an old reliable of some U.N. dark room heavy hitters conspiring to depopulate the planet, though this variation relied on just your basic modern weaponry and wars as opposed to chem trails or alien invaders.

Thankfully, this informant was pretty optimistic about 2017 but was murky on what could be gleaned about our prospects after that.

And so far at least, Volcan seems to be a pretty good spot to be in when the shit hit’s the fan. Unless civilization’s undoing somehow involves cow shit. Then we’re in trouble because we’ve seen U.N. or alien stockpiles of that crud all over the place around here.

Kimme: Doing My Own Thing or Too Lazy to Keep Up.

Yesterday, January 2nd, first Monday of the New Year,  Michael decided to add back our early Monday morning run which we stopped doing when I joined the local quilting club on Mondays.  As he got ready to go I laid in bed thinking about joining him because the quilt club is on break right now.  Michael does a lot of workouts that I do not join him on but it unusual for me to miss a run or hike so it felt weird to see him put on his running shoes and get ready while I layed in bed.  As he walked out the door I thought about what I could do with the hour that would be more valuable to me.  20 minutes later I got myself out of bed and made coffee, then did some warm up exercises, a short meditation and some sun salutations.  Before I knew it,  Michael was back from his run. 

Hours later, I am still thinking about what I need more, that extra run first thing Monday morning or some time to do things at my own speed.  They both take an hour.

Michael: Numbers

The passion flower;
Its white and violet petals,
Is simply stunning.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Every year at this time I always feel somewhat shallow because I come up with decent and reasonable health goals as opposed to spiritual goals. But I’m going to start easing up on myself because it’s just so much easier to create health objectives that I could tell anyone with a good chance they’d nod their head in agreement with, as opposed to telling them some spiritual stuff that would probably have them nodding with that quizzical look like…”Okaaay…That… sounds interesting… I’ve got to be running along now…”

I’ll give an example. Right now I weigh just under 148 lbs. and am just a sliver under 14% body fat. My goal is to weigh under 142 and be under 12% by July. I’m going to accomplish that by throwing in one extra easy run and ride per week. That’ll be three rides and 4 runs per week total. Tough, but I’m retired and the workouts are varied and interesting. I’ll keep an eye on the numbers and if I can’t keep up on my intense workouts or start to get sick or even more cranky than I am now, I’ll re-evaluate.

Sounds good and doable.

Now take a goal like meditating for at least 5 minutes every morning. So far, so good. But how do I state what outcome I’d like to achieve without sounding peculiar? I could just say I hope to increase my awareness or serenity or some other such new age goofiness. Or I could be even more strange and put a number to it and say I’m planning on increasing my serenity by 5% this year.

Now how would you react if I looked you straight in the eye and said that with real conviction?

Michael: Process, Performance and Outcome

The bland cloud cover
Dulls the wind and dims the light
On this summer day.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

On this day of making resolutions I thought I’d Google types of goals just to clarify my thinking before solidifying my goals for the near future.

I looked at the first five sites that popped up and my thoughts about what would be said about outcome and process goals was pretty much spot on but the inclusion on some sites of the category of performance goals was a bit of a revelation. I hadn’t really taken the performance goal category into consideration, but now that I’ve looked it over, it seems a logical intermediary step.

The skeleton of the process looks like this; The process are the workouts that will lead to measurable performance, which may or may not lead to a specific outcome. Outcome goals are generally described as not under your control, but I think that’s a bit of a simplification, and not entirely accurate.

For example, let’s say I want to run my next 10k under 40 minutes (Performance Goal). That could logically lead me to conclude that I should do at least 3 months of workouts that include tempo runs that will prepare me to physiologically maintain a pace that will achieve a 40 minute 10k (Process Goal). However, if the course is hilly, or I get injured, maybe I’ll fall short of the outcome I’d like to have achieved. Given my performance goal, I might also have sneaky aspirations of placing in the top three in my age group (another outcome goal), but that’s dependent on not only my time, but other people‘s times as well, and unless your of the Tanya Harding school of achievement, that’s not likely to be under your control.

Here’s where it gets a bit murky. Let’s say I want to beat my age group record in the Bull Dog 25k (an outcome/ performance goal). In order to do that I’ve got to run 4 minutes faster over that course than I’ve ever run before. That’ll set the parameters for my process goals. A very good guy named Ron has the record and has won our age group 8 out of the past 9 years.

This is the last year we’ll hopefully compete against each other in this age group at that race. I don’t see any harm in setting my sites on beating Ron and setting an age group record in the last year we’ll be in the 50-59 category. It may be a stretch, but it’s doable. And I don’t feel that considering all of the goals; process, performance, and outcome, in anyway diminishes the value of any one of them, despite the negative slant given to outcome goals as defined by the sites I looked at.

If Ron beats me (again), I can live with that. If I fall short of the record, all right. It hurts to fail but pain can be a very useful part of the goal setting process. No matter what happens this year, I’ll take that into account when I aim for the 50k record when I turn 60 in 2018.