This road leads to Kona

Althought I have been trainning a lot, this post won't be about sports... (weel, I'm not that sure, since sports for me is about having a meaning in life, but..). This morning I was literaly hited by a phone call. A friend of mine who's just back from vacations was fully depressed about the country we live in, the future and so on. I know that getting back to normal life can be somehow stressful and that he will be fine soon, but he had a point that concerns me either: raising a child. What a point! While he is worried about Brazil, I'm actually worried about the world we live in. I think we are in the middle of a serious crise, and it's worldwide... And that lead me to another thinking: what am I doing to change this... not much... and that made me sad... but before got depressed I went to Tom Peters blog (a daily habit) and he was talking about Rosa Parks... what an isightful story... what a post about the meaning of.. SMALL THINGS! I mean, I wish I was doing more, wish I could even do more, but you know, I'm not Bono (www.one.org) but sometimes I can make the difference on a simple gesture..
And then a small story came into my mind... one of those spread by e-mail and you just wonder if you should have threw straight to the trash bin it sorta like this -
a guy was running on the beach where many sea stars were dying along in the sand... among them he could see a little girl picking one after one and sending them back to the ocean. For each one she threw there were thousands left, so he told her: can't you see that there are still so many outy there, it won't make any difference. The girl looked into his eyes and said " to this one, it does" while sending another one back to the water.

Wish I knew better.... wish we had cliff notes regarding to every sides of life... well.. wish so many things... yesterday I spent a huge part of my trainning just concentrated on figuring out my next steps... curiously, it worked.. on the performance side! I ended up with no answers at all, but I rode so well and was so focused on swimming that I can even dare saying that I reached a personal best.. funny, ho?

The last weeks were quite productive. Inspired by IM Hawaii and a good weather outside I'm back to pull and have been keen to my trainning schedule. It was time to my "humility" trainning... and althought it wasn't exactly planned it just fitted well. Last monday I ran outdoors with a new friend that have just arrived from Chicago Marathon - a sub 3:30 marathon... well, it waas supposed to be ez.. for him! I could follow but my heart rate reached 180 easily and all I could think was: damn, it can't be an ez run.. even for him! Well, on the other hand, as I had the monday off from work, I had a previous run on lunch time.. an ez 8km in 41 min and an average heart rate of 137! Think that Maffetone method is getting into... at least I hope so.. more bike and now I got sore kness but it doesn't matter... I'm just too inspired by a friend's performance at Hawaii... soon I will play homage for him.. for now, I will just post a poem from Frost - guess I did it before.. but this time it goes for him... straight from the heart!

(reading the 8th Habit.... gonna tell more latter)...

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

tomorrow our minds, hearts and souls will be tunned to Hawai... wish I could be there - and I will.. for now, my best vibes are all for a special person which deserves a great experience... a friend of mine who will be travelling his way on queen K tomorrow.. a friend that was a real IM just before he ever knew what this word even mentioned.

Well, after the "rolling hills" I almost lost sight of my trainning – I’m planning a re-assessment of my approch to sports (and life in general) this weekend. It was a tough week, and I was really stressed – too worried with work, future, personal growth and those kind os issues that comes to mind, make a mess and... well, just mess everything up!
On the weekend I got back to pool – it was time to stop quiting the promises I made to myself (Rajesh Setty has a post about it in his series "Distinguish yourself" that is very interesting) and it was anice workout followed by a ride (about 1 hr). On Sunday I just ran outdoors, about 1:15 trying to keep my heart rate bellow 160. I think that this kind of workout will be very good in the near future, but for now it taking all my patience and mental strenght to do it!
Talking about mental strenght I just found a website about swimming psychology – I hope it will be very useful. For now I just tried the free membership in order to evaluate the content. I got 5 more free tips and after it I will decide if I’ll upgrade for a premium membership.
Follows the link for it http://www.swimpsychology.com

Yesterday I had one of my favorite workouts, I use to call it "ROlling Hills", it's quite simple, and not anyhow an innovation, but I like to think that it's custom made :-)
I started with an ez 2k run, nover allowing my heart rate to exceed 160 bpm, it was touch, since I have just "taught " by body to train with high rates... then came the hills, again not to be performande above muy "aerobic" rate - which I stated to be 160... well, i wasn't successful and that showed me my lack of trainning and my "anaerobic" profile... it's time to change it, I thoink that changing one's body pattern is hard, but I'm quite sure I that I can... follow me...

at the end it was 15k and almost 1:20.... I call it a good start.

Note - no progress on my readings, but another decision: include in my trainning schedule, mental focus exercises....

So october is on, and what an exciting month! As I have promised to myself in the early beggining of this yr I'm back on "serious" trainning and already enroled to my prior 2006 race.. watch me!
For this month I'm focusing on aerobic building, following closely all those advices Mark "the aerobic monster" Allen and his "master" Phil Maffetone... It's hard to teach one's body to change it's pattern but I'm aware that I can!

Note - progress on Gerstner's book and with another one on the "pile": Thirst Fisrt - How Gatorade turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon!