Ideas as Ships in the Night

I awoke last night, at a time both late and early, but neither morning nor evening.  The nether period between 2:30 and 3:30; it's too early to rise and workout, but yet late enough that if sleep does not quickly return, the night can be lost.  My night's sleep was indeed lost to the thought train barreling through the tunnels of my frontal lobe.

Last night that train resembled a Shinkansen (bullet train).  I could not stop the stream of ideas and sentiments. I remembered Angela's birthday.  I remembered the first girl I ever kissed.  I tried to connect the dots.  But I couldn't.

I remembered some advice I read in a book on writing, authored I think by Woody Allen.  That advice, keep a notebook by the bed as the creative thoughts that flow on awakening are rich but fleeting.  Seemed like good advice once upon a time, but lack of any real writing skill or creativity lead me to immediately abandon my notebook.  I never started another one.

Somehow, last night's thoughts seemed lush and connected.  I thought I might be able to prepare a blog post expressing the joy and pain of knowing certain people to whom I no longer speak.  Perhaps add a youtube video of a song we shared from an era long gone by.  Maybe an image or three.

Then actual morning arrived and I slogged through a coffee preparing lunch for Jacob before heading to the shower.  The clearer my mind grew as the day wore on, the more I realized it was all a shit mash-up.  My past before my present barely reaches me anymore no matter how sentimental I am.  And sentimentality is after all the beginning and end of that anyways, so what's the point?

I really don't know, but here's a classic to take the edge off.

Opinions from Fitness Land

This post might seem a bit off-topic.  But I am a self-admitted fitness nut with 40 years of organized sports experience behind me, and a new life of activity coming after my knee replacement next month.  So I devour fitness information and love plying the webs for blogs linked by writers I already enjoy.

Recently, I commented to my Facebook community after reading an article on a fitness blog.  The blog was linked by another writer I am really enjoying right now,  so I thought the take on fitness and training might be interesting. The author is, as am I, an adherent of lifting heavy things and then mixing it up a bit.

Unfortunately, it turned out she was a Crossfit devotee and typical of that community, mind-limited on training.  Her article was framed by views that are apparently mainstream in the Crossfit community: "we are superior," "others are average (or to be completely disdained for not sporting Crossfit-ideal physiques)", "this is not for you", and "Crossfit is a SPORT for ELITE ATHLETES." And it was that last comment, a direct quote, that led me to comment on FB and then write this.

Don't get me wrong: I admire those committed to randomized, blackbox, metabolic work that includes a mix of moderate to heavy lifting and other exercise intended to tap multiple, even competing energy systems. Those workouts, even the short ones, are ass-kickers and I understand the smug satisfaction that accompanies completing such work. It might even be beneficial as an adjunct to less randomized, authentically structured training for a certain, very limited field of actual sports. But make no mistake it's preparation, not sport and they should be satisfied by that alone.

Despite my admiration for the concepts, I find Crossfit hard to support.  I'm bugged by it's childish elitism, the weird fetishism, and the bizarre, atavistic, political ravings of its founder (who apparently isn't much of an adherent himself). I could write an entire column on it in my blog, but appropriate, professional critiques have already been written by trainers that actually understand how to manage the strength and conditioning of high performance athletes (cf Eric Cressey among others).

As for the difference between training and sport, I choose to ignore dictionary definitions because as several of my friends noted, there is competition in things we wouldn't call sport, and there is training in things that demand exertion but are not competitive. Further complicating the issue, there is competition in things that some would consider training begging the question "Then why not Crossfit?" I'm thinking about Olympic Lifting and Powerlifting, both of which are sports unto themselves, but remain training modalities for far more athletes competing in other sports.

To me the difference is a philosophical one and not just a matter of definition. If you want to compete in seeing who can finish 3 sets of 10 chins followed by weighted sled pushes followed by 3 sets of handstand push-ups, followed by 400 meter runs, have at it. For me, I admire the athletes that do those things in training while also refining specific fine and coarse motor activities, i.e. skills, demanded by the sports they compete in, whether individual or team. Because that's elite.  

I re-read the article trying to discern a knowledgeable vein of information, perhaps something deeper in the post that I might have missed for the apparent narcissism of the writer.  A redeeming point of information marshalled to support the idea she claimed inspired her post; that not all workouts are appropriate for all people (I think she used the term "cookie cutter" but now that I think of it, she did that incorrectly too).  Nope.  She was bragging.  I do this; I'm special; look at me and my physique.  Definitely not elite.

Dad, Son, and His First Week of School

Make no mistake, I still worry about my son's workload. But after his first week of high school, the facts are indisputable. Jacob loves his school.

Jacob's new school is a small, all boys high school in downtown Seattle with about the best college preparatory record of any school in the Puget Sound region.  Every boy in last year's graduating class went on to further education beyond high school; most to four year colleges.  Free from the distractions of girls in school, classrooms are organized on the Gurian Model designed specifically for boys.  I'll write more about that in a future post.

As I wrote last week, Jacob commutes with mom every morning, arriving at around 7AM for Zero Period -- band practice.  The band does everything.  From jazz to symphony; from liturgy to percussion ensemble and drum line.  They play concerts, mass, and football games.  And he seems to have gotten off to a fine start.  He's enjoying Japanese, a language I studied for a couple of years as an adult just for my interest in Japan.  The class process has been slow to wind up so he's getting a suitable "dipping in" without an assload of homework yet.

Speaking of which, his homework so far has been appropriate but he's busy.  However, he's showing signs of better time management, even if he needs a bit of sideboarding from me or mom here and there.  Last night after football practice, he managed to complete his interval throwing workouts and flow to an honors World History assignment (completed while he shoveled down a couple of tacos and a tall glass of milk).  Then some Japanese, a core workout meant to accompany his throwing work, and style guide study for a quiz today in honors World Lit.

I found some release from my worry in several moments scattered throughout the evening.  First, his arm is strong.  Not related to school (yet), but he is coming back from his first real baseball injury and appears to be much stronger now.  Every ball he threw from beyond 60 feet was heavy and hurt my hand to catch.  Second, he did his work at a proper desk with only some music playing on the PC in the background.  This is new; in the past he'd study on the couch at a coffee table with the TV on (which Mom and I disagree on).  Third, he accepted the idea of doing something productive as a break from homework.  In the past, a break meant playing some xbox or watching a couple of youtube videos.  Last night he did some core work, stuff that makes him a better ball player.

These were all good signs.  We'll see how well things go as his baseball team starts Fall practice this weekend, anticipating the Fall Classic Baseball Tournament in Las Vegas at the end of October.  His coach will not pitch him this Fall or next spring so that's an element of his game from which he can relax.  But he needs to hit and take a lot of fielding before he's game speed again.  All while keeping his grades respectably high.

It's a lot.  I worry.  But I know he wants to show me he's "got this."  That's exactly the correct place to start.