Finding Shark's Teeth in Paradise

Greg's mother died last week. I only visited her a few times a year over the past 20 years; still, my world seems off-balance without her in it.

At the moment, I'm sitting in her condo in Florida on vacation. She knew about this trip and so it feels as though she's provided input to it. Some other trip she won't join us. But not this trip.

This trip I'm surrounded by her life. Hats, keys, business cards, books all exactly where she left them when she was last here. The bath towels are neatly folded on a shelf in her closet, bath powder waiting for its next use. A half-used bar of soap is still in the shower. It's been a trip for remembering.

My favorite day was yesterday. After a leisurely morning, we drove to Englewood Beach and met up with my friend, Nancy. There we sat on the beach collecting shark's teeth hidden amongst the broken sea shells scattered on the beach.

The thing about shark's teeth is this: the more you look, the easier they are to spot. And the more you find, the better you feel. I'm not sure why this is, but it's a Zen-like experience. They're like little treasures that make you richer for finding them.

So we collected teeth and talked and watched the morning slip into afternoon. Nancy entertained us with ASL (American Sign Language) trivia and then left to go to Tampa for a party.

After Nancy left, we walked to Stump Pass. Stump Pass is a mile-long state park with no buildings other than restrooms. Seeing this untouched shoreline, one can imagine the world before highrises and beach homes.

Greg's mother once sat on this beach in the middle of winter and painted a picture of herself in a chair looking down the untouched shoreline. That oil painting has hung in her living room in Michigan for as long as I can remember. I always wondered why she 'd painted herself in the picture - she'd never liked to be photographed.

Standing there yesterday, discovering a place I'd never been that she loved to go, I think I finally understood.

10-Mile Blog

This morning I used my newly purchased Garmin Forerunner 305 on my club 10-mile run. This device is so cool, I can't even begin to explain its features (which is to say, I have no idea what it can do). For example, I walked around the lake where I live with my Forerunner 305 on, and it literally recorded every turn. You can overlay your path onto Google Earth, and see exactly where you're stepping, right down to when you bypass an object, such as a tree or detached squirrel tail. Really..it's that detailed.

You can also use the accompanying software to setup training schedules. This works for me. Each year I pick some new training method and this year decided on Zones. I'm talking about Heart Rate zones which are usually depicted in 5 ranges that are percentages of your maximum heart rate.

According to Sally Edwards (random source), the new Mathematical Formula for finding your Maximum Heart Rate is 210 minus 1/2 your age minus 1% of your body weight plus 4 (for males). This formula bores me. It looks too much like high school math. Fortunately Sally and I are about the same age and weight so I snagged her data for my initial Max H.R. reading. I later adjusted it to match my actual Max (187) using one of Sally's suggested methods.

To be brief, my Zone 1 (50-60% of my Max H.R.) is 93.5 - 112.2 BPM (beats per minute). To achieve this, I think I'd have to stand still or even walk backwards. Today I chose to train in Zone 3 (70-80% of Max H.R.), which is the Aerobic Zone - supposedly reached by "running easy". I won't go into the benefits of this zone, but one is a bigger heart.

The map of my run on this page was created using my GPS Forerunner and GPS Visualizer. Those blue marks are me. The Pink Balloon is the start point and end point. Today's run had a lot of backtracking (wherever a dead-end appears). The weather was about 30 degrees with a strong wind AND the course was hilly. Here's what happened:

Mile 0: I'm late. I see everyone taking off down the path. I try to catch-up, but in my haste, I apparently forget to set the Heart Rate Zone buzzer on my GPS.

Mile 0.4: Every one's disappeared from view. I have no idea where to go.

Mile 0.5: Whew! - there's Anna, a familiar face, running toward me. She explains that I've missed a turn and describes a short-cut that will lead me to runners heading toward me, so I can turn around and resume the course (first dead end on the map).

Mile 0.6: Success! I've found the group and turn around with them, running easily with several people who are known to run my pace.

Mile 4.9: I'm way ahead of everyone in my pace group. I can't believe I'm running so fast and my heart rate buzzer hasn't warned me I'm out of zone. I forgot my contacts and can't see the small H.R. number on my Forerunner so have no idea what my Heart Rate is.

Mile 5.3: Water stop. I quickly check my Forerunner, and sure enough my Zone is not set to buzz. I correct this problem and am welcomed with a buzzing message "heart rate too low" (this means I need to go faster).

Mile 5.8: Buzz. Too fast. I start walking. I pass a guy walking backwards ahead of me. He must be training in Zone 1.

Mile 6.1: Buzz. Too slow. I start running really, really slowly.

Mile 6.8: Buzz. Too fast. This can't be right. I'm practically walking. My pride is also getting to me because runners that were ahead of me are now coming back my way and I'm walking instead of running. I CAN run, I feel like telling them, but I'm training.

Miles 7.0 - 9.2 Buzz - Buzz - Buzz - Buzz (Shut UP!!)

Mile 9.2: The start point is in sight. Normally this would be the end of my run - logged as 10 miles - but, can't cheat the Forerunner! So I pass the start point and add the missed mileage from the beginning to round out my run to 10 miles.

Today's run - following the zone method - took my 2 hours!!

Short and Sweet

No picture this time. I'm getting ready to go swimming and will probably do the drill workout my half-ironman "Team Pink" workout buddies have been given by their coach. My friend, Nancy has lost something like 19 lbs on Weight Watchers and she's inspired me to sign-up again. So on Monday, I paid my dues for a month online and have been diligently following the Flex Plan since. I love signing on and tracking my points - I especially like adding my activity points. For my swim, for example, I'll get 5 activity points. Really makes any exercise more fun - almost like I'm getting paid for it.

After my swim, I'll check the day's plans which will undoubtedly include some dog walking activities.

Time on the Ceiling

My friend Nancy in Florida sent me an atomic projection clock that arrived with yesterday's mail. They were on sale at Walgreens and since I'd admired hers last month, she decided to buy me one. I was so excited to try it, I opened the package right away.

This one came with a remote wireless temperature sensor that I can put outside - I'll figure that out when I find some AAA batteries. I set the clock up last night before I went to bed (I had to read some instructions to get it right) so I could wake up to the time projected on my ceiling. I planned to run this morning at 7:00 am and so thought this new clock would facilitate my waking up on time. I should add that I don't like alarm clocks - it work's for me to just "know" I have to be awake at a certain time and then I use the visual time as a reference for whether or not I have to awaken fully or not.

Once I was comfortably in bed with the lights out (you can't see the time with the lights on), I gazed up at the ceiling to check the time. It read, "uud 18:01". Huh? Oh jeez, I'd set it up so the time was projected upside down. While this was annoying, I was too far into sleepland to fix it.

This turned out to be a huge mistake:

"uub 08:1": Still awake and half-dreaming. I feel like I'm late for some event, but I'm not really sure what.

"uub 5h:t": Still awake - I think I should get up and fix the clock. I can't stop thinking about what time it is. If I keep going like this, I won't be able to get up to run.

"uub 15:h": Still awake. I'm not going to run - haven't slept all night. Can't figure out what time it is.

"uub bh:5": Just dozed off, but now the phone is ringing. It's my mother and I've forgotten I promised to dress her for her day at the Center. "I'm sorry, I overslept." (What time is it anyway, I wonder?) "It's almost 6:00," her caregiver tells me a few seconds later over the line.

Okay - gotta get up. Dress for the run. Get my mother dressed. Get coffee. Fix the clock.

So I made it to everything on time.... thanks to my new atomic clock.

Sunday Night

I went to my running club's Annual Meeting and Party last night. I didn't feel like going- I was still in the last throws of my cold - but I'm glad I did. I've been a member for 8 years. During that time, I've been a newbie, a web master, a board member, and an injured member, amongst other things. Last night I realized how much I truly enjoy this group of familiar people. We've all been through the same ups and downs.

It's always fun to socialize with this eclectic group. We have diplomats and AOL millionaires, and orthopedic surgeons, nurses, lawyers, a lot of self-employed consultants, retirees, moms and dads and grandparents, and college students, army officers, liberals, conservatives, founding members, new members and more.

More later.

Two Journal Entries - August 1982

I make no excuses for my journal entries from a past life. They just are.

Untitled
Exploding with energy,
only
the effort makes
everything worth thinking
about -
Here in my secret world,
it's the unobtainable that makes
me endlessly
ecstatic.

The Prose Writer
The prose-writer scribbles a million moments to an instant in a word, drawing everything that is or was to a lifetime in a second.

The Flu

I kind of like being sick. My energy level is so low, I have no choice but to slow down. The world seems like a distant bubble of activity that I'm not a part of and it's easy to focus on what's important and what's not.

I can get to the important things.

Afterwards, off to bed in the middle of the day - and sleep and I love my humidifier with Vicks Vapor Rub fumes (that I can't smell but can feel).

Today's important things:
Paychecks, dogs that need exercise, culling through more potential new hires.

Later...
Day's end finds me dragging my feet and eyelids and eager to slip off to bed at 3:30 pm. I'm thinking about taking my computer with me to watch "An Inconvenient Truth." Amy loaned it to me and wants it back.

So off I go.