Where did the day go?

Sometimes, when I have a day off and it's not filled with cycling, it's like a bonus day. I usually have an idea of what I'm going to do; other times I have a definite plan. When it's not definite, usually those are the days that disappear unnoticed and I feel like it was time wasted. So I've learned (unfortunately the same lesson more than once) that I need to have more than a vague idea of what I'm going to do and be more proactive. It's better if I have the day planned out. If the plan goes off course, by choice or by necessity, that's okay. But I need to start out with a plan. For example, last Saturday I wanted to go to the SY anniverary from say noon to whenever. I also knew I was going to ride but I didn't know for how long and I wanted to spend every waking second outside . Okay, maybe not every waking second but the bulk of the day. So after breakfast I went outside. I ended up cutting the grass and edging and all that. Fine. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the dojo. Off I went. The sun was shining and all was right with the world. About an hour later the dark clouds rolled in. Paul showed up. We bought some goodies at the bake sale and chatted with friends whom I hadn't seen all summer. The wind was high. We headed home with our purchases and then went out for a ride, all the while keeping an eye on the sky. We managed an hour's ride before the clouds opened. It rained hard for about an hour, if that. Ride got shortened. So I could have made use of the time by going to visit my Dad. I'm not sure where the rest of the day went. Eric called to cancel our dinner/movie date. So that bought us more time. I could have gone out to get some groceries. Didn't do that either. So the lesson is, Do the important stuff first. Ride while the sun shining. If you're going to visit Dad, then make up your mind and do it. Don't be wishy-washy. Maybe that's it: don't be wishy-washy. Commit to an idea and follow through. Act rather than thinking about acting. Next time, have a plan.

I would impress myself if I...

Another prompt from Levy. I would impress myself if I actually wrote something for my blog every day. My excuse recently is that I have been working on an article for Canadian Modern Combato Magazine on Noor Inayat Khan, one of the most famous secret agents of World War II. I would impress myself if I got that article written. It has been a long time since I have written something like this, a formal essay as it were on a non-fiction topic. I recall writing informal essays of opinion in high school. You didn't have to worry about fact checking or putting researched material in your own words. It's a challenge but I like it. What else? Today was kind of unproductive. I got the grass cut and I went to the Stronger You anniversary party and I rode for one hour. That's it. So I would impress myself if I got some writing done. But let's think about the future. I would impress myself if I took this course I'm thinking about. It's going to be a major undertaking, given what I am already doing, all the projects I have on the go. Summer's almost over which means less free time, and getting back to karate and preparing workouts and classes. Also, the nutrition seminar on september 20th and the sammy stick seminar on november twenty something. It's overwhelming but all good. The only thing I would change is the job itself but that's what allows me to do all this other stuff so I'm sticking with it for now. Oh, I just thought of something that would really impress me: if I could get myself to start drawing again. That would be huge. Well, that's it: in a nutshell more writing, and drawing, anything. Maybe I should start sketching. Never been very good at that. It's always gotta be something finished. I'll keep that in mind.

The two things I could do today to make things more exciting...

This is one of Mark Levy's prompts. Wow, two things, I can't even think of one. After all, I had to work today, so when would I find time to do these exciting things? How about, no, I can't think of anything. But the rule is, you have to keep writing. So I'm writing down all this nonsense while I think of something. Okay, after work I was going to go to sticks class. That would definitely have been more exciting. But I got home too late so I didn't go. My next idea was to do intervals, since I wasn't time trialling. But I couldn't find an SRM to put on my TT bike and the SRM on my Vortex needed to have the slope changed, otherwise the power would be off. No point in doing intervals if you don't have power. Not that intervals are exciting. If the weather was nicer, I would have done my kettlebell workout. Exciting? Maybe not but certainly productive. I'm at a loss. I guess I could have skipped work and gone to the dojo. Now that would have definitely been more exciting. When they say "things I could have done" do they mean in practicality? I mean, I couldn't really skip work. But if I did, I could have gone shopping. It's not a nice day, so it would have been perfect for shopping. After training that is. This is hopeless.

If I were to give my younger self advice, what would I say?

Oh boy, this could be a long post! But I will limit it to 10 minutes. First off, I would tell myself to get some guidance about what to take at university. Have a plan. If things don't go according to plan, that's okay but begin with a plan. If you're going to take English literature, what are you going to do afterwards with that degree. I guess my plan was to enter the public service but that is too vague. And that's all I had. So that is the first thing.
Also, try different things to find out what you want to do. Don't get stuck in a rut. This is easier said than done.
Second, I would say, take some time to have fun. I actually don't think I started having fun until I was in my thirties! Take a trip. Before or after university but preferrably before. After you are too anxious to get a job and start making some money. A lot of young people go to Europe. That would have been great. See the world. Try new things.
Third, don't get married until you are at least 25.
Hm, that's all I can think of. I thought the list would be longer.

The way of the teacher: is technology replacing the traditional classroom?

Like all things, technology can be used for good or ill. But it seems like the old classroom method of teaching is dying out. Instead of complementing the teacher teaching in the classroom, technology seems to be nudging the teacher out of the picture. The teacher is simply in the background, on call, expected to be available to answer questions using the student's media of choice: text, email... I don't know, do they still use the phone? Is this teaching? Anyone involved with education knows that just as there are different learning styles, so there are different teaching styles or methods. A teacher standing and lecturing to students is but one way. With the prevalence of interconnectionability and social media, today's students seem to prefer to teach themselves. Is this necessarily a bad thing? I think it is. Perhaps in the old days we didn't have as many choices when it came to learning. You went to school, attended classes, did the homework - which usually involved reading and writing or calculations if it was science or math. Now that we've got internet I wonder how many students use library books for research. How many attend class and take notes. How many think for themselves? Students of today seem to expect everything to come easy. They want to be spoon fed. Not that we wouldn't have liked to be spoon fed when we were in school but the expectation was never there. You had to put in the work, and if you didn't you were the only one who was to blame if you failed. You couldn't call the course coordinator and give some lame excuse and expect a pass. I'm talking at the college level. Nowadays, the school system operates as a business in which the students are the "customers". The colleges and universities are providing a service and they want to please their customers. "The customer knows best." "The customer is always right." So what happens when a student doesn't like what a teacher tells him or her and complains? The school listens and heeds the student, teacher be damned. How is this conducive to education? It isn't and I believe it spells the demise of the teacher as we know it. What qualified person in their right mind wants to function in an environment where they have no authority? Their own qualifications become diminished. Never mind the student quickly learns how to manipulate the system. Nobody wins. Once upon a time, although the choices were not as varied as they are today, the student could use a number of methods to learn: lectures, note taking, reading, studying, writing, discussion with teachers and fellow students. With the teacher out of the equation, the learning is seriously undermined.

Why do I time trial?

Every time I finish a time trial, I ask myself this question. Time trials are a form of self torture. But it feels really good when it is over. But then, so does any form of self flagellation. Oh my god, I hope these words don't attract the wrong sort. Anyway, this is not the reason I time trial. That would be lame. I once knew a guy who became a bit of a cyclist who always said the best part about riding was getting off the bike. Kind of funny but not a ringing endorsement for cycling. I want to improve of course. There is always that hunger to do better. But there is another benefit. Although time trails are painful, I look at them as a mental challenge. TTs are a test of your fitness level; but beyond that, they test you mentally. It would be oh so easy to quit. To just stop pedalling and the pain would be over. So the challenge is to keep going to the finish line, keep going as hard as you can go. Push, push. Step on it. Keep going. Ah! Get mad, win the battle, cause you ain't gonna win the race. That's it, that's all.

People say to me, "you gotta do them every week, you have to do more, that way, you will be guaranteed not to miss a 'good night'". And you get used to the suffering. You get to the know the course. All good, valid reasons. But I have good, valid reasons for only doing them the few times I do. A couple in June, none in July because we're away on vacation - getting fitter - and then all of August except maybe before going to Lake Placid. Then a couple in September until they wrap up. That's what I can do and that's what I do do. Not likely to change.

Oh yeah, and for those who say TTs are fun. They're lying. Sure, it's fun to go fast but it hurts. So there is a element of fun riding down the road by yourself, maybe chasing someone, maybe getting away from someone behind you, at full speed on a fine summer evening. But I think it pretty much hurts everyone, regardless of how fast they go. Some get to go alot faster for their suffering, so the payoff, including their time, is bigger. Again, I get why the fast people do it. This brings me to team TTs. In a team TT you get to go a lot faster than you would alone, and you get to rest a little. So team TTs are more fun than ITTs. However, if you do them behind a faster person, and just try to hang on for dear life, without rotating, the level of suffering is the same, but you do get to go faster and you get to have a better finish time than if you rode it alone.

That's the skinny on why I TT, alone and behind a faster rider.

If I were to write my life story...

I read the first chapter of dad's bio and the thing that struck me as interesting is that he placed his birth and early life in the context of historical events. When I think about writing my own bio, it would not have occurred to me to say that I was born when President Kennedy was in office, one year before his assassination. Weird too that when I think of the early sixties I think of U.S. politics. Why not that Diefenbaker was PM? Of course my perspective changed recently when I read "The Help". This book underscored how the whole civil rights movement came about and how recent that was. Another revolution that occurred during my early life was the feminist movement, or women's lib as it was called back then. Thinking about the sixties, the age of aquarius, drug and hippie culture, free love, makes me realize what a turbulent and fascinating time I grew up in. But when you think about war, as my Dad was born between to two world wars, of course the sixties brought the Vietnam War and the peace movement as well. We are definitely influenced by our southern neighbours but during the sixties, because of the media, America was not nearly as influential as it is today. So is my default to US happenings, a product of almost fifty years of indoctrination, or did I get that as a child? My feeling is the former. So back to writing my bio, my perspective or approach would be more insular than dad's. Perhaps the reason is that the times he grew up in were so different from today that he feels compelled to explain the way it was and why it was that way. Now that's not to say that since I was born nothing has changed because the times have obviously changed drastically. But fifty years, compared to eighty plus, makes a huge difference in the 20th century. That is why older people today have lived in such fascinating times. Growing up with no water or electricity must have had a huge impact on a child who grew up to live in the information age. Having pondered this for a few minutes makes me realize that putting yourself in a historical context makes a lot of sense. It definitely would influence how you were raised and how you perceive the world.