"Take kindly the counsel of the years.
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth"---Desiderata
I spent the first half of my run today trying to remember the name of the guy who put the famous poem to music way back when. It has been one of my favorites ever since sister Mary introduced it to me, back in her drug smoking, hippie days.
I quickly ruled out Les Paul. If you don't know him than you probably never played a guitar. I also briefly considered Les Nesmann but then remembered who he was. And if you don't know recognize him, you may still believe that turkeys can fly.
And like I said, I was out there for close to an hour with the tune running through my head before I remembered Les Crane.
At the time that Crane had the big hit with his rendition of Desiderata he was 38 years old so I knew what he was thinking when he recited the above lines. He was thinking, " When I get old I'm gonna do that....surrender gracefully...."
I thought so too when I was 38. I was just getting into this triathlon thing and I had my whole life ahead of me. For several years I got faster and stronger until I peaked at about 44 years of age.
Ever since then I have been surrendering, but really not very gracefully.
Maybe it's time to start thinking about that.
In my recent Ironman I was very happy with my effort but quite disappointed with the results. I rationalize it by explaining to people that I only lost 3 minutes in 3 years which sounds pretty good. In my mind however it is still a rationalization and therein lies the problem. When one spends a good portion of their life trying to get better at something it is tough to accept the opposite as anything but failure
Even though I know-- that if I were to continue the deterioration of one minute per year for the next 8 years, by the time I was 65 I would be amongst the top 5 or 10 triathletes in the whole freakin world at that age.
So how do you surrender gracefully? It seems to me that doing things like Ironman may even be counterproductive. You get constant feedback from your body and from your watch, telling you that despite all of your efforts to get faster....you're only getting slower!!!
Makes a fella want to take up drinking! Or maybe someone has a better idea? (read this as a pathetic, shameless plea for some kind of feedback so I know I'm not alone in this world!!)
And I'm not sure what my body was telling me today but it certainly was not saying "go faster Peter your are amazing". I intended on doing 18 with a possible 25 depending on how I felt. I was walking at 15 and when I finally got back to the mailbox I was feeling quite faint.
I don't know why, and I don't know what it will mean for my 25 km race on Saturday but I'm just gonna choose to ignore it. I will take the next few days off except for swimming and yoga, and then we'll just see what happens on the weekend. The only thing I know for sure is that there will be no graceful surrendering!!!! That's for old people.
(swim, run 18 kms)
"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."---Vince Lombardi
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth"---Desiderata
I spent the first half of my run today trying to remember the name of the guy who put the famous poem to music way back when. It has been one of my favorites ever since sister Mary introduced it to me, back in her drug smoking, hippie days.
I quickly ruled out Les Paul. If you don't know him than you probably never played a guitar. I also briefly considered Les Nesmann but then remembered who he was. And if you don't know recognize him, you may still believe that turkeys can fly.
And like I said, I was out there for close to an hour with the tune running through my head before I remembered Les Crane.
At the time that Crane had the big hit with his rendition of Desiderata he was 38 years old so I knew what he was thinking when he recited the above lines. He was thinking, " When I get old I'm gonna do that....surrender gracefully...."
I thought so too when I was 38. I was just getting into this triathlon thing and I had my whole life ahead of me. For several years I got faster and stronger until I peaked at about 44 years of age.
Ever since then I have been surrendering, but really not very gracefully.
Maybe it's time to start thinking about that.
In my recent Ironman I was very happy with my effort but quite disappointed with the results. I rationalize it by explaining to people that I only lost 3 minutes in 3 years which sounds pretty good. In my mind however it is still a rationalization and therein lies the problem. When one spends a good portion of their life trying to get better at something it is tough to accept the opposite as anything but failure
Even though I know-- that if I were to continue the deterioration of one minute per year for the next 8 years, by the time I was 65 I would be amongst the top 5 or 10 triathletes in the whole freakin world at that age.
So how do you surrender gracefully? It seems to me that doing things like Ironman may even be counterproductive. You get constant feedback from your body and from your watch, telling you that despite all of your efforts to get faster....you're only getting slower!!!
Makes a fella want to take up drinking! Or maybe someone has a better idea? (read this as a pathetic, shameless plea for some kind of feedback so I know I'm not alone in this world!!)
And I'm not sure what my body was telling me today but it certainly was not saying "go faster Peter your are amazing". I intended on doing 18 with a possible 25 depending on how I felt. I was walking at 15 and when I finally got back to the mailbox I was feeling quite faint.
I don't know why, and I don't know what it will mean for my 25 km race on Saturday but I'm just gonna choose to ignore it. I will take the next few days off except for swimming and yoga, and then we'll just see what happens on the weekend. The only thing I know for sure is that there will be no graceful surrendering!!!! That's for old people.
(swim, run 18 kms)
"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."---Vince Lombardi
Love
Peter
I still quite enjoy coming here every day. It definitely helps me to feel connected to you and even others who comment as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, your efforts are probably one of the few things you can do to stave off old age as long as possible. Since starting to try to keep up with you, i have never felt younger. I take a bit of pride in knowing that i could kick the ass (figuratively of course ;) of many around me who are much younger in years. I know I have given this advice before, but if you want to feel younger and get smarter at the same time, go hang around with some seniors. Why do you think I like visiting with you?
Love old John
Thank god for John, eh? I appreciate this connection to everyone who is here too. I dont intend in starting anything graceful anytime soon... as a matter of fact people have been telling me my mouth is getting even MORE foul. Do what you feel....isnt that another song? Love!!!
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