Dreaming of Hercules

To anyone who accidentally stumbled onto this blog:

I’m blogging, but now at blog2grow.wordpress.com. Happy reading!

Garmin gave me more headaches today. I was on a training ride and somehow my Garmin Forerunner was not picking up the signals from the cadence sensor. I ended up getting an average cadence of 0 RPM. It was frustrating, but I have suffered enough disappointments with my Garmin to stress over this minor glitch.

After returning home, I checked out what exactly went wrong. Turned out the magnet on the pedal was a bit too far from the signal transmitter, which must have been shifted somehow since the last time I rode. This brightened up my day a bit, knowing that I don’t have to call Garmin customer service yet another time.

The lesson that I’ve learned riding without knowing my cadence is that I should focus on what really matters. I train so I can improve. Although knowing my cadence may aid my overall performance, it is nonetheless a minor factor. I need to detach myself from my possessions. Training aids improve the quality of my workout, but without the workout itself, they are completely pointless. I need to shift my focus from using all these fancy gadgets to clocking in a good training session.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I have been growing more obsessive and greedy over the past couple of months. My mind, my most valuable asset, is taking much pain to keep track of every little spark of genius that may save me a minute here and a dime there. Considering the time and energy spent on these things, it may well be in my interest to just let go and simplify my life. The psychological stress alone indicates my current lifestyle is far from efficient or enjoyable. The malfunctioning of my Garmin heart rate monitor has alone caused much anxiety and almost ruined my morning. Worrying about what may go wrong makes life hard to live. One needs to learn to let go of what cannot be changed, and stop worrying about all the tiny details of life.

Stop spreading yourself so thin. It is time to regroup and streamline your life.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The skies are grey. Heavy clouds loom. The message is clear – a rain storm is on its way. This little trick of Mother Nature became the peddle that tipped the scale of decision in favor of staying near home. Yet I am too stubborn to let go of the original plan without a fight. It became a battle between perseverance and flexibility. I did my best to weigh the pros and cons of each, but only ended up wasting time. It was a classical case of analysis paralysis.

The price of indecision is physical migraine and guilt from not being productive. To cut the story short, I went to the local library. It turned out to be a good place for studying, except that I did none of that. Instead, I squandered much of my time on making purchases, reading reviews, and watching movie trailers.

I have to say no to such wastes of time. Math will take priority.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

I came face to face with the awe-inspiring power of nature.

It all started out as a drizzle. Yet those who dismissed it harmless would soon learn the frightening form it is about to assume.

I pulled over to a gas station to fill up the Chevy Malibu before returning it to Hertz where I rented it for driving to the triathlon. The skies are overcast, but the drizzle is again taking a break. I did not give it much thought, until I started driving again.

The harmless drizzle suddenly turned into a downpour. Water began to pound on my windshield, completely blurring my vision. The windshield wipers are wiping at full speed, but that provides hardly any comfort to the hectic driving condition. To making things worse, I realized that I mistakenly took a wrong turn and was instead moving away from Hertz.

Doing my best to stay calm, I took a short detour and began going in the other direction, toward Hertz this time. Couple of street lights later, I saw there has been an accident. The owners of the crashed vehicles stood in the rain, trying to sort out the aftermath and giving their best effort to make amends. As much as I feel bad for the victims, I was also very grateful that despite the chaotic driving conditions, I had yet to even get honked. I secretly had my fingers crossed.

The water must have been over a feet deep at some sections of the road. Driving behind someone else means you will get a double dose of hosing, one from the skies above, and the other from the rear tires of the car in front. It was sheer misery. You can only hope that your wheels will not slip and spin out of the lane. With hands tightly glued to the steering wheel, I did my best to drive on.

Sections of the street where Hertz is located, Alexander Street, were under construction. I was forced to follow the detour signs and rely on my instincts. Decisions are made at a split second when you are going 60 mph. Deliberation was not an option. Gladly, the detour was successful. I happily retuned the vehicle in its original condition back to Hertz, and I was only ten minutes late.

The way back home presented the next challenge. The weather seemed less severe when you are standing still, but I knew better than to think it is going to be a piece of cake riding back home. It is still a good five some miles, and the danger was clear. I debated between taking a cab and riding back in rain, and finally decided to take the challenge and experience what it is like riding through tropical storm Hanna.

Fortunately, the traffic on the road was fairly light on my way back. The tires also held up to the challenge. I made good time and safely got myself home, although I did get drenched, from the rain, and all the splashing on the road from oncoming vehicles. Yet another step closer to the Ubermensch.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

To my dismay, the Dillion recreational swimming pool in Princeton is closed from 2 to 5 this afternoon. Going for a swim after 5 and riding home amid heavy after work traffic is for dinner is just a little too stressful than what I planned for. So I took the easy way out and rode home. Instead of a swim workout, I opted for a run.

The run started off terribly. The days of riding have taken a toll on my fitness. The first two hundred feet out of the door completely drained my body dry of all energy. I can feel glycogens being sapped out of my arms into my quadriceps, to help moving my heavy legs. Half a mile into the run, I was no longer aware of the soreness in my muscles, instead, my heart started racing like never before. I can only question whether my heart rate monitor is malfunctioning. After all, it says that my heart rate is approaching 250bpm, simply impossible.

On a second thought, maybe my heart rate monitor is accurate. Maybe my heart is strong enough now to take such a pounding for twenty some minutes straight. Maybe the glass is half-full.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

I took my road bike on a spin to Princeton today. The estimated distance from my new home in Cranbury to the Princeton campus is approximately 8.4miles. The trip took a lot longer however. Of course, my utter lack of the sense of direction is mostly to blame, but the complexity presented by the route itself surely made matters worse.

Getting to Princeton Junction was not a problem; from there to Princeton, however, proved to be a different story. I made a wrong turn and ended up going in the wrong direction for a good ten minutes. Even worse, something got stuck in my wheel and bent my front brake caliper.

Figure 1. A good time for a tune up.

Gladly, I made it safely back home. Tomorrow I will go to Home Depot and get a hammer to pound the calipers back to normal. (Although the Dura Ace 7800 brakes selling on EBay look really nice. Hmm…)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

In my mail there is a letter from dad.

I opened it up, carefully. In it I found maps of Michigan, Pennsylvania – New Jersey, and the United States.

A letter, thoughtful as father always is. Advices, that always turns out priceless.

And of course, a check. I have the greatest dad in the world.

Monday, August 18, 2008

It meant a lot to me that I finished yet another training triathlon this morning. I was even able to swim for a longer period of time, without feeling much anxiety. I feel ready for the Clark Lake Triathlon next Sunday.

After a very relaxing nap this afternoon, I felt a strong craving for some red wine. Part of me did not want to spend the money for such a luxury, but since I have had recurring flashes of cravings in the last several weeks, maybe I should just listen to my body?

The craving went away, interestingly, after I ate a peach and some sweet potatoes. Maybe my body just had some generic craving, satiable by any nutritional intake. How mystifying.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

I no longer listen to my parents. It has nothing to do with them. They are as wise as ever. It is only that we no longer think on the same spectrum anymore. In the last five years, our lifestyles have drifted far apart. Their outlook on life takes shape from their daily encounters; whereas mine comes from my perspective. To follow their guidance blindly would be irrational.

So that brings me to a conversation with my dad over the phone last Sunday. Dad brought up the question of fairness in life. He argues that the amount of pain an individual experiences in life is in balance with the amount of pleasure that person feels. So in this way, life is fair. I used to share the same view, but when I still considered myself a Christian. I thought that the amount of happiness one experiences is subjective. A starving child in a third-world country may seem to some to be in a miserable disposition; yet the child himself may well be just as happy as these sympathizers for the knowledge of bread on the way is enough to cheer him up. In turn, the only obligation the child has to society is to survive. In contrast, people like us who have no qualms about being fed have many other, more “sophisticated” worries. It is pointless to even try to list them all. Life to the well-fed is complicated and burdensome. They have more responsibilities to society.

Yet my view has shifted now. I no longer think life is fair in such an exact sense. How can it be fair when helpless children find their world turned into hell in a war? How can life be fair when earthquakes swallow up thousands of lives so cold and indifferently?

Life is not fair. But that is really beside the point. I believe instead of idealizing the reality, we should do our best to tip the balance in our favor and in favor of those who we love and care about. To me, to expect anything else may be asking too much. Maybe it would all end up in nought, but that is alright, so far as you’ve given it your best shot at making life a little better for the people around you. It is the experience that counts.

Live and don’t get bogged down by too many worries.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

– Robertson Davies