Training Log Archive: iansmith

I RICE'd and Froyo'd my injury in good company. It turns out that versions of Google's Android OS have charming names like "Cupcake" and "Donut."

I joined Lori and Stephen for a Jospian torture session. While elements of our group suggested we attempt four cycles of ten one-minute strength workouts, we prudently concluded to complete three. However, a large cloudburst started halfway through the second cycle.

I was impeded in some of the workouts by my malfunctioning left leg, but I improvised - in lieu of metzer devils, I did squats, and in lieu of the jump-lunges (I forget their more creative name), I did calf raises.

All about.

Lori set an interesting street-O course in downtown Boston. I am unable to run (or even walk, really), so I biked the course. It was a tricky challenge because of the numerous one-way streets, the taboo biking on sidewalks, hills, and difficulty moving through tight crowds in the North End. I encountered Ross at controls 1, 3, 5, 8, and 9 despite my best efforts to pull away from him. However, the next few controls were in Charlestown, and I was able to get up to speed. My leg felt good until control 13, where I got off my bike and walked up some steps.

Afterward, Ross, Stephen, Lori and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. I had a curious experience when parking my bike; a young woman stopped on the sidewalk and asked if I "got so muscular just from riding bikes." Two decades of nerdiness kicked in, and I was so flummoxed that I answered her question literally rather than interpreting her remark as an invitation. Whatever her intent, meeting someone at 9 PM on the streets of downtown Boston is dubious.

In any case, dinner was excellent with lots of good conversation. The people at the restaurant at which we were eating wanted to close, so we were a bit rushed at the end. Topics of discussion included Lori's lab predicament, the nature of spicy foods, the extent to which we control our interests, dueling with porridge at Sunset, fencing with celery, and so on. I have been pondering whether our preferences and choice of activities are choices, are determined a priori by our brain structure, or are consequences of our experience. It may be a consequence of all three.

My fortune cookie, as requested: "Alas! The onion you are eating is someone else's water lily."

Commute. I went out to Lexington to meet with Pete Lane and discuss NEOC plans.

I biked down the Minuteman bikeway in the serene and peaceful twilight. The only sounds were that of my bike and the air rushing past my ears, and apart from the dim glow of the sky, the only light was from my bike lights; the trees shrouded my surroundings. I was alone with my thoughts, and in the quiet stillness, I felt strong. I have so many questions, and I am frustrated by my inability to reason my way to answers. However, I am resolved: regardless of whether answers exist, independent of whether I find them, no matter what comes - I will never yield. I suppose it is because of my forebears (i.e. the bears who came before me) that I have the will to live, that it is the biological mandate of every organism to arbitrarily want to live because those that did not have died out. It may be that this desire is not motivated by some purpose, that it is arbitrary and without reason. Even if my choices are illusory, I act because I choose to act; I do because I choose to do; and I live because I choose to live.