Beating the Storm

This morning was bright and beautiful, with a little breeze and a steady stream of leaves tumbling down from the trees.  I was planning to ride my bike to Takoma - about 3 miles away - for a noontime yoga class.  When I checked my phone for the temperature, I noticed that rain was predicted starting as early as 1pm, but only a 60 percent chance by 2pm.  I decided to ride anyway, taking an umbrella and rain jacket in case I got caught out in a downpour.   By the time class ended, the sky in the west was getting dark.  I set out on the way back, down the hill to Sligo Creek and then up the creekside path.  The breeze had picked up and the temperature was noticeably cooler.  Each time I came out of the trees in sight of the sky, the cloud bank was thicker and darker.  I found a gear I could pedal against with just the right resistance, and came spinning up the trail, faster than I usually ride.  I slowed from time to time to make space for dog walkers and people pushing baby strollers, then brought the speed right back up.  I was working, putting my aerobic exercise training to good use, not sure if I would make it home before the storm, but giving it my best.  At the three main street crossings, I was fortunate and had to stop, just briefly, at one.  When I crossed Colesville Road, about a half mile from the house, the gusts grew stronger and more frequent, each one feeling a little cooler and showering leaves upon me.  As I reached the street a block from the house, I felt the first raindrop.  I shifted to a higher gear and stood to power up the hill to the drive, arriving right at 2 pm.  I took the bike inside and went upstairs to change.  I was standing in the closet, which has a large skylight, when it began to drum from the cloudburst that had just opened up.

Life All Around

Life is all around, in the nooks and crannies between the streets and buildings.  Sparrows and starlings are among the best urban adapted birds, along with pigeons in some areas and a few peregrine falcons that use the tallest buildings like mountain cliffs.  On warm days like today, where there are flowers, the bees will be out.  The sunflowers I've talked about before are spent and bedraggled, but just across the street is a landscaped area with some colorful little flowers.  I stopped for a bit on the walk home from yoga, and soon spotted a couple of large bees.

Wherever there are flowers, there seem to be bees, joined in this tight connection of plant and animal life, two parts of the larger system of energy collection and transfer, and propagation of life through time.

Posture and Walking

I lift my chin too much.  The back of the neck shortens and the abdominal core loses tone.  Walking over to teach yoga this morning, I found a way of aligning my body that seemed to address the issue.  The first action was to let my chin drop until I felt the back of the neck lengthen.  That brought my head level without any effort - I was actually relaxing from the habitual muscular effort of tightening neck muscles to lift the chin.  Then I focused on keeping my front relaxed and lengthened up from the top of the spine in back.  I noticed that as I walked, I felt my weight heavy in my heels with each step, and the lift at the base of my skull.  Between those points my body felt suspended - hips, legs, arms.  I focused on my heels moving down and occiput moving up and let my body move in a relaxed way - not trying to control my walking motion in any particular way - it knows what to do.  I noticed as well, as I turned my head from side to side, that the usual tension and creakiness or sticking in the neck movement was gone.  I think this can become a new and better pattern with just a little attention.

Swimming

I swim two or three times a week.  This is the most swimming I've done since the winter I was 18.  After about six weeks, I'm still getting more comfortable each time I go.  It's a challenge to calibrate my effort.  How much power can I put into swimming if I want to be able to sustain it for 100 yards?  At first, it was as if I was running without much control, and a length or two would leave me gasping. I realized that I needed to learn the equivalent of strolling, and began to slow down.  Eventually I found a pace that I could maintain, and then my distance rose quickly.  My program currently is to swim a mile or more one day a week.  On the other days, I work on shorter intervals at a higher effort level, with twenty breath rest breaks between them.

I did one of the interval sessions today before lunch.  After eating, I stretched out on the floor for a nap.  When I woke up, I could feel how tired my whole body was.  There isn't the localized stress in some joints or muscles that I often feel from running.  Instead, the sensation is broad and more subtle.

When I can, I swim in the outdoor pool.  It was cooler today - in the 60s - but the water is about 82.  An acquaintance said that her husband swam outdoors in the winter anytime it was above freezing.  I'll have to see if I have as much cold tolerance.  The walk out to the pool is when I notice it the most.  Of course, the colder it is, the warmer the water will seem.