The car still smells like Lake Monona. As we drive, the underlying scent of lake water scent clouds the car in a very subtle way. But I can also pick up the scent of the soap that I would apply to the wet suit. It was completely doused with soap the day before Ironman. I began applying this smell in the middle of the summer.
After showing up to an open water swim class, the pupils stood at the water line where Jessica struggled into the escort kayak. We looked down on her like we were waiting for her to tell us six men to get into the water.
"Just the smell of this suit makes me wince." I said breaking the silence.
"Then change the smell of your wet suit." She told me as she began to paddle backwards, the signal to get started.
That hit me like a ton of bricks. That smell seriously gave me nightmares. It drove up my anxiety and made me generally sick to my stomach from fear. The same way a sneeze manifests itself from nowhere, so does my loathsome open water swim tension when I smell my suit. The application of a new scent may curb that problem.
Like my training, the search for a scent became part of the routine. Any time I would leave the house, I would look for scents, sniffing them and evaluating them for their ability to produce a good vibe. Jeni would send me to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription, I would stop by the perfume counter and ask to smell some colognes and perfumes. Nothing seemed to work for me. This continued for about a week.
My search seemed to return to the Lemongrass scent. This smell reminded me of last winter's time working on our base training at Jessica's studio with weekly spinning classes from seven a.m. to eight-thirty a.m. When I awked Jessica during those scent-hunting days where she got that soap, I think she sorta laughed about it and we joked about the word Lemongrass. I never found out where it came from and it was a tad bit embarrassing to bring it up again.
After a large meal at the mall's cheese steak stand, I wandered with my soda's remnants. Checking once again for the smell, I went into their version of the bath and beauty store. My now shaved head and thinning body sipping on a medium soda with loud red advertising had the power to attract the employees to be curious if I was "searching for something."
"Do you have Lemongrass soap or lotion?"
The woman looks me right in the eye while her hands are ringing. Her eyes grow a bit wider as head pushes back, "Lemongrass?"
It turns out that they do have Lemongrass. All of the Lemongrass Soap sits on the clearance table collecting dust. I grab two bottles and check out. The clerk asks, "Would you like to be on our email list?"
I respectfully declined and just about skipped out of the mall. Immediately, I whipped into action and informed my buddy Ed that I found my scent, "Won't the soap destroy the wet suit?"
"It's all natural. It's like saying that the lake water is destroying the wet suit."
"I think it does."
"Then no big whoop."
I drove downtown to take part in a Friday open water swim in Lake Monona. Fridays are particularly favored by Ironman training for some reason. Many people from the area arrive about six a.m. to practice swimming the deep waters of this lake. My training group is there and I begin to get dressed in my wet suit. Spotting Ed, I go over to say hello and he introduces me to his training friends, "This is Steve Donovan," he looks at me, "The Lemongrass smells good."
"Lemongrass?" his friend asks.
"I put Lemongrass soap on my wetsuit to cover the smell."
He looks me over quickly, "Good Chi."
July 27, 2007
Amy,
I suppose that I'm approaching a time where I should be organizing my things for Ironman. After a workshop or two, I'm told that it takes a while to gather a list of things you will need, organize it and making sure you're good to go. This includes equipment, nutrition and wardrobe.
The most exciting (and vain) piece of clothing has to be the shirt and shorts you put into the second 'Special Needs' bag. At Ironman, you are given five bags:
· Pre/Post Race Bag
· Transition 1 Bag (Swim to Bike)
· Transition 2 Bag (Bike to Run)
· Special Needs Bag 1 (Placed at the bike's halfway mark)
· Special Needs Bag 2 (Placed at the run's halfway mark)
This Special Needs bag is the last chance saloon. You are forbidden from receiving anything from race onlookers. This bag could also potentially contain your finish line shirt. Since I'm a big fan of finish line photos, I have thought long and hard about what I would wear for the last thirteen miles of the Ironman.
What would make for an appropriate finish line shirt? One year, I ran Chicago Marathon and wore a Sufjan Stevens t-shirt that read, "C'mon Feel the Illinoise!" At one year's Mad City Marathon, I wore Landon Donovan's soccer jersey. It's important to find the right shirt to help motivate me. I make a list of potential shirt candidates:
1. Fleet Feet Madison - since I buy all my stuff from there and they're nicest people.
2. Some Wisconsin Flair - Represent my new home state (ie "Wisconsin Cow Tipping: It's Udder Chaos!")
3. Green Bay Packers - They play the Eagles that day. If they win, I could throw that on!
Casually, I have been searching for the right shirt. If I see something that strikes me, I look into it. When I was on MySpace yesterday, I noticed the shirt that you were wearing in the profile picture read, "You are here." Interested in it, I searched for a deeper meaning of the shirt. I ran into a few dead ends when the shirt would turn out to be a line drawing of the universe with an arrow pointing at planet Earth with the words, "You are here." The right shirt popped up on Café Press and it had a background about the shirt. It was worn by John Lennon during a concert to benefit families who lost loved ones in the Attica uprising of 1971. One other web site explained how it boasted Lennon's deep appreciation for Buddhis and the concept of Mindfulness.
"I am not pushing Buddhism." Lennon told one reporter, "I am no more a Buddhist than I am a Christian." This gives me the idea that he signed onto cannons of religion, but not necessarily religions as a whole. Lennon spoke and sang about Mindfulness and the concept of living in the present. His song "Instant Karma" almost mocks the Buddhist concepts conflicting. Since the buddhist ideals are involved in only the moment, how does a concept like Karma--effects from sowing seeds--coexist? He even goes on to say that we "shine on like sun and the moon and the stars." We receive that light long after it has been emitted. So, is Lennon saying that living in the moment is moot because time is subjective? Or is he saying that living in the moment can be a moot thing since time is relative? These things suddenly turn religion into a matter of Quantum Physics. Maybe this is where science and religion meet.
Go back to the black shirt. It reads, "You are here." Was he letting everyone know that your relative position is what's in the moment? This is all we need to worry about? The right here, right now? Instant Karma is mocking our language rather than Buddhism. We get hung up in the man behind the curtain or what's coming up. The idea of Mindfulness takes the life and reminds us, "This is it." Not resigning, but becoming a lens to our soul to the 'right now'.
I understand this now since I've begun reading about it. Last night I downloaded the audio book, "Where Ever You Go, There You Are". (Writers Note: The title made me cringe a bit since it only reminds me of a smart ass comment that a former comment would use upon exiting the work day. He also would answer back, "Another day in paradise!" Maybe that was a Buddhist comment as well and I'm only seeing his wisdom now.) It explains the Mindfulness and living in the moment.
Between last night and into today, I've listened to it and only begun digesting the basics of this book. I understand how it can apply to my swimming. So, it's only natural that I try and internalize it early this morning as I went out to meet Jessica at 5:30AM.
There's one major flaw in swimming open water. You have to "sight" your target. In my stroke, it goes like this:
1. Left hand stroke
2. Right hand stroke/Breathe in on right
3. Exhale
4. Left hand stroke
5. Right hand stroke
6. Left hand stroke/Breathe in on left
7. Exhale
8. Right hand stroke
9. Left hand stroke
10. Right hand stroke/Breathe in and sight your target
Sighting is the last step of the bilateral breathing that keeps you on course. If you get off course, you can sometimes have lots of ground to cover. You have to keep your eye on the next prize. By incorporating this, you make that place a priority. When that happens, the moment is lost. You can't stay inside the moment. You measure where you are over and over and over.
When I began disregarding sighting as a secondary item and living more for the swim, I found myself going longer and keeping a tighter focus on the moment. As soon as I begin thinking about making that finish line or hitting a goal, a lot of things fall apart.
This morning's swim was very successful. I understand that I have to recognize, as your shirt told me, that "You are here". The buoys and the finish lines will wait for me. Because the moment that I finish the swim in Ironman will have to be just another moment. It will just have to be "another day in paradise."
Steve
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