the wetness scale

damp- that's the lightest one. just a hint of moisture.

moist- one step up from damp

soggy- I went back and forth over whether soggy is more wet than wet but decided that it's slightly less wet than wet.

wet- pretty much the middle but there are way more synonyms for things that are beyond wet

dripping- dripping is often paired with wet. "you're dripping wet" it's being so wet that the wetness is become drips. it's not like I have to spoonfeed you guys this stuff. I just think the commentary adds texture.

soaked/saturated- now we're getting into some serious wetness. something that's been completely submerged in a liquid. I think soaked and saturated are truly a tie

drenched- drenched is like soaked but the water was applied more forcefully

sopping- sopping is an appalling amount of wetness. you're causing a scene at this point. disrupting the peace.

waterlogged- one time in 4th grade we were doing a science experiment. I forget about what. I think it was making a potato float in water or something. Something about boats? We were putting stuff in tubs of water. Maybe it was cardboard. Who knows. Anyway, I've always been terrible at experiments and at some point whatever we were putting in the water refused to float at all and I will never forget that our teacher came over and said, "oh that's waterlogged." And ever since that day the term waterlogged has represented to me a terminal condition that one can never overcome. No amount of dryness can undo waterlogged. 

So anyway today on my run I was waterlogged.

Embrace the Dead Legs

 Something I intuitively realized about running or accidentally got right for a long time was that there are lots of benefits to be found in running when your legs and body are very tired. I did this for years and saw a lot of improvement and running was so new and there were so many boundaries to break and milestones to reach that I never questioned very much how I felt. Yeah I had bad runs and days when I felt bad but generally I would try pretty hard and I would never think of running less than my regular amount of mileage or skipping a workout if I was scheduled to do a workout.

Then around 30 or 29 or so I started rock climbing and I felt like my running had stalled out a little and I shifted to the idea that I could maximize my time by doing more auxiliary activities and training, especially if my legs didn't feel good. I would only run hard and a lot if my legs were feeling good. Otherwise I would take my easy days very easy and focus on climbing or stretching or mobility or weight lifting. My take away from those months is that I actually had it right the first time. Getting on Strava made me appreciate running mileage and using my training to achieve something and so I started trying hard again even when my legs felt bad. I cut out most of that auxiliary training and now I can say with some confidence that I'm in much better shape and that was a good move. 

I had talked myself into believing that my body had gotten so used to running mileage that I didn't need to do anymore and that I couldn't recover as fast as I used to so I had to give my body less miles and maximize my hard days instead. I think that can be sound advice but I've noticed much better results from slogging out 10 milers and doing workouts every other day even if I don't feel fully recovered. In fact, I think grinding out runs when I don't feel good is one of my biggest strengths as a runner. The more I do it the better I feel and the more confidence I gain in my fitness. I might have been depriving myself of something I'm actually very good at. So, here's to trying hard and running on dead legs.

little bamboo

coaching climbing

 we've got some kids who don't seem terribly interested in climbing and I think in reflecting on my day I'm fixating on it too much. it's not even like they're bad kids or anything. they just aren't very intrinsically motivated to climb and there isn't that much else to do at the gym. But anyway, I think it's silly to focus too much on some kids having a mediocre time and ignore the fact that some kids worked really hard and had fun today. 

I'm thinking about people who say their goal is to make a difference to one person. I think that's a really valuable mindset and I think I accomplished that today. The fact that I clocked in and went to work made climbing at least a little bit better for a kid than if I hadn't been there. But, also, in a much more selfish and arrogant sense, I want to make a difference for as many kids as possible. I think I can do better than one. 

Mark Wetmore has this little speech he gives in Running with the Buffaloes where he tells his team that he wants to give attention to all of them, he wants to give each person the attention they deserve to have the best experience they can, but also, that his priority because of his job and because of his limitations as a person is towards the top 7. And he kind of apologizes to the people that aren't at that level yet and tells them that they can be some day. 

I don't know, I guess you could look at that as kind of a mean thing to do but I also think he's just being honest. Like, he's trying to save these people some frustration by telling them upfront what he can and can't do. As opposed to saying nothing and pretending to be open to all of his athletes while clearly favoring the top 7. It's got me thinking that maybe it would be better, more honest, and helpful to tell kids and parents that our coaching and practices are great for kids who are intrinsically motivated and want to challenge themselves in climbing otherwise, it's not nearly as fun. 

I used to run into sort of a similar challenge at afterschool where I would say, hey I notice these kids all have a ton of different things that they are motivated by during different parts of the day and I really try to make myself available to those times when they are having fun and willing to share that experience with me. Some kids love to play in the woods, some kids love to draw, some kids love to play games in the gym, some kids just love to talk and make jokes and be funny. And the common thread was that none of those things felt forced. Everyone was participating and engaged because they wanted to be. You could feel the self-worth and efficacy rising in those moments--there was a tangible amount of individual and group pride.  

And then I would constantly get asked about these enrichment lessons. Why wasn't I making enrichment lesson plans? Why can't I make them be engaged about a thing I choose in a time and space I set?

I just don't think that's how people work. People are engaged by what they are engaged by. And, sure, there are tons of little tricks and tactics for making kids seem engaged and motivated by something but at the end of the day I think we're just teaching them to lie to themselves by doing stuff like that. I say all this in response to the idea that we could make climbing fun to a kid who doesn't find it fun. I think coaches and a team can facilitate and remove potential barriers to climbing and add an element of social motivation but I think there is some irreducible element of enjoyment and motivation that can't really be faked or hidden or ignored. It's like, at afterschool there were a ton of different ways to engage with different kids and while coaching...there's kinda one. And if it's not clicking then maybe it's just best to be upfront about that. It's not like we need to keep kids on. We have the demand from the community. 

Anyway, that's my ramble.

I think someone spilled cologne on the ground

 and I put my hands on the ground to look for my watch and now my hands smell like cologne/body spray

yuck yuck yuck

helped make this

I'm not kidding, hey for real, let's build a wall.

stinkbugs invented stink