Sprung! (And an Awesome Training Plan for RTB)

Spring has done sprung.  There are cherry blossoms galore, daffodils strewn about the place and magnolias on the brink of bursting.  Saturday we did an early am flat & fast (& cold) ride out to Sauvie Island, around and back.  It was the first snackable ride (ride long enough to warrant some snacks along the way) so it feels like training has started.

Next weekend promises the first mental challenge of our Reach the Beach training - a couple of hours of wet, likely cold, riding.  But today we enjoy the sunshine!

Photo Jen Sotolongo

First, a rough outline of our "Century" ride training plan with some of the milestone rides.  Note that this is subject to change per weather, health, attitude, position of Mercury and our whim.

• Weekly:  A spin class and/or ride the long way home to get something like 20ish miles once or twice a week mid-week.
• Weekend Rides:
• Weekend of 3/29:  40 miles.  Nothing too fast, too hilly, too crazy, too anything.  Maybe something in my dad's hood.
• Friday 4/4: 45 miles.  Would be good to get some hills in but we'll see what we can squeeze in before Christopher-love takes off for a week of international mystery man travel.
• Sunday 4/13:  50 miles.  Either our favorite "North Plains" adventure or some Crown Point action in the Gorge.  Christopher will be way jet lagged so we shall see.
• Saturday 4/19.  57 miles of hills.  Hard hills.  Another favorite ride of our "Phil's Skyline Loop."  Earn them Easter eggs.
• Sunday 4/27:  Monster Cookie Ride!  65ish miles with copious cookies.
• Saturday 5/3:  Ride Around Clark County.  Should be 75ish miles of pretty mild riding.  Last year I saw a donkey near the end.  That was awesome.  Or maybe ride out to Multnomah Falls if we don't get a Gorge ride in 4/13.
• Saturday 5/10:  Easy peasy restful something.
• Saturday 5/17:  Reach the Beach!  104 miles of awesome!

Finding Flow

I recently realized I have been doing the pottery thing for a while now.  Longer than I've been at my job, longer than I've been married.  This last bout was something like my ninth two-month class.

On the one hand I have started to make some nice things.  On the other it is sort of depressing to realize it has taken a few hundred hours of practice and I'm still not too even or balanced.  With my pots that is. (Or in general, which is a given.)

But that isn't what pottery is about.  It is about finding a physical and creative outlet.  A balance to my work brain.  There is some science-y stuff going on with the chemistry of clay and glaze and firing and I have copious notes for reference.   Mostly though it is being elbows deep in mud and magical transformation.  I take water and dirt and with my two hands pull it into an intentional shape.  I carve and mold and sometimes add more clay as if decorating a cake.  I dunk, dip, paint and splatter with glaze that never behaves as I think it will.  Weeks after I start out comes something from the kiln that I often have trouble recognizing.

Same glaze combo with three totally different results!

They make lovely vessels for holding my tea, soup, ice cream, syrup and more.  They make really wonderful gifts and I have the most fun making things for the little people I know with their names built into the bowl or cup.

But the best part is how focused I get when at pottery and the transformation of my mind.  Despite the very prominent clock I often completely lose track of time.  I'll look up from a piece I've been focused on and realize I've been creating and pasting clay froggies onto a single bowl for the better part of an hour.  I stay longer than I promised, don't call or text my Christopher with updates, forget email, the laundry and not just everything else on my "to do" list but even that I have a "to do" list.  When I am drawn back into this world I often realize I've missed lunch, I'm incredibly thirsty and man do I have to pee!

It is very clear that a monkey mind multi-tasking its way through a hyper active day is very bad.  Bad for happiness and bad for doing anything well.  With the intensity I bring to work, home projects, trying to chase down friends and more, the sort of focused flow I find in pottery-ing doesn't coming easily or often.  Writing sometimes does it for me, especially poetry.  Reading used to when I was younger and I still love it but am never completely submerged by it anymore.

The one other outlet that I find comes with flow fairly easily is running.  Running is so universally tracked with watches, chip timing, GPS and iPhone apps that it is a default to clock your time, analyze your splits, chart your progress, compare with others and focus on results.  And I do often run with a watch, assess the run when I'm done, and usually have some sort of race or goal in mind.  But when I'm running I slip into just... running.  Especially if I'm on the trails and out for more than an hour.

Pottery class is over for now but with the lengthening of the days and warming of the weather I will be picking up the running again.  And next winter when the days are dark and trails too sloppy I'll head back to the studio.