Focus

Whatever we are working on, mulling over, avoiding, contemplating facing, or rehearsing in our minds becomes literal. It's you and the thing and the thing becomes the hill and there you are — taking it on. There is a certain amount of clarity that oxygen deprivation provides. Couple that with pain and you get the inner hum that becomes white noise and suddenly you can think. 

Kristin Armstrong, Stones, Mile Markers blog, Runner's World.com

 

 

I don't know about you, but I tend to be like the Dug, the dog in "Up".  Squirrel! --->  I tend to be thinking about several things while I am attending to one or more task.  Sometimes I go to start something and before I realize it, it is quite a bit later and I didn't get around to starting what I supposed to. Squirrel ---->

 

I work in the software industry.  It is not unusual to put in late nights.  Most software engineers have terrible memories when they were on a project where you were in the "death march."  The product was nearing a deadline and there was too much left to do.  It was time to put in long hours, little sleep and dinners that consisted of pizza and Coke to keep you going.

 

A study I read about said that sometimes late night hours were helpful in some cases.  Your reasoning power diminishes, but there reaches a point where your body can only focus on one thing at a time.  It just doesn't have the energy to pay attention to the ... Squirrel ----->.  What you lose in mental capacity is made up somewhat by your focus in on one task at a time.

 

One thing that I really like about running, is that it puts you into a state where you can't focus on too many things at once.  It takes an effort both mentally and physically to get the run in.  I think that what the quote above is talking about.  When you put the time in to a longer run, a lot of things melt away.  The continual padding of your feet keeping a harmonic time with your breathe can get you into a zone that allows you to focus in on something that your mind thinks is important.  I have a lot of introspective moments when I have been out running.  I have learned a lot about myself in these moments and have also had a few epiphanies where I finally understood something in a new way. 

 

Lastest Long Run

I have been attending a tech conference in Salt Lake City the latter part of the week.  Salt Lake is about 30 or so miles north of my place and our work was putting on the conference so the cost was minimal for me to attend.  It did make for a challenge to get the workout in before I had to leave.  Saturday, I was supposed to put in a 1X6 mile run.  The goal was to run one mile at marathon race pace and then walk a mile to recover.  Then repeat 5 more times in this case.  I really enjoyed the run.  I had to cut the last mile short since I had to get back and get ready.  I wish I could have gone further I felt so good.  It was the best run I have had in a long time.

 

A Geeky Conference

This isn't running or weight loss related, but I had a couple of chuckles at the conference.  Usually, if given a choice, men tend to spread out if chairs are close together.  There was a group of young developers who wore the same t-shirts and if they were attending the same class would sit right next to each other.  I don't know why I found it funny but I did.  Here is a picture of three of them.

 

 Later in the day, as we were headed back to parking, there was a guy sitting at a piano in the back of a truck with his dog sitting on top.  The picture is not that great, but hopefully you get a feel of how it looked to us as we crossed the street.  Fun time had by all!

 What about you?  Does exercise give you the added bonus of contemplation and focus?  Seen anything that made you chuckle just a bit lately?

Hang in there and I will too!