Halfway through my Never Done Year

Never Done: Went to first Group Training Session (with the flu)

Saturday marked 6 months that I have been doing something every day that I have never done before -- I am half way through My Mussar Year! It would seem a good time to take a step back and reflect on what I've learned so far -- about the practice, and about myself. And yet, I am not feeling particularly reflective. Fluish, more like it. In survival mode, rather than thrival mode. Napping more than tapping (on the keyboard.) I will bring you the deeper perspective in coming days, as I get my brain back more fully.

The half-year mark was also my first day of official training for the Nautica New York City Triathlon. And a super moon. And Purim. I got to experience a little of all of these things. I was actually feeling better in the morning, and so I went to the first group training session, having already told the coach that I would go there for the coaching, and just sit out the actual running. But the fresh air felt good, and as usual when I am sick, I felt better in the morning, and so I did some of what everyone was doing. We started with a side shuffle which cracked me up because it was exactly like the "white girl shuffle" at minute 1:45 in this workout video. Aside from the fact that it was making me laugh, the group was also doing it much faster than I could, so I hung in the back and did a little bit at my pace. We proceeded to go through a bunch of warm-ups that I think when I'm healthy will be great for me. We were a motley crew -- some clearly excellent athletes, and some people who couldn't (later when we started running) run for more than a minute at a time. When we did start running, we did three sets of 5 minute "out and backs" -- which is to say that we each at our own pace, ran five minutes, turned around and came back, and then turned around and did the same thing two more times. This keeps the group pretty much together -- or no more than 5 minutes away from each other. I felt OK to run for 20 minutes, and then I walked the third out and back. My pace is slower than most other people's, but many of them, even if they started out running faster than I did, ended up walking. I think I might be the tortoise of the group.

This week's mide (middah) is still Humility: Seek wisdom from everyone, and I reflected on that on my way over to the practice, because I will need to find a deep balance between listening to the wisdom of the coaches and listening to my own body, to best train with my messed up knee and back (and occasional flu.) This came to a real testing point later in the morning, when we were at a gear clinic at Jackrabbit Sports. The coach brought us there to go over all the gear we would need, from shoes to socks to shorts to tops to sunglasses to swim goggles to nutritional gels. They covered everything, everything, everything. They brought out samples, they passed them around, they took questions.

I had a question. What about bras? And I asked it just like that -- "What about bras?" And the coach said, "What about bras?" I didn't know if you wear a bra in the water, under your top, under your wetsuit and then just keep it on while biking and running. He had just talked about the tri shorts that are engineered so that by the time you get on your bike, they are dry. So I asked, "What about bras? Do they make bras that dry out that quickly too?" And his answer was, "There's some support in the tri tops."

Some support is good for some women, but many of us need some more support. And it's hard to stay humble when pushed up against the dominant paradigm (dominant = male, in this case) so intensely. It's hard to believe that this coach would ignore my question out of malice or intentional disrespect -- more likely out of ignorance or embarrassment. But way more than half his team are women, and even though I might have been on the bouncier end of the female chest spectrum, by no means was I the only woman there who would need to know about bras. I wanted to say, "This is a gear clinic. Let's talk about all the gear." Instead, I decided to modify the mide, and I will seek wisdom from chesty triathletes.

I knocked myself out for the rest of the day, and ended up in bed, unable to go to the JFREJ/Great Small Works Purim party I had worked on, and in which I was supposed to perform. But Mich came over with her friend Tali to bring me chicken soup, and I was able to help them both out with costumes, without leaving the comfort of my down comforter.

And once everyone else was out enjoying their evenings, I snuck out of bed for 5 minutes, wrapped up in a warm coat, and walked over to the park, just in time to see the Supermoon rise through the trees. I wished I could see if from my bedroom window, as I could have from the bedroom I grew up in, but my viewing wouldn't have lasted long; I was fast asleep by 9PM.

Halfway through my Never Done Year.