State of Flux

I'll be joining Virgin Active tomorrow. Can't today as I have stuff going on tonight. Think I really need to be back in the gym, especially for the swimming and spinning. I've always been a bit of gym rat, so recent history has been somewhat off the track. Not good.

On OFM they did a thing on Ryk Neethling, with his sister, teachers, Mr Volsteedt (Head of Grey), his father, himself and others all making verbal contributions at some point. Quite interesting.

What I like about Ryk is how goal orientated he is, and how enormously hard he worked, even though it was not always efficient. He changed his strategy (from super long distance to shorter distances) and now he is reaping the rewards.

They have said he always had his feet on the ground at school, despite the fact that all his classmates treated him like a hero. What I didn't know is he sometimes fell asleep in class (from all those early morning training sessions), and listened to Heavy Metal, for motivation. I think breaking all those records is one thing, it's a one dimensional kind of celebrity - people celebrate what you've achieved in that moment and then it fades, and it's over. That must be very different to being a celebrity fulltime. That means wherever you go you're getting attention, beyond what the media is doing for you: he was on 3Talk last week, and he'll feature in the next edition ofPassi magazine.

The other thing that impresses me is the strength of the Neethling family - very close. I found swimming and triathlon a lot more difficult to pursue without that home support and encouragement all the time. It can make a big difference. It will be interesting to see how Ryk's sister does, Jean Marie.

I have one of those rare blank sqares beside the end of last week on my Heart Rate Monitor Calendar. Usually in an entire year there are 2 or 3. So that's 1 for this year. I find it hard to not train, simply because the amount of surplus energy welling up (which has nowhere to go but into thoughts) becomes irresistible.

Can't help feeling that the only way to escape the work of world (aka the Doldrums), is by being creative, especially through writing. I have an idea I'd like to flesh out. It's based on a trip I made to the Philippines. Want to incorporate that trip with a view of the world in around 5-10 years...so it will be something like Theroux's O-Zone. But I really don't think TV, movies or even reading is going to be that big a deal in the near future. There will be far more urgent matters to attend to.

Would also be great to write an authorised biography of Ryk. Ryk: His story in his own words.