Premiere Week=Less Stress Ahead

Every once in a while, I have a swim workout that makes me feel less like one mammal in the water, and more like another. Although, I seldom go through an entire swim workout and feel like I belong in the water. My swim workout on Monday was as close as I have ever come. I practiced something that I practice on my runs: submitting. For some reason, if I can give into my fatigue, it always helps me fall into a groove, and often, swim faster. One of the things I appreciate most about swimming is that I can completely turn off my brain, go on autopilot, and not have to think about a thing. This was especially gratifying considering the ticket for driving with my cell phone that I had received just minutes before my swim workout. Ironically, I am always the first person to get upset at people that I see talking on the phone while driving. I always keep my hands free device in the car, but as my life is currently in complete disarray, I broke the law and used it for an instance and got caught. It is amazing, I see the SAME people driving down my street every day talking on their phones and apparently they never get caught. C'est la vie! If I cut the tags on my matresses, the FBI would probably show up. Drinking milk past the expiration date: the dairy farmers of America would stand outside my house picketing. Of course, I could eat while I drive, and apparently their are no laws on the book prohibiting me from doing that. I wonder if I put a banana next to my ear and started talking if I would get pulled over. Hmmmm.

I did have a thought on Monday while I was swimming: "you know, if I had gills behind my ears like Kevin Kostner in Water World, my life would be so much easier." Coincidentally, Water World is the finest film ever made about post-apocalyptic, iceberg-melted Earth ever made—much in the same way the Over the Top with Sylvester Stallone is the finest film ever made about professional arm wrestling. But I digress.

My piano concertino premieres this week—aptly titled—Stress Test. As I said in an earlier post, I believe that the best art really comes from a direct correlation between an artists life and his work. How   could any artist separate these two you ask? Take Theodore Giesel (Dr. Seuss) for example. The masterful writer of children's texts had no children of his own, and many biographical accounts of his life say that he was not not even particularly fond of children.Go figure. It is hard to think of anything else this week other than the premiere, but I did have a successful swim yesterday. I teach an evening class on Tuesday that does not allow me to really get in a good session, unless I do it early in the morning, but this morning I was once again firing out emails and coordinating rehearsal schedules. I did have an opportunity to hear  my piece in a rehearsal yesterday and it sounded really wonderful. I am really fortunate to have such masterful musicians playing my music.

A couple of updates:

I have been compiling some questions for Dr. Alex McDonald—a member of the Timex Multisport Team—who happens to be a professional triathlete and medical doctor. Anyone still interested in having their training, nutritional, and/or any other relevant questions answered, please send them along in a message and I will make sure that he gets them. I will follow up his answers in an upcoming post—following my premiere, not before.

Manuel and I got out for only my second ride of the season. My first was a 72-miler. Nothing like jumping right into it. I am thinking about doing another long run and bike this weekend. Perhaps a 90 miler on my way to the matinee of my second performance. Crazy? A little. Triathlete? All the way. Here we are having just finished a short 25-miler and a two mile sprint. We are completely prostituting ourselves with our corporate gear.

More soon... Train Smart!