Comfort is the brandy of the damned.

When the world’s greatest men and women have been eulogized one word has been conspicuously absent from the list of descriptors: comfortable.

Whether it is Jesus of Nazareth, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Leonardo Di Vinci: they all blazed a trail where none existed.  Their lives did not revolve around having the biggest stack of toys or the sweetest Laz-e-Boy

On popular self-help and advice columns, far too often I hear suggestions about the ideal being gaining a place of comfort, a cocoon in which to escape. The pictures depicting a hammock on some tropical location.

My own thought is that the opposite is true. Humans live at their highest, most fulfilling level when we are leaning into our own discomfort. I am not suggesting anything rash, but on a daily basis taking an uncomfortable step toward greatness. In many cases it is something as simple as asking another person for something and expecting a positive response.

In 2002 I was pushing our twins in the jog stroller and was feeling dissatisfied in how out of shape I had become. ( My WHY was being a healthy, active father living to see my children become successful in whatever pursuits they choose. ) I decided to run two telephone poles distance all out.  Nothing monumental, but a step into discomfort that lead to much more satisfying discomfort.  While traveling 140.6 miles under one’s own power is not some people’s idea of satisfaction, it helps to illustrate the idea of small steps of discomfort can lead to great achievements.

After some recent set-backs, I had settled into a place of complacency (comfort).  “Oh, woe is me! The fates had aligned against me!” Bullshit! The set-backs were mostly of my own making.  I needed to take my whipping and move on.   With that said, I am back on the road to discomfort and loving it! I encourage my great readers to find discomfort.

Lean into discomfort.

With 10,149 people in the United States who share my name, I thought I’d give you just a sample of our faces.  Circle the REAL me on your computer screen.

Dan Thomas- NY News Anchor

Dan Thomas - Professional Baseball Player

Dan Thomas - Jazz Musician

Dan Thomas - Stand Up Comedian

Dan Thomas - Random Dude

Dan Thomas - Conservationist

Dan Thomas - Sales Executive

Dan Thomas - Guide and Professional Game Hunter

Dan Thomas - Military Officer

Dan Thomas - Actor

Dan Thomas - Film Critic

Dan Thomas - Retired

Dan Thomas - Author

Dan Thomas - The Blogger

Dan Thomas - Corporate Executive

Dan Thomas - Welsh Comedian and Web Designer

Vibram Five Finger

I have heard about the resurgence of barefoot running for several years now.  Basically, the premise is that humans are born runners and evolutionarily we have run long distances in order to migrate to greener pastures. And we did this barefoot, or with a thin animal hide moccasin.

The modern running shoe didn’t emerge until 1970.  As the years have gone by, the layers of cushioning have thickened and various pronation devices have been added as well as additional arch support. Something was wrong with the design of the human foot. As running shoes became more prevalent, the number of injuries from running also increased. Running shoes change the biomechanics of running from a forefoot strike to a heel strike, putting more of the impact on the knees.

The problem with barefoot running is that it is an entirely different skill set.  It takes time to adjust to running barefoot…..literally months. For the last eight years I’ve had some event for which I have been training. I couldn’t just start from scratch on a new running technique. Since my knee surgery ( torn meniscus and a Baker’s cyst) at the end of April my running program has been pretty much non-existent.  I figured this would be a perfect time to give barefoot running a try.

After doing some homework, several sources recommended the purchase of the Vibram Five Finger as a good transitional tool into barefoot running.  The Vibram Five Finger gives a barefoot feel and has a minimal sole, but provides some protection from rocks, glass, nails, etc.  Since I had a trip to Dallas planned anyway, I decided to purchase them there and be able to try them on.  The sizing of the Five Finger is different from conventional shoes.  I bought mine from Luke’s Locker in Dallas and was reassured when I walked in and the clerks were wearing them.  The three clerks were runners and they all run in the Five Finger.  They recommended slowly transitioning into the Five Finger over a period of six weeks to two months.  They recommended using the Five Finger as a warm up before running starting off at around ten minutes daily the first week.  Build up very gradually and use your feet literally as a guide.  If your calves and feet are overly sore back off a bit and give them a few days recovery. Either way, there will be some transitional discomfort.

Barefoot running uses different muscles than running in running shoes.  It takes some time for the feet and calves to adjust to the change.  I had my first run on a rubberized track at the health club I use in Dallas.  The next morning the back of my calves were a bit sore.  I’ve had five runs in them so far and my knee seems to do better with this style of running.  I did notice that  I just naturally started running more on the balls of my feet and my supination disappeared.  I will publish updates as things progress.

Locally, the Vibram Five Finger can be purchased at Indiana Running Company.    Indiana Running Company has a store on the square in Bloomington.

From the flames new life rises

First off, an apology to my faithful blog readers for the prolonged hiatus.  Just a ton of plates spinning at the same time and I didn’t follow my own good advice about the oxygen mask.

But the hiatus is over and new life has sprung from the ashes. Interesting digression: the idea of a bird that rises out of the fire is an almost universal mythology. Completely unrelated cultures have told of this bird, whether they called it a phoenix or something else.  Must be part of who we are as humans to appreciate the idea of renewal….OR was there such a phenomenon? I’ll leave that to you to ponder.

My last posting I went into several goals I am working on. Some successes. I can speak with someone at a call-center in Bangalore in Hindi and nearly be understood. Fascinating culture! I’m considering opening a Super-8 Motel. Definitely planning a trip to India.

I got a Sony Reader for Christmas and I have read a ton of books on it.  Really enjoy that new technology. I can discover a new book and be reading it several minutes later. Re-read for the third time The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

I need a good kicking in the ass to get swimming!!! I have not swam once since Ironman Florida. As much as I enjoy swimming, I don’t enjoy the drive into town and back before the buttcrack of dawn.  Next week! Who will be my accountability partner? Speak Up! There is a GoogleVoice widget on the side that actually works!

To commemorate the occasion I'm contemplating this spectacular tattoo

I have several good pieces of material to post. Everyone has a story, but not everyone is a storyteller. Keep posted.

Triathlon season is over and as the winter solstice nears, it is time to make some goals for the off-season. I find myself now with some extra time on my hands since I don’t have the 15-18+ hours a week of training for an Ironman.

1.) I’m learning Hindi. India (where Hindi is spoken)  has always been a place I’d like to travel to since I was a kid. I have read that one of the best ways to stay mentally active and fit is to learn foreign languages.  Hindi seemed like the most difficult to learn since the alphabet is so different. I enjoy a challenge. The truth is that it is fairly easy to pick up once you get the hang of the Devanagari Script. I found a great online language community called Live Mocha.  www.livemocha.com

It uses a very similar method as Rosetta Stone with the advantage of matching you up with native speakers of the language.  I as a native English speaker I am matched up with Hindi speakers who are learning English.  I submit written and spoken lessons for feedback and receive lessons from people wanting to learn English. So far it has been very enjoyable. Peebs, Avashi, Sundar9kr, Pradhyumna, Rinku, Ayush and I are having a smashingly good time. As the lessons progress we will go to online chatting in our chosen language.  My kids are getting into learning Hindi and this is a natural time to introduce them to a foreign language.

2.) Get lean and mean.  I went to the personal trainer the other day and got a plan for some strength training.  While training for Ironman Florida I had no time for any strength training.  I’m also hoping to shed 15 pounds of useless flab in the process.

3.) Get the basement fixed up. We have about 1,200 sq. ft. of basement space that could be put to better use. I plan on taking up the carpeting and replacing it with laminate that is more kid-friendly.

4.) Read the stack of books that I have been meaning to read.

5.) Do more swimming. I would absolutely love to find another venue other than the 5:00AM swim at the high school. If not, I’ll make that work.

6.)  Solve the world’s problems.

Nice Myth: Not the way it happened

My kids came home the other day from Cortland School and said that 102 of the students were going to see what it was like to ride on the Mayflower.  The fifth grade class had drawn a chalk outline of the Mayflower on the playground and they had to pack items for the trans-Atlantic voyage. 62 days, in fact.

Like many of American holidays, Thanksgiving is filled with myths.  We have a penchant for idealizing stories, when, in fact, the real version is much interesting.

The Pilgrims ( called The Separatists at the time) originally set sail from Defthaven, Holland on two ships The Mayflower and the Speedwell.  The Speedwell encountered problems at sea and both ships put in at Plymouth, England.  A total of 102 passengers left Plymouth on September 6, 1620 bound for the New World. Of the 102 passengers only 43 adults were listed as Pilgrims.  The remainder were listed as “Strangers.” These were individuals who were seeking their fortunes in the New World and not part of the separatists who were seeking religious freedom.

The group was sailing for the mouth of the Hudson River, but with winter approaching and provisions running short they had to abandon their original plans.  They anchored at Provincetown Harbor on November 11, 1620.  It was only later that they lead expeditions arriving at Plymouth Harbor. It was purely coincidence that the place they started from and the place they ended up bare the same name. The area had been surveyed and mapped years earlier by John Smith of the Jamestown Colony and was already called Plymouth.

Of the original 102 passengers on the Mayflower, only 53 remained to partake in the First Thanksgiving of 1621 with Chief Massasoit and 90 of his men. While this all sounds very We-Are-The-World, the original plans for the Hudson Bay pilgrim settlement called for enslaving the indigenous people. Squanto, the Indian, didn’t just magically know English.  He spent years in Europe as a slave before being returned to his homeland. The Pilgrims ( and the Strangers as well ) would not have survived were it not for the generosity of the indigenous people. The Thanksgiving meal consisted of five deer provided by the Indians, salt cod, wild birds, corn, squash, and native berries, including cranberries.

What I’m thankful for:

• I have a lot of wonderful people in my life. I have a great family: a wonderful wife and two great children. I have wonderful friends who are genuine and caring. I work with a fantastic group of people who are dedicated to their work and are some of the funniest people on the face of the Earth.
• I am very thankful for good health. In early September I was in the hospital barely able to move. Yet, I rebounded quickly and was able to compete in Ironman Florida.
• I live in a friendly, caring community.  I remember when I graduated from college the best sight was Seymour, Indiana in my rearview mirror.  I vowed never to return. Luckily, I gained some sense along the way and realize now what a great place it is. What we lack in hip, we make up for in our values.
• I am thankful that we have what we need.  Sure, there are things that I’d like, but when I look at it from a global perspective we live better than 95% of the world’s population.
• I am thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy.  The freedom to worship as we please, speak our mind, to freely elect our leaders.  Thankful for those who served that we all can enjoy those freedoms.
• May your Thanksgiving be a happy and healthy one.

Demonstration of the Honda Fit's versatility

If this picture wasn’t so gruesome, it would be a great advertisement  for the Honda Fit. The small car has very versatile configurations that allow the owner to haul just about anything. In this case it’s a huge buck.

Ali, a co-worker from DCS ’s husband is a conservation officer and he had promised to get me a deer this season.  I, however, would be responsible for picking it up and getting it to the processors. I  got the call on Sunday and put the seats down in the car. The front passenger seat even goes all the way forward and then folds backwards allowing very long things to be hauled.

I arrived at Darlage Meat Locker to ge the deer processed only to be told they were full for the day and to arrive before 8:00 AM the next morning. I had to pack ice into the cavity of the deer and keep it wrapped up until the next day.

When I showed up the next morning there were all these big pick-up trucks and mullet-y hunting guys waiting with their deer. They were stunned when I pulled the largest deer of the group out of this sub-compact car.  Yes! Absolutely! I just pretended that I shot it.

Premier Landscape Red Raiders

After taking a year off in coaching any sport, I decided that I couldn’t handle another season of ______ ( insert sport here) watching coaches ruin the sport for the kids.

I have watched grown adults throw tantrums that I would never tolerate in my own kids. I have been embarrassed for the coaches who stomp their feet and throw the clipboard when a player strikes out.  At 8 and 9 years old, kids really could care less about winning or losing; it’s whether they have had fun or not.

This soccer season I decided to conduct an experiment. Since I work with kids for a living, I decided to apply the same principles of behavior modification to the sport of soccer. The focus would be on positive reinforcement for achievement and cooperation and building a team rather than focusing on single players.

American sport culture focuses on the star performers and the supporting positions get little recognition.  Soccer really is a sport about cooperation and teamwork.  I asked the team parents to cheer for the whole team rather than the scoring player.  After all, there are positions in soccer that have little likelihood  of scoring, but are every bit as important.

We got off to a rocky start. I had a few parents say that I needed to be more aggressive. Uh, Whatever! Then it clicked! The kids really started gelling as a team. The usual ball-hogging was replaced with cooperation.  The more talented players weren’t nagging to play midfield, but were content to play back.  It was also more enjoyable to coach a team, rather than a collection of individual players.

As we go into the final game of the season, win or lose, it has been a very successful year.

Ironman Florida 2005 Finish

The central character in the formation of my way of thinking was my father, Harman Thomas.  My repertoire of expressions is filled with things that my dad would say.  “Never, ever be a quitter.”, “Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s right.” , “They can kill ya’, but they can’t eat ya’!” , ” Love the Lord, hate the devil; vote straight Democratic ticket.”

To my father’s credit, he was able to escape a small coal-mining town in the mountains of southwestern Virginia on a football scholarship to Morehead State University. This was no small feat for a Melungeon kid from Banner Hollow, where a hardscrabble life was the norm.  Like his own father, my father always wanted something better for his own children.

That meant that he often pushed us to achieve, and would never let us quit a project that we had started.  While that often was the source of some friction, I see now as an adult that it has served me well.

As a high school teacher my father was always drawn to the underachievers and misfits. He would take them under his wing and encourage their independence and non-conformity as a thing to be treasured.  This is not to say that be mollycoddled them. Quite the opposite; he would push them to excel. Often my father was the sole advocate in their life. While he has been gone 18 years, hardly a week goes by where someone doesn’t comment on the impact that he had in their lives.

One of central themes that my father expressed ( not in so many words) was the idea of authenticity. You cannot live your life based on what others might or might not think of you. You need to be proud of who you are and be willing to stand up for your ideals; regardless of the consequences.

It is this kind of character upon which my Ironman training is based.  Sometimes God’s testing of us is his way of polishing our metal.  It brings out the lustre within.

This Ironman’s for you, Dad!! (I expect your ass to be beside me all 140.6 miles.)