Random

• My favourite to eat item on the menu at Shake Shack is their Chick'n Shake.  Sadly, I won't be flying through JFK until next spring...
• Trying to stop my brain hasn't been easy but necessary.  It doesn't like to sit idle for very long but I do recognize that it may have been revved too high for too long.  
• D has left for his volunteer placement.  I too will get to leave in a short while.  We'll have one day overlap in the same city before I start my last big adventure for the year.  The prep for this hasn't helped with my quest to "stop thinking" so much! 
• Watching D go about his packing stresses me out.  Our approaches differ greatly and his scurrying around last minute gets me going despite strong efforts to ignore.  I just cannot not see and find it even more difficult not to want to engage!
• Came very close to cancelling this last big trip.  It is going to require all the skills I've learned this year and more.  But I question my mental emotional fitness going in.  
• Am making the above sound like such a huge ordeal.  It isn't in the big scheme of things but things tend to loom larger than they really are when you are seeing and feeling with tired eyes and frayed nerves.  Once I get going, things tend to sort themselves out, especially when I will have hours and hours of transit time to settle into it.
• At my yearly vehicle oil change, it was discovered that the noise I had started to notice was attributed to a bearing issue in the front differential.  They actually had 3 guys listening underneath with stethoscopes to figure it out, along with a couple of test drives.  I use an independent mechanic shop vs. the dealership.
• It will be taken care of in the spring along with a few other types of fluid changes.  If I have to leave her there for the day, I might as well get everything I can done.  This is the first large size maintenance/repair job I've needed to do.  Am waiting for the estimate to arrive.  My guess is 3K for the lot.
• I've closed 3 of my regular savings accounts in my efforts to simplify my banking.  No longer need to subdivide things so much.  They have served their purpose.
• After 13 years with my current financial advisor, I will be moving my registered savings to a self directed account.  The direction that has been recommended to me doesn't feel right.  I don't want to have increased layers of management.  Goes against how I wish to structure things.  She understood that my decision was in no way a reflection of dissatisfaction with the results and management leading up to this.
• Back to Quito -- The hike from the top of the Teleferico, depending on the route, can bring you to some rough parts where the there are deep ruts in the ground that resembled earthquake fractures.  When there are long grasses obscuring the ruts, it is easy to step off the at times, only 6 inch path and sink a good foot+ down.  Perfect set up for ankle sprains.  
• Also, had I not been lucky and had a group whose leader led the way, I would have gotten lost.  The trail that I was on split enough times to make it difficult to remember.  Especially when you look back and all you see is long grass.  Don't expect any signage other than a few arrows sometimes showing km markings that didn't quite make sense.  Just wait until you see someone who looks like they know where they are going and follow them.  
• I definitely would not attempt this hike solo again and can totally understand how it would take the police 3 days to find someone who got lost.  It happened to a couple of solo hikers a month or so before my arrival.  Definitely bring a safety whistle.  Cell phone service is hit or miss up there.
• Had my first experience of attempted pick pocketing occur in Quito.  A young man tried to unzip my front right pocket zipper by reaching around me as I was holding an umbrella on that side.  I felt it and zipped it up promptly as he darted off my left and pretended to become intensely interested in a jewelry store window.  I gave him the stink eye, shook my head and kept going.  He knew that I knew.

Neurological Break

I experienced mild flu like symptoms on my last day in Quito and brought it home with me.  It turned into a week's worth of floating in and out of small fevers.  Nothing that totally stopped me, but enough to irritate and delay workouts.

So, I took advantage of the slower days at home by catching up on some continuing education webinars.  Learned some great stuff.

One point in particular really hit home -- While learning about sport psychology training with elite athletes, it was mentioned how important the aspect of taking a neurological break is.  You just cannot maintain a super high focus on "the macro of everything" over the course of an entire year without consequences...May be super obvious to all of you, but wow, did it ever hit home for me.

For the past few years, I've been piling on all sorts of different experiences, much outside of my comfort zone, that required a number of new skills with high (for me) levels of adaptation.  However, the diversity and sheer density of them did not allow me to get better or comfortable with any one thing long enough.  Which consequently has been highly stressful neurologically and physically.

The excitement of those projects overshadowed the after side effects.  Add to it my continued delusional belief/expectation that I would be totally prepared and strong when the time came around to go.  My not-yet-willing to concede to the concept of hard limits gets me into trouble time and time again.

Getting back to the above webinar, it takes a season or 2 of solid repetition (training/competition) to learn the psychological skills required to adapt to the level you are working on.

Applying that to regular life, I had not allowed myself that courtesy the past few years.  By continuing to amp things up, I have drained instead of built, undermining the growth I have been seeking.  And having just too many decisions to make and too many details to sort out all the time is exhausting mentally.  My brain has finally flown its white flag.

By allowing myself to get swept away in the excitement of being constantly challenged by new things, I find myself today, feeling quite burnt out, not yet done for this year and seriously considering pulling the plug on the remainder.  This isn't the first time I've been in this head space but am kinda shocked to find myself back here again...delusional, remember?

Finally coming to terms with it all has been immensely helpful, relieving and confirming.  The way next year has shaped up is already consistent with helping me heal and become better without the hyper stress that comes with too much new stuff.  Cool to know I had been moving in that direction naturally -- Albeit, out of desperation and forced honesty!

Catch up Thoughts

I'm definitely behind in my posting this year.  Perhaps I've just been needing all my energy to "hang on for dear life"!

Rio was so inspiring to me on many levels.  I had expected to find a culture where "everyone" was super conscious about their looks.  Instead I found one that emphasized personal fitness. 

People were doing their own thing and not looking at you or looking around to see if anyone was looking at them.  What a surprise.

I really love the Brazilian's beauty style.  No heavy make up or make up at all (they don't need it!).  Gorgeous skin.  Long dark natural hair (highlights or colouring was not popular that I could see).  Fit and slim.  Relief to see a culture where women don't all strive to be blond.

It didn't take long before I started to consider upping my workout by running in that deep sand like everyone else.  Or want to join in on one of the numerous training classes on the beach.  Or use the Under Armour racks that lined the boardwalk to stretch or pump out some reps.  

And favela living didn't hold the negative stigma I thought I would find either.  I found people to be polite (Outside of the kid who grabbed my behind the first day -- Got reprimanded later.), hardworking and family network to be deep.  

Don't know what they do to their meat, but it tasted so good!  I got to know a beach vendor after spotting another vendor eat a meal one afternoon.  After much gesturing (at first, I think he thought I was asking him for a taste...), he pointed me to the direction of where he bought it.  And I bought from her everyday after.  

Her and her husband would push this small cart along the boardwalk and sell homemade meals to the beach vendors.  At first they were taken back when I approached them (never saw any other tourist go for it -- they are missing out...) but after 5 days, they came to expect that I would be at the same section of walk on the lookout for them.  They finally asked my name and not surprising, also asked which part of Brazil I was from despite my pathetic attempts at the language!  I found Brazilians to be so diverse in looks, that you could be any nationality and live there.

I added this trip to my year when I found out about the visa waiver in place for Canadians etc. being an Olympic year.  Previously I had found the travel visa application for Brazil to be too taxing to bother with.  However, the process has been streamlined for the better.  Enough that I will consider applying for a 5 year visa because I really want to return.  

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Some points about Quito:

• Most vendors will find it difficult to break a 5 USD bill.  Forget anything larger.  1 USD bills are your friend and if you have exact change, you will receive a big smile and thank you.  And if you produce brand new bills, you'll be the talk of the whole row of vendors!
• Food is quite simple but filling.  I did get a bit tired of the large servings of rice after a few days.  Their rice is starchier and less tasty than the type found in Asia.  
• People love spending time outside in their parks.  We are spoilt for nature here in Canada and will drive hours to get to something more "significant" than a neighbourhood park.  It's just a different mindset.  We tend to congregate in our own backyards -- Something that isn't too common there.  
• I loved how people would just hang out outside.  No need to have to go to a cafe and spend money.  No desire to be seen.  Just be.  Totally normal.  No complex.  Not glued to phones.  Just lying down on the grass quietly.  How simple and wonderful is that?  It got so that I was at a couple of different parks everyday.  It was great.
• In the historic part of the city, you'll see young people standing in the doorway of shops holding a soft serve ice cream cone (always a mix of vanilla and raspberry sorbet -- yummy!), chocolate covered frozen banana etc.  straight out into the sidewalk to tempt passersby to buy it.  They always manage to get a sale before the cone started dripping!  Impressive!  
• Being that Quito sits at around 9000 ft altitude, the climate was a welcome relief to the heat of Thailand.  Beware that there is no heat at night, and the build quality isn't so great (visible gaps underneath and around windows and doors...), so bring extra layers or sleeping bag.  Otherwise stay at less local places.
• There is a cable car (Teleferico) you can take up to 14000 ft (2nd highest in the world) with hiking trails up to a volcano at mid 15K ft range.  I didn't quite believe how much dryer it would be the higher up you are and didn't bring enough water.  So, didn't make it all the way, just 3/4.  
• Fortunately, I did not experience any real negative issues with the altitude (my heart and lungs did have to work extra hard).  But did hear and see people not looking too well along the way, even down in Quito.  One of the pictures above show an oxygen station up at the top of the cable car. 
• As I had found in Bogota, vehicle pollution, especially from buses is ridiculous.  Black smoke bellowing out of the exhausts.  Horrible air quality if you have to walk alongside a traffic jam.  What a shame.  I am still negatively sensitized about this after Uganda.  
• Got scammed by 2 taxi drivers.  One who turned off his meter (later reported to company) and one whose meter ran way too fast.  It took a while before I recognized where I was to ask him to stop (had just arrived the day before).  He did so without any drama.  I actually liked his gentle personality (the first driver came across as a bit psychotic).  We were having a good conversation too.  I am so grateful that I don't have to live a life where I have to resort to taking advantage of people in order to survive. 

Some Good Answers

Adding those 2 extra events to my already busy schedule, to help me better prepare for my last adventure of the year was a great move.  It was on one hand, a sobering experience, but provided enough of a confirmation that put my mind somewhat at ease.

I still have much work to do but my mind doesn't have all that cloud and fog and worry floating around and obscuring things anymore.  Those experiences were well worth the extra time and money spent.

That's not so say both additions were easy or comfortable, as they were neither.  But they were chosen to point out deficiencies so that I could learn how to respond now, rather than find out when it is too late to do anything about it.

Continuing on the theme of super human inspiration, I urge you to look for a copy of this.