10,000 Hours

If you want to be proficient, perhaps the best, at anything, the only thing you need is time. A lot of it - 10,000 hours, to be precise. This is the latest from Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) who asserts in his book Outliers (Little, Brown & Co. 2008) that the magic formula for mastering a skill like playing the violin or shooting hoops or designing computer software is simply to put in the time to practice, practice, practice.

(Um, no kidding. I think my mom told me the "practice makes perfect" mantra when I was about five, but anyway... I guess experts have now made the practice notion quantifiable and therefore either more practical or completely daunting, depending on who you talk to.)

So it seems you can be the most average chess player and become a grandmaster if you've got about 10 years to work diligently on improving your skills. Gladwell quotes Daniel Levintin, author of This is Your Brain on Music (Penguin, 2006), who said,

"ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery
associated with being a world-class expert - in anything... it seems that it
takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve
true mastery."

If this holds true, then I guess I've been taking the wrong tactic all along with my list of goals. Perhaps I should pick just one and dedicate the rest of my life to perfecting it. Hmn, floristry? Studies clearly demonstrate I could be the best florist on the planet if I put my mind to it... despite the fact that at present I can't even tell a chrysanthemum from a carnation.

Olympic Letdown

So close to getting tickets to the Olympics but we lost them at the last second. Looks like I'm not going to be getting up close and personal with any short track speed skaters in 2010.

My mom was able to log in to the official website for 2010 on Saturday and scored two tickets to the opening ceremonies but was unable to make the purchase before the website logged her out. Major dissapointment on her part, and a snag in my plan to attend at least one event or ceremony in Vancouver next year.

If anyone happens to know of another way of acquiring tickets, particularly to the opening ceremony or the men's or women's gold medal hockey games I would be delighted to know how to make it happen!

Intro to Climbing

Last night I took a course at a climbing gym to learn how to tie ropes, put on a harness, and belay. So now I can not only go to the gym to risk my own neck, but the necks of countless others as well... Actually, according to Dave, the owner of the gym and my instructor, it's us new climbers who are safest because we triple check everything. It's still going to be a while before I climb outside, and before I'm entirely over my fear of heights, but I'm thinking it should get easier now that I know what I'm doing and don't have to rely on anyone else to help me with my gear. Guessing it's also going to be a while before I no longer feel like I have four feet while I'm trying to get up a 5.9 route.

One month, 5 km

As of today I have two more reasons to keep running - I bought new shoes on Friday, and registered this morning for the Scotiabank 5 km race on June 28. This gives me 33 days to break in the shoes and train to beat my PB of just under 30 minutes.

Reality TV inspires the runner in me

"You want to know how you train for a marathon? You run." - personal trainer to a weight-loss contestant on an American reality TV show. 

Keeping it simple. I love it. 

Hiking

The Grouse Grind is still officially closed for the season, and for good reason. You'd think, with this beautiful spring weather that it's just an extra precaution, but they weren't kidding - there is a lot of snow pack three-quarters of the way up the trail. All cold and in the way. Very hostile. Being in running shoes and a tank top doesn't make things easier when you're scrambling up what you think must be the trail while trying to dodge flying snowballs the size of watermelons hurtling their way past you to splatter on tree trunks in a way that is eerily suggestive of what would happen to your head if you were to slip and go hurtling down the hill yourself.

But we made it to the top eventually, and were oggled by tourists in parkas at the lodge who took our picture, standing sweaty and barely clothed against the backdrop of the afternoon sky over "the peak of Vancouver." I'm not even sore today. I think this bodes well for a multi-day trek this summer on the West Coast Trail.

Death-defying postponed

Sky-diving put off till August, when (ideally) I'll have had a few months of work and therefore won't have to decide between eating and jumping out of a plane. Also, planning to do the West Coast Trail this summer. Another two steps towards completing my long list...