Unscented

What's your favorite scent? Is it a certain fruit, like strawberry or melon? Is it a scene in nature such as summer mist? Or perhaps it's a something even less tangible, like morning clean.

One of my coworkers used to ask people what scent they would bottle and carry with her. I'm not sure how I would have responded if she surprised me with that question. There are certainly scents that I find pleasing but none that stand out heads and shoulders above the others.

And yet it seems important to have some sort of scent-identity. We are regularly asked to choose sides when it comes to scents. In buying kitchen cleaners, do you go with lemon or orange? Are you a fruit or nature person when it comes to body wash and candles? I won't even ask about bathroom aerosol sprays. I think we can all agree that anything is better than the alternative.

What I'm struck by is how rare it is to find a product that is 'unscented' and labeled as such. The first time I recall using an unscented project was when I borrowed my dad's Mitchum deodorant and it struck me immediately. Why would I choose to smell like something when I could instead smell like nothing? I had discovered that there are others out there who share my desire for smell neutrality.



I began seeking out unscented products but quickly came up short. Unscented is not an option for mainstream soaps or shampoos. You can certainly find an unscented candle but I have yet to lay eyes on an unscented cleaning product. Not long ago I was pleasantly surprised to notice an "Odor neutralizing" aerosol bathroom spray. Now we're talking.



In cleaning myself and my surroundings, I follow the "leave no trace" ideology. I don't want to leave a lingering scent, good or bad, when I exit a room. Rather if I do leave a scent, I don't want it to be my deodorant that lags behind. Earlier I posed the question of why you'd choose to smell like something when you could smell like nothing and I'd like to revisit that because I do see the value in smelling nice. Like all products for sale, there's an implication that if you don't buy the product you will be worse off. This is an especially compelling argument when it comes to scented items. Going out on a date? Are you sure that you smell good? No? Well you'd better make sure that you do! It's easy to see how scents came to dominate the marketplace. Smelling like nothing is okay, but are you certain that you really smell like nothing?!

It's nice to smell good and I realize this. I even own cologne. Cologne and perfume are exceptions because they serve the singular purpose of marking you with a scent. Unscented cologne is obviously ridiculous. That'd just be water. I can get on board with cologne and perfume but in order to do so, I have given up on all other scented items. Answer this: how can Polo cologne truly do its job when it has to compete with my 'chocolate mint'-scented hair, my 'morning clean'-scented armpits, and my 'honeydew'-scented body wash? It doesn't even stop there! Don't forget about 'fresh clean scent' clothing detergent and 'mountain'-scented dryer sheets. Even my clothes have competing smells!

It may seem that I am opposed to scents but the truth is that I am the only one who is giving scents a fair playing field on which to compete. If I could find unscented products for everything, I could allow my 'honeydew' body wash to own Mondays, my 'chocolate mint' hair to shine on Tuesdays, and so on and so forth. It would allow me to really find a scent that I can call my own instead of walking around like a scent medley all the time. While mixing all the fountain drink flavors into one cup can occasionally produce a successful concoction it can also be a recipe for disaster, leaving you wishing you hadn't been greedy and had just picked one flavor. Let's all just pick a flavor and go with it. I got dibs on 'fresh clean scent'.

Reflections: triathlons

Sometime over the past year or two I got it in my head that I would register for the 2011 Ironman Madison race. As you may know, I competed in this event in 2008 and had a great race. According to sources close to me (wife and parents) I didn't initially have aspirations to compete in the race again. It was a painful but satisfying race that would be hard to top.

I have enjoyed training for triathlons though and it was very hard for me to get the Ironman distance race out of my mind. For those of you unfamiliar, the Ironman distance race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. It's the longest triathlon distance and the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii are televised on one of the big three networks annually. I remember watching the Ironman race when I was in junior high and thinking that is just insane. I have grown up competing in multisport races. One of my favorite pictures of me and my dad is from a Champaign newspaper and it's a shot of me (about 13?) and dad running side-by-side to the finish. I enjoyed running cross country in college and ran the Chicago Marathon a year after college graduation. I got back into triathlons when my co-worker Bob Geraty encouraged me to register for the world's largest triathlon in Chicago. It was an Olympic distance, which is a .9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. As I was training for this race, I met a couple in Bloomington who were competing in the Ironman race in Madison that year. I drove up to watch them compete and was sold. I signed up for the following year's race the next day.

Ironman training provided a framework for that next year. My weeks were planned around training and workouts. I would typically plan to workout 10-12 hours per week. These workouts would include long bike rides, long runs, lifting, swimming, etc. The training also dictated what and when I would eat. I learned a lot that year about nutrition and really enjoyed that aspect of training. I've known that I'm someone who enjoys having structure in my day and this training schedule provided that.

There were parts that I did not enjoy though. I didn't enjoy the three solo 100+ mile bike rides that summer or the 5:30 am swim workouts although they did leave me with a sense of accomplishment. It wasn't very hard to stay motivated though because I was confident that if I neglected to put in this work, I would not even complete the Ironman. This would obviously be very disappointing and it would also be embarrassing given that a large cheering section of family, friends, and coworkers was beginning to make plans to be there on race day.

When race day came around I felt ready and excited. Laine drove up to Madison a couple days early for registration, relaxation and preparation prior to the race and I don't think I would have made it through those days without her there to keep me calm. My cheering section was awesome and so was the weather. I enjoyed my time out on the course and really enjoyed seeing pictures later of my family, friends, and coworkers all hanging out together during the event. With a wedding on the way I was happy to see that my closest friends had a chance to meet one another before the main event. I felt as good as I would have expected on the run and really benefited from fan support there. I wasn't feeling so hot the last 10-15 miles but my spirits stayed lifted knowing that I had cheering sections all along the route. The finish was thrilling and I was pleased with my time. 12:34:00. As someone who can't remember any of my best times, I think it was fate that this one time couldn't be any easier to remember.

I wanted to recap that so that I could remember what a fantastic day that was. I'm realizing now that I don't really have any reason to do the Ironman again – at least not now. I had already set a goal to break 12:00:00 next time around but if that's the only reason for me to train I don't think this time around will be very satisfying. I've always been someone who lives within extremes and many of the things I'm most proud of accomplishing were made possible by this mentality. It never occurred to me not to become an Eagle Scout once I knew that was the highest rank. I couldn't pass up bungee jumping at the first commercial bungee site in New Zealand even though it scared the heck out of me to think about it. I joined a college friend on a trip to Iceland to attend one of the best festivals in the world. I caddied at Bandon Dunes (the caddie Mecca) and, while there, read the biggest books I could find: Gravity's Rainbow, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Don Quixote, The People's History of the United States, etc. While I'm not a competitive person, I do seem to have a tendency to think that bigger is better.

I'm beginning to realize that just because a challenge presents itself doesn't mean that you're required to take it on, at least not at that exact moment. While I still plan to stay in shape and compete in triathlons, I'm looking forward to finding a more sustainable middle ground.

Muncie

Last weekend, Laine and I drove out to Muncie, Indiana for our second triathlon of the year. We registered for this race because it has multiple distance options, so Laine signed up for the Sprint distance while I signed up for the "Endurathon" or 70.3 half-ironman distance. As a side note, this race is the longest running 70.3 race in the world. It's been going on for the past 30 years.

The race snuck up on us and neither of us had put much thought or planning into the weekend. I had booked a free night at a Fairfield way back when and realized on Friday when we were getting ready to leave that the Fairfield was in Indianapolis – about one hour from Muncie. "No big deal" I thought. It wasn't until we were in the car that I remembered that most of Indiana is in the Eastern time zone, meaning that we were going to need to go to bed an hour earlier than we planned and get up an hour earlier as well. The first wave of athletes went off at 7:00 am and my wave was at 7:15. I decided that I needed to be there by 6:30 am at the latest. Count back that hours and that meant a 4:40 am wakeup call – 3:40 am CST.

With the help of some pasta and Tylenol PM, we successfully went to bed at 9:00 am EST and awoke at 4:40 EST. I had just enough time to check my bike into transition, put on a wetsuit and get a good luck kiss from Laine. Her wave would get in the water at 8:30 am, so she had some time to kill.

My swim went pretty well and I saw Laine as I was getting out of the water and then again as I was heading out onto the bike course. By the time I got back from the 56 mile bike, I saw Laine cheering for me on my way into transition to the run – she had already completed her sprint distance triathlon! I forgot my gel in transition out to the 13.1 mile run which panicked me a bit. I was already a bit tired and worried that without some gel the run might feel even longer than it already was sure to be. I noticed some empty gel packets on the side of the road and had an idea. What if someone dropped a full gel packet as they were running? That lifted my spirits and I kept an eagle eye on the side of the road. Sure enough, within a couple minutes I spotted a gel packet that looked like its top hadn't been torn off. I skidded to a halt and grabbed it off the ground, earning a handful of confused looks from participants and spectators. It was worth it though – I had found the Holy Grail. A full Hammer Vanilla gel packet. This was a good sign. If only I could find another I'd be worry free. I must be living right because I found another about 200m down the road.

Armed with 260 calories of sugar I continued onto mile two with my head held high. By mile four my head began to drop. 13.1 miles is a really long way. I realized that I hadn't run that far in about two years. Oh well, I was in it to win it now. As the miles passed my attitude worsened. I thought "I can't possibly sign up for the Ironman again. This is ridiculous". I continued to shuffle through the out and back course and finished the run in 1:46:29 – 8:08 pace. Overall, my time was 5:18:33, which I think is as good as I could have hoped for. I told Laine multiple times that she might need to remind me not to sign up for the Ironman when we go to Madison to volunteer there this year. I'm already beginning to forget about the pain of Muncie…

VANITY PL8TS

About a month ago I received a suspicious envelop from my dear friend Jesse White who, apparently, is still the Secretary of All Things Vehicles. Has this guy been running uncontested for all these years or is he just that good at what he does? Well, we don't have time to delve deeper into that right now. What I want to discuss is the option to request "vanity" or "personalized" plates.

Vanity plates are the ones that often don't have any numbers and have little restriction. From what I can tell, you can put anything you'd like on your vanity plate with the only exception being offensive language. Personalized plates are the poor man's vanity plates. You can request something personalized but you still have to follow the rules, which include a set number of characters (minimum and maximum), at least one number but no more than three and these numbers must anchor the right side of the plate (no integrating numbers & letters and no numbers on the left side of the plate).

For some reason, I have been wanting to get personalized plates ever since I heard that they don't cost any more than renewing your plain old 341 8745 plates. When given the option between random numbers and letters that you can pick out it seemed like a clear choice to me. I had a few ideas right off the bat. One was IRNVAN 1, which is in reference to a shirt that my friend created for me when I competed in an Ironman distance triathlon. Personal, unique – I thought it fit the bill. I had always thought of incorporating 311 because it seemed like if I was going to be required to use numbers I might as well use it as an opportunity to reference one of my favorite bands. 311 takes up a lot of space though, which can be one of the true limiting factors in personalized plate design.

I thought I should give this some thought before putting in the request, so I came up with a list of other options. Some referenced a tie to my job (ADMIT 1, ACCEPT 1, etc.), others referenced Illinois Wesleyan (IWU 1850, IWU TY 10), and others were just random (TKERESY (take 'er easy – Big Lebowski quote), VMVMV 7 (crazy initials), FULL ON 5 (New Zealand saying), etc.).

I solicited help from people I know very well (i.e. family) and was surprised at the feedback. Most everyone seemed confused as to why I had any desire to request personalized plates: "I didn't think of you as the vanity-plate-type-of-guy" my sister admitted. It seemed to be what everyone was thinking. It the same type of reaction I'd expect to receive if I told them I was starting to hang out with the cast of Jersey Shore. It was as though everyone really thought of people with vanity/personalized plates as vain. I had always just thought of them as fun. It reminded me of when I dyed my hair blue in college and people asked me if I was okay. "Is something wrong? Why'd you dye your hair?" as if blue hair is the symbol of troubled youth. Maybe it is, but all I was thinking was, wouldn't it be cool to have blue hair?

I have such a wonderfully loving and encouraging family that they didn't stomp on my idea completely. They just warned me that I would be drawing attention to myself, whether I wanted it or not – just like the blue hair. I decided to table the thought for a bit and give it some thought. While driving around town, I would pay attention to personalized plates. Some of them I liked, some of them caused me to judge the person on the spot, while others I was indifferent to because I couldn't figure them out. What I realized was that I can't control people's reaction to my personalized plates. Some people might like them, some people might think I'm a total loser or think I'm vain. The risk/reward started to seem more and more tipped in the favor of risk. So, for now, I'm still good old 633 2458.

Free Range

One of my coworkers owns a house that had a chicken coup on the property when she purchased it. She thought, what the hell, and got her some chickens. Now she has about thirty chickens and she will sell a dozen eggs for $2. Not bad for some free range chicken eggs. These must be some happy chickens because we get some pretty large eggs. Nothing compares to the one that we got last week though. Check out this sucker!

I do have some questions about eggs though. Why is it that all eggs in the grocery store are white and these are always various colors? If I was a good blogger I would research this question and tell you, but I never claimed to be a serious blogger.

Back from retirement

I've enjoyed biking for as long as I can remember riding. One of my early memories is of my dad letting go of the back of my seat as I rode toward home and my first real taste of adolescent independence. On a nice summer evening, I'll often reminisce about riding my bike to downtown Deerfield, then building up the courage to ride down a flight of stairs on the way home.
Laine has similar memories from childhood, but when she arrived in the states her riding came to a skidding halt. Of course she was in eighth grade and helmets weren't cool but parents were still enforcing rules, so the choice was simple. She went nearly a decade without setting hind end back on a bike. The next time that she rode a bike was when we were traveling in New Zealand. She liked the idea of renting a couple bikes and riding along the coast. But she hadn't realized how long it had been. Each time we approached someone traveling in the opposite direction Laine wobbled to a halt and stood off to the side. Needless to say, we didn't make it very far that day.
Slowly but surely Laine regained a desire to re-learn the thing you never forget how to do. Last year, she signed up for a triathlon taking a "scare yourself into action" approach (one that I fully support). She knew that she would have to ride thirteen miles during the triathlon, so she went to work. We rode about once a week outside and a couple times per week indoors. The baby steps included riding my mountain bike – Laine liked the sturdiness beneath her. Everything went splendidly and she had a nice time on her first triathlon but still did not enjoy biking much.
I tried to convince her that I suspected that a she would enjoy road biking more if she weren't riding a mountain bike but she was a little nervous about the small tires and narrow handlebars. We each signed up for three triathlons this summer, so the biking suddenly became more important and Laine began to see real value in having to spend less time on a bike, even if it meant spending that time on a road bike. There happened to be a bike sale at our favorite local bike shop, so we took a look around and found an entry level road bike that will do the trick. Check out the new addition!
Laine likes that it's not flashy. There was another one there that I was recommending because it was shiny black with bold white lettering and red accents. She's very pleased with this one though.
She rode it for only the third time ever at our first triathlon of the season. She cut off a significant amount of time from last year, which is even more impressive when considering that she came to a complete stop before taking a drink from her water bottle (she's still getting comfortable with that maneuver while in motion).

Cavity Control

I was browsing the toothpaste section in the local Walgreen's and I was struck by one in particular: "Crest Cavity Control" toothpaste. I suddenly realized that I had been under the assumption my entire life that all toothpaste had the ability to control cavities. It just looked ridiculous sitting there next to other toothpastes that boasted the ability to whiten teeth, cure sensitivity, cure bad breath. But maybe that's exactly why this type of back-to-basics marketing might just work. Maybe Crest has realized that some of these other toothpaste companies have taken their eye off the prize. Maybe the new whitening, nerve dulling, breath neutralizing toothpastes have turned their back on actually controlling cavities. I have noticed that the new toothpastes seem a bit sweeter than before.