The "zone," often experienced by distance runners, swimmers, and other athletes who sustain their activity over a long period of time, is a place you reach where fatigue is non-existent and it seems one can go on forever.
It is a period in your activity during which your gait or your stroke seem flawless and your mind and body are one.
The result is a natural "high," a well-earned euphoria that you want to experience over and over again.
In the two weeks preceding Fathers Day, the atmosphere in the Young household was a bit tense.
I had made the decision, and impressively convinced my wife (Mom), to forego enrolling the girls, aged seven and eleven, in any summer programs as I knew my summer work schedule would allow the three of us to use the time off in a constructive manner which would equal if not exceed the goals of any formal summer fun activity they had participated in previously.
Perhaps my decision was a bit overly-optimistic considering the year we had just gone through.
Both girls were doing excellently in school.
Kristen, our older daughter, had made the dean's list in every quarter of her first year as a sixth-grader in middle school.
Laura had achieved the same level of academic proficiency in her second grade evaluation report.
However, despite their grades, my wife and I have long wanted them to get more active and to try recreational activities that could accompany them into their teen years and beyond.
As an avid ocean-sports enthusiast, it's been really difficult for me to get from both of them an outright rejection of the the things in life I felt most qualified to help them with.
While any other child, it seemed, would literally jump for joy at the opportunity to go snorkeling, boogey-boarding, fishing, or kayaking...
the response I'd get when suggesting we do these activities was always a sarcastic or whining "no!" Undaunted, I thought of other options that while not tops in my list of favorite activities might possibly peak some interest in these "girly-girls" as I sometimes called them in loving frustration.
I suggested activities like hiking, sports lessons, craft classes all of which received the same teen-intonated "no!" And so it was that we entered the summer of 2006.
It was a summer filled with promise to be the summer of all summers.
No school, no summer fun, just time with Dad to really pursue some exciting activities! Yet, in less than a week, this summer of all summers was shot down by its beneficiaries with nary so much as a discussion.
Something had to be done.
After all it wasn't only an issue of inactivity at hand but, even more, it was an issue that Mom would have with my failure to engage the girls in a productive manner for the vast amount of time they were to be on vacation.
It was a tense time, indeed.
What also needs to be shared with all of this is the personal frustration I had been carrying over the last year in the way of twenty-five extra pounds.
In the past, I was always able to loose even the biggest of my weight gains by returning to an old love, distance swimming.
And although I could intellectualize jumping back into the pool and swimming for an hour a day, the prospect of getting back into that type of regimen was almost ludicrous considering that sustained swimming at a decent clip for even five minutes was laughingly beyond my present state of fitness.
It was becoming more apparent that my life as a reasonably fit person or, more important, a father who could participate with his daughters in mutually enjoyable activities just didn't seem to be in the cards for this dad, not this summer and, probably, not ever! With Kristen moving quickly into her teens, and Laura maturing at a rate seemingly accelerated by the wake of her older sister, I knew my time to connect with these two in an interface other than the mall, movies, or other passive forms of entertainment had to come soon.
Out of sheer frustration, I retreated to my office (one of the inherent problems in working out of the home) and "found" work to do while I could hear the television on in the family room.
After two days of television (interrupted only by intermittent spells of computer games, listening to I-Pod music, and naps) and then explaining to Mom that another day went by without anything constructive, I had enough! It was on Monday, the week leading into father's day that I went into the family room, turned off the television and asked Kristen, the older, to call the YMCA and request the schedules for summer fun.
I explained firmly and unemotionally, "I promised Mom that the three of us would do activities that would help you in your schoolwork or your health.
So far, I've failed and I don't see any reason to think I will be more successful.
If I can't accomplish this, I know the YMCA can.
" Kristen was distraught at the prospect of being signed up for summer fun like she had last year while Laura, on the other hand, was ready to join the "Y" at a moment's notice rendering my ultimatum totally useless.
Here it was, the same dilemma we'd always run into...
one agreeing to something while the other would have no part of it.
After Kristen's wailing and pleading, I offered her an option.
The option was to submit a written schedule of activities that we would do each day of the week during the vacation.
If it included worthwhile activities that could be measured, we could consider our own program instead of enrolling her into a summer program like at the YMCA or summer classes.
Laura was the first to return with her proposed summer activities, an interesting response considering she had said she'd actually like to go to the YMCA! Oh, well, perhaps she just liked doing an assignment and wanted to beat her older sister in turning something in.
About a half-hour later, Kristen came in with her proposal after which I told both girls I'd get back to them after I had a chance to review their proposals.
During my entire review, there was a noticeable lack of television or any other activity going on...
not even the arguing that so frequently is exchanged between these two.
Included in both proposals were swimming, reading, and practicing piano.
Both were called back into my office and our discussion of the proposals began.
"Swimming," I said, "is okay but only if it's lap swimming.
Going to the pool for free-swim" I continued, "is not a goal to work toward and it doesn't really help you to become a good swimmer.
" Very quickly, both agreed to lap swimming as an activity which we would pursue on a daily basis.
Also discussed were their suggestions for reading and piano practice, particularly in the area of how long per day each would be pursued.
After a serious discussion on the accountability we would each have to each other as well as the consequences for our failure to live up to the program, we agreed to move forward with our own plan of summer activities.
The following day, Tuesday, was spent by the girls reading and playing the piano in the morning while I was able to complete some work in my office.
Then, at about noon, we left for the neighborhood pool which was open for long-course lap swimming.
Seeing the girls, the lifeguard thought it necessary to remind me that the pool was reserved only for lap swimming.
Proudly, I told her "that's what we're here for.
" Kristen actually swam a number of lengths with a level of proficiency I never realized she possessed while Laura, with a kickboard, steadily kicked back and forth while I swam my own laps.
We returned home, and the girls seemed to have a reserved sense of enthusiasm for all the swimming they had done and after a light lunch we each retreated to our own worlds--me going back to my office while the girls alternated between reading and practicing piano, more practicing than I had ever witnessed in three years of lessons! This pattern, reading and piano, then going to the pool has been going on for a week now.
As I swim each day and slowly work back to a minimum level of fitness I know I have to reach for the kind of swimming that will rid me of my excess pounds, I have the indescribable joy of looking to one side and seeing Kristen swimming through the water with a stroke that improves each day.
Looking to the other side, I see Laura kicking along with a look of gleeful determination on her gradually darkening face.
After passing the girls, I focus back on my own swimming and long for those times I once enjoyed when I could break into the "zone," my reward for spending many long hours in the pool or in the ocean.
Then, I snap back to the reality of how far I am from approaching that level of fitness again and wonder if I ever will.
Again, I pass Kristen as she swims in the lane next to mine.
I stop my laps and give Kristen a suggestion to change her stroke.
She listens, without even rolling her eyes, then actually tries it! Laura then yells from the other side of the pool for me to hold her kickboard so she can try swimming the remaining distance to the wall without it.
As I swim alongside Kristen, toward Laura as she waits for me to hold her board, I suddenly realize, I am already in the zone...
the most important zone into which I could ever hope to enter!