Efficiencies

I ended my last post talking about me being inefficient in my days. Some things you should understand about me:

• My natural inclination is to lay around on the couch and be bored.
  
  
• If I don't keep structure in my life, I default to #1. I don't need or want concrete structure -- chicken wire is probably fine. I just need some general daily boundaries that I can adjust if need be.
  
  
• The TV and computer are a huge time-suck for me. Last year I weaned myself off TV. I'm not as good as I used to be, but even now, I only watch it at night and occasionally on weekends. On the other hand, the computer is where I waste a ton of my time. I went through a period earlier this year where I essentially stopped using the computer at home. That did wonders for my studying, but led to two problems:
  • I became incredibly boring. Since my access to news was Internet-based, removing the Internet from my life left me completely oblivious to the world outside of San Angelo.
  • I still had work (both school and other) that I needed to do on the computer -- that made me even more inefficient since I would deliberately make trips to the university to do online work there.

So, I've gone about building my chicken wire weekly life. Since Hannah has to get up for work, I get up with her. Three days a week that's because I have an 8 am class. The other two days it's easier to keep with the same routine. My studying and training are coming along nicely -- I have a pretty good schedule that I maintain. It's flexible enough that I can swap some time between the two on any given day and still feel like I'm getting the work done that I need to get done. Housework is about 70% to where I need it to be (Hannah may tell you it's at 25% where I need it to be, so I'm still working on that one).

As far as avoiding my giant time-waster -- the computer -- I still struggle. I'm good when I have a specific task to accomplish. I'm not so good when I've got some free time and I think, "Oh, I'll just check my e-mail or Facebook." Two hours later, when I'm watching some weird video on YouTube, I'll realize I just lost a chunk of my day just so I could wind up seeing David go to the dentist again. So, I'll take any tips on not letting my day get swallowed up by random web surfing.

Expectations

Before I started back up at school, Hannah and I had discussed our expectations for my weekly "output." I was going to handle most of the day-to-day household work (cleaning, bills, keeping up the yard, food shopping and preparation, etc.), as well as maintaining a full (albeit it lighter) course load. I even toyed with the idea of getting a part-time job since I wouldn't have class on Tuesday and Thursday. I was also going to get crazy fit for my ironman, since I'd have so much free time compared to when I was working.

This plan was largely based on my memories of the amount of daily work I put in to get my initial degree, especially my junior and senior years.

Imagine my surprise to learn that school was tougher than I remembered. Or, more specifically, taking classes that fall outside my natural skill set is tougher than I remember. I'm doing well (high 90s average in Anatomy for example), but doing well requires a lot of effort on my part -- strangely enough, a "full course load" actually requires close to 40 hours a week of work (including classes). It also requires Hannah putting up with learning all sorts of things that I learn, mostly a result of me wandering around the house repeating stuff from my lectures.

For a while, I was a mental mess regarding my training. I was getting fitter, but I had a ton of self-imposed guilt about taking the time away to ride/run/whatever. That made my workouts agony since all I could think about was getting back home to either study or to take care of something I had said I'd do. A lot of time, that meant missed workouts. My coach helped straighten that out by simplifying my approach. I had the time in my week; I just needed to slow myself down and understand that if ironman is important to me this year (it is), then I should give it the time it deserves. The specifics of the training protocol would come later, but first I just needed to get out the door regularly.

So, we've had to reset our expectations. Now, many things get done consistently, but I need to set aside chunks of time to get bigger projects done; I can't just plug away at them gradually every day like previously thought. I'm sure that's partly due to the inconsistent nature of class schedules, but it's mostly due to inefficiencies in how I go about my days when I'm not in school. Not having a standard workday can sure throw things out of whack, especially if you have a propensity for laziness.

Spring Break

I appreciate it's been a while since I've written anything here (six weeks?!? Yeesh...) -- sorry about that. I've got a few things swirling around in my head that I'll catch everyone up on, especially now that it's spring break (wooo!! spring break!) and I've got some time to sort out the stuff I've been neglecting or deliberately putting off.

The first time I was in university, I never really had a true "Spring Break" experience. Instead, I traveled to Tennessee or Georgia for team training. Now that I'm reliving my college days, I thought I'd try for that genuine party atmosphere. Neither Hannah nor the cat appreciated being soaked with the hose, and the cat especially hated having to put on the t-shirt, so we scrapped my original plans and decided on a whirlwind travel weekend -- Fredricksburg on Friday night for some good beer, San Antonio on Saturday because I'd never been there, and Austin on Sunday to catch part of SXSW.

Apparently, I'll be having the same time of spring break that I did 10 years ago -- only this time it's triathlon training and my free time will be spent on yard work instead of hazing the freshmen rowers.

Mad genius

UPDATED: I just realized I left out an important ingredient for the Apple Walnut bar recipe. On the off chance that you rushed to the kitchen to make these and they ended up tasting gross or at best incredibly boring, it's because of this oversight. Sorry about that. I amended the recipe below.

I've come a long way since my initial foray into making my own energy bars. I think I've got a good handle on the process. Full disclosure: Hannah rarely eats any of them now, but I think that's a learned response from a couple not-so-good batches early on.

While I started by using recipes from Brendan Brazier's Thrive, I've deviated far enough that I feel fine sharing my current iterations on my blog. I've gone the Lara Bar route and have really pared down the ingredients. That makes for a smaller margin of error and -- I think -- a better taste.

Also inspired by Lara Bar, I just made a coffee-based bar, which is probably the single greatest-tasting thing I've ever created. I'll explain how I made that batch as well as one of my easy standards.

What you'll need:
- Food processor
- Flat surface (you can probably use your floor if it's clean enough... or a cutting board, whatever)
- Rolling pin
- Plastic wrap
- Knife
- Common sense

Apple Walnut
- 1 cup dates (You can use fresh dates, but I've found dried dates work better. Use the highest quality dates you can find. Buy them from the produce aisle, not the ones from the middle of the store.)
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1 small apple, cored and peeled (I usually start with half the apple and depending on how dry everything is, add additional chunks of the apple as needed)
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I don't think this is essential, but since I'm still working my way through the package, I continue to use it.)
- 1 tbsp hemp protein (Like the flaxseed, this probably isn't essential, but it was expensive and I have half a container left, so I continue to use it. I don't recommend whey protein though; I've had bad experiences experimenting with that.)
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon

1) Add everything to the food processor and let it do its thing. Process longer for a smoother bar or shorter for more chunky.
2) Dump it all out on a cutting board (or your clean floor).
3) Form it into a flat brick, about an inch thick. This is where the rolling pin and plastic wrap come in. I don't even use the rolling pin anymore; I just cover the mass with plastic wrap and form it by hand. When you're done, you should have a long, flat sheet, about an inch thick and about three inches wide.
4) Cut it into bars. Everything may be moist and sticky. If really moist (that is, gooey), I'll put the bars on a baking sheet or wire rack and add them to the oven set really low (between 170 and 200 degrees). Then I let them dehydrate. I imagine a dehydrator would work just as well.
5) When everything's all done, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer so they'll firm up even more and so they'll keep longer. You can probably leave them in a cupboard or in the fridge, but remember that cut fruit and room temperature don't go so well together for very long.

And now, the best thing ever:
Dark Chocolate Mocha
I think "mocha" actually means the combination of chocolate and coffee, so that name is probably redundantly redundant. How about Mocha Hazelnut?

And now, the best thing ever:
Dark Chocolate Mocha
Mocha Hazelnut
- 1 cup dates
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup (or less, I eyeball it) almonds
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (Definitely not necessary, but I had it out on the counter.)
- 1 tsp ground coffee (Use good stuff, not Folgers. I used the "San Angelo Blend" from Eggemeyers that we've had in our fridge for a few months.)
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup soft dark chocolate (I don't know the technical term for this. Basically, since I had no wet ingredients except for the dates, I slowly heated dark chocolate chips until they began to melt. I also tossed in some remaining raw carob chips I had in the cupboard.)

Follow all the steps from the Apple Walnut recipe, except start by processing the dates and all the dry ingredients, then gradually add the soft chocolate so it mixes evenly. Once mixed together, you can form it into bars as noted above.

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So there you go. There are a couple other recipes I've played around with, the most successful of which is Ginger Pear. I'll write about another day when I get it closer in quality to the two from this post. I also recently gave one of Brendan Brazier's energy gel recipes a go. I'll share that debacle another day. I can't think of a more appropriate word to define "gel" than "chewy."

Swim Game #2 and Back to School (three weeks ago, but whatever)

The Endurance Corner crew is running another swim game. It's a little different than last time and I won't be swimming every day for the next two weeks, so there won't be regular boring updates with my daily workouts. Instead, there will be periodic boring updates. I'll get to the last two days down below.

More importantly, I guess it's worth writing about the fact that I took a major turn in my life recently: I left my good job at a good company to go back to school to become a nurse. There are a lot of reasons, but the shortest is that I didn't want to spend more time sitting behind a desk doing something I was very good at, but didn't find particularly enjoyable. The work was challenging and the people were great, but that's not enough for fulfillment. Assuming all goes according to plan, I'll have my BSN in a couple years.

I almost wore this shirt to my first day of classes: It wasn't deliberate; it was just at the top of the drawer. I had a pause and realized that might be too obvious.

And I'm not the oldest in all my classes -- just the ones Texas requires that Pennsylvania doesn't.

People keep asking me if it's weird trying to remember how I used to study. I'm lucky in that I have completely forgotten what I used to do. I was a horrible studier, so it's better to start off fresh. That means I actually take notes and read the textbook now.

On to the swimming:
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This time I won't be going camp crazy trying to chase down the most volume. That's mainly because I'm just laying the swim game over what I (should be) doing in training right now if there was no camp. Not trying for the "win" because I'm working on my run/bike at the same time is also incredibly convenient since I'm nowhere near the swim fitness I had in November. If I'm not in the top bunch, I have my excuse all prepared: "Well, you see, I wasn't really trying" (just ignore the fact that had I been "trying," the results would be the same).

So what did I do in the pool yesterday and today?

Monday - 5500m as:
- 1000m mixed WU
- 2000m time trial (splits at each 400m: 6:18. 6:15, 6:20, 6:11, 5:55).
With the masters group:
- 400 easy
- 6x50 kick
- 2x (4x50, 2x75, 1x100)
- 6x (2x50, 2x25)
cool down

Today - 3300m:
- 250 WU (including 1x25m no breathing for bonus)
- 3000m straight (alternate 100IM, 150 free)
- 50 easy

My week as a layabout

My week of no real responsibilities (thank you Hannah) was really good. Sustainable in the long run? Of course not. But a week was definitely nice.

As I mentioned last time, I started off with a trail race in Bandera, Texas. To say it was hard and hilly is putting it mildly. But it was also a blast. I never really went ballistic and walked most of the inclines, so I was surprised with my overall placing (48th of 230+). I rolled in around 2:50 for the 25km race.

The guy I traveled with did go in with an agenda. Last year, he injured himself during the 50k so he was looking for a little vindication. And he sure got it. Not only did he finish, but he won his age group (50-59) and set the masters course record. His pace for the 50k was also faster than mine for the 25k. He's a speedy guy.

This past Monday, I loaded up the car and drove down to Big Bend National Park for the week. I got some rides and runs in, plus a whole bunch of walking. Mostly, I was moving easily or steadily when I wasn't laying down to sleep. A big part of that was because of the cold (22 degrees the first night -- up to 35 by the last night). Continuous motion is a good way to keep warm.

I forgot my camera off and on throughout the trip, but here's some of what I did get.

My nice campsite:

Here's a riveting video I shot at the bottom of the Window trail.

I learned later that my depth perception is off. When I said it looks like "100 feet or so to the bottom," I should have said a couple hundred.

Mexico. Only a few small steps across the river to freedom... from most of the freedoms I enjoy. I opted not to take a picture of the dude crossing from the other side. He walked back though.
View on the way up from the Rio Grande.
Me looking sort of rugged (the helmet helps that look):
The views in Big Bend are amazing. But sometimes it gets a little lonely:


If I remember right from the Ken Burns National Parks documentary, this guy did a lot of good and then ended up being a big jerk. We're not related (although I can be a jerk, I haven't done the "lot of good" yet).
View up the road to the Basin. I stayed on the other side of those mountains.
This fox was very patient with me, until I lifted my camera. Then I got fox butt.
The view on my last morning. It started snowing on my way out.

So, good trip. Next up: school starts on Wednesday.

Changes

This is a big week for me. Today is my last day as a paid communications professional. Tomorrow is my first day as a full-time, unpaid, unskilled, unremarkable athlete. I'll only hold that position for a week before my official title becomes "student" again. Note, that too will be an unpaid position (thank you savings and gainfully-employed wife).

I'm kicking off my week of athletic glory with a trail race in Bandera, Texas, about an hour north of San Antonio (two hours south of San Angelo). Over the last three weeks, I've prepared diligently for this race by running five times, three of which were in the last five days. It's a good thing I'm mildly fit and that I'm only doing the 25km option -- if need be, I can walk a good chunk of the 15 miles. Had I signed up for the 50km (as my friend encouraged me to), I suspect I'd be in trouble.

On Monday, partly to stay out of Hannah's way, but mostly to take advantage of my free time, I'll be heading to Big Bend National Park for a few days of cycling, running, hiking and sightseeing. While I am fit enough to run/hike 15 miles on Saturday, I'm not fit enough to fill my days with epic amounts of training, so I'm planning on a lot of sightseeing. Depending on how well I can handle camping in the cold, I'll stay for most of the week. I expect to come home with a clear head, ready to give up my highly lucrative athletic career and jump into school.

Checklist

I have an issue with New Year's resolutions. Why wait until an arbitrary date to change your habits? Start tomorrow. Or right now. If it's worth resolving, resolve to start doing it immediately.

While I'm climbing down from my soapbox, I'll acknowledge that some resolutions are fine to start at a later date, particularly the ones I'm about to go into, which all happen to align nicely with the new year. It's convenient (but not at all hypocritical) how that works out for me.

These aren't all the things I'm planning, but they are what I'll share for now.

1) One of my favorite Zen truisms is, "When you wash the dishes, wash the dishes." It means live in the moment and stay focused on the task at hand. In this specific case, for me, it's literal: I'm going to wash the dishes each night instead of letting them pile up. I'm also going to do a good job of it. Simple things can make a big difference.
2) I'm going to get stronger. That means consistency in the gym.
3) I'm going to do fun stuff.
4) I'm not going to care about Ironman. If it happens, it happens. I'll be prepared either way. Fitness is useful, and not just for running around in lycra.

I've already started on two of them, so I guess I can keep one foot up on the soapbox.

Cheating

I think I've been pretty lucky in my life in that the few opportunities I had to really cheat, I didn't realize I had the opportunity until the moment had passed. Or the cheating scheme seemed so blatantly obvious that I figured there's no way I (or anyone else) could get away with it. Of course, in the latter situations, the cheaters ultimately almost never got caught -- leading me to stop placing much value in my professors' observation skills.

To summarize:
1) I'm a little slow -- if you have a great scheme, why not just come out and explain it to me in detail.
2) If your scheme is so great, why did you have to explain it to me in such detail? There's no way that would work; it's too complicated.

Needless to say, I rarely get approached anymore with a "foolproof" plan for getting a better grade, earning "free" money, etc. My annoying qualities keep me in high moral standing.

One of my friends on the other hand seems to be presented with shady offers all the time. Most often lately, this happens with work colleagues, sometimes even at work. Apparently there's a whole slew of people that actually run side businesses (some not quite legal) while "working" at their primary job during business hours.

I'm sure this happens at my company too, but my perceived inability to comprehend shady dealings has insulated me pretty well. Incompetence is also my negotiating strategy: ask Hannah how many times I've bought jewelry at lower prices just by saying, "Hmmmm..." and pausing for a minute after being told the price. Either the jeweler thinks, "This guy's a really good haggler," or, more likely, "I feel sorry for how dumb this guy is; all I did was tell him a number and he's trying to figure out what it means... I'll sell it to him for less."

I believe in karma. Eventually, cheating is going to come back around. You might have the nicer car or the race trophy, but eventually you're going to wind up losing: either your job, your money or your friends.

Recipe for an Awkward Evening

Mix in a small space:

- 45 people from a Marketing and Communications department for a life insurance company, mostly women over 40
- 12 comedians "performing" for over two-and-a-half hours, with talent ranging from awful to middling to genuinely funny (some recipes call for only six comedians and a show half as long, but only use that amount if you want a pleasant evening)

Add:
- Large quantities of classless humor (sex, rape, reproductive organs, racist comments, playing up stereotypes, etc.)
- As much profanity as possible
- "New material" night
- One guy who thought jokes about the annoying qualities of "It's a Small World" were original
- A healthy dose of Tiger Woods

Once combined, let simmer while sitting at a table with your manager and your manager's manager.

When cooked, you'll have my department's holiday party last night.

Swim Camp day 12 and day finished + snow!

On Friday, San Angelo was hit with a blizzard the likes of which I've never seen (in San Angelo).

You'll notice the artistic juxtaposition of my wetsuit (which I had left out to dry after my lake swim a few days ago) against the stark harshness of a west Texas winter.


I think we had a total of at least a couple millimeters.

Friday's swim:
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WU: 1000 easy

1000 pull with paddles/band/buoy

20x100 on 1:40 (arrive 1:28-1:30)

50 easy
---
Total: 4050m

Saturday's swim:
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WU: 1000 easy

1000 as 75 free / 25 back

I did the following straight through:
- 20x200 (First 10 on 3:20, arrive around 3:08 / Second 10 on 3:15, arrive on 3:03 for first 7, 3:00 for last 3)
- 3x400 descend on 6:10 (5:56, 5:53, 5:43)

300 easy CD
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7500m total

Total for the two weeks: 62.4k
(That's over 38 miles for anyone that doesn't want to do the conversion. Yay for me.)

Swim Camp day 11

I thought I might be able to go for a monster session tonight, but got started a little later and had to wrap up early to coach the masters group. I've hit my target of 50k, but with only two swims left I'm barely on track for 60k. I'll probably need to throw down something huge on Saturday.

For a while I strongly considered swimming in the lake again on Sunday morning before my flight, but they just issued a winter storm warning (which I assume means we might get a flurry here in west Texas). All the same, there's not enough neoprene out there for me to swim in open water when the air temp is in the 30s. Getting caught up in the fun and challenge of the virtual camp is one thing. Getting hypothermia...

Today's workout:
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WU: 800 free / 400 back / 2x200 free

54321 swim:
5x100 easy, 500 steady
4x100 easy, 400 steady
3x100 easy, 300 steady
2x100 easy, 200 steady
1x100 easy, 100 steady

8x50 as odds easy, evens mod hard

50 easy
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Total: 5050m

Swim Camp day 10

1000s day. Also known as the day Nick didn't want to bother with any math to figure out intervals.

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1000m warm up

1000m as 75 free / 25 back

1000m as 10x100 IM continuous

1000m pull with paddles, band and buoy

1000m as 100 kick / 100 swim

250m easy CD to loosen up my shoulders
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Total: 5250m

Swim Camp day 9

The novelty has worn off.

Of course, I'm talking about the novelty of blogging my swims. I'm sure the novelty of reading them wore off days ago. I'm still having a fine time swimming though.

Today:
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WU: 750 swim / 500 pull / 500 kick / 250 swim

750 swim as 25 fly / 50 free

250 easy

5x200 on 3:15

200 easy

1000 as 75 free / 25 back

50 easy CD
---
Total: 5250m

Swim Camp day 8

Today's swim:
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WU: 700 swim / 500 pull

2000m TT - 30:07.78 (1st 1k in 15:19, 2nd 1k in 14:48)

100 easy

400 pull / 350 swim easy
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Total: 4050m

Not much to say here. I was really pleased with the time trial. I was concerned I might have gone out too hard, but when I came through the first half at a faster pace than my individual 1000s from the other day, I knew I'd be able to lean on it more in the last 500m.

Swim Camp day 7

Yesterday I ran in a new pair of trail runners -- the New Balance MT100 (yes, another pair of shoes). They're essentially racing flats for the trail, although some of NB's sponsored athletes use them for ultramarathons. Whatever works for them I guess.

I will not be using them for ultras (of course, I won't be using any shoes for ultras since I have no interest in running that far, but that's besides the point). While they worked great for the three or so miles I ran on the trail, I took a beating running 2.5 miles on the road when I met up with Hannah for the run back to the car. My arches feel like someone went at them with a switch. Good shoes for short, quick trail runs. Bad shoes for pavement.

More swimming:
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WU: 500 swim

4000 continuous -- 1:05:32 total -- I attempted to descend by 1000m (1k - 16:51, 2k - 16:43, 3k - 16:11, 4k - 15:45)

100 easy

400 kick / 400 pull / 100 CD
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Total: 5500m
Weekly total: 31.1k

Swim Camp day 6

We interrupt this regularly boring swim camp update to tell you about something cool we did last night.

Hannah and I had heard about a local brewery outside of San Angelo, but we'd had no luck finding it and no one we spoke with had any idea what we were talking about. On Thursday, I finally stumbled across something online, but it wasn't much to go on. All we learned is that there's a brewery/restaurant in the renovated space of an old schoolhouse in Eola, about 20 minutes east of San Angelo. We decided to give it a try for Friday dinner.

It was a little tough to find in the dark; small town Texas is like that. Eventually, we found the place and went inside. This wasn't like any upscale Colorado brewery, but was, without a doubt, the coolest thing we've seen in a while.

In the early 2000s, Mark, the owner, bought the old, abandoned schoolhouse (built in the early part of the 1900s I think). The school had closed in 1982 and had fallen into serious disrepair -- broken glass, missing roof sections, floor covered in mud and dirt, and fire damage.

Over the next few years, Mark basically renovated the building himself. He's still got plenty of work to do, but he's come a long way. A big chunk of the building is now the brewery. He's turned two rooms into dining rooms -- one with a bar and the other for private functions. The seating is old-style classroom chairs and tables. The menu is written on the blackboard. He also set up a bunkhouse for visiting hunters.

It's also worth sharing that this guy doesn't have any formal training in carpentry, roofing, pluming, etc. It's very impressive.

Oh, and the beer was good. I get the impression he usually has two kinds on tap, plus others in gallon jugs for purchase.

We'll be going back next weekend for a beer tasting. Should be fun. I'm also (not so secretly as of this post) hoping to get the running club to do a race out there. Prizes could be things like pint glasses. There's a lot of flat, lightly-traveled farm roads out that way. Could be really cool and encourage some folks to get out of San Angelo.

And here's the swim from today:
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WU: 750 free / 300 kick / 500 pull / 250 free

10x200 (4 on 3:20, 3 on 3:15, 2 on 3:10, 1 on 3:05)

100 easy

5x100 IM on 1:50

300 easy
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Total: 4700m

Swim Camp day 5

My shoulders are starting to feel it, but so far, everything is holding up okay. I've also been hungrier lately, which is a good thing, since we have so much turkey left over.

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WU: 500 swim / 300 kick / 500 pull

2x1000m (second 1000 faster than the first): 1- 16:26, 2- 15:27

100 easy (or 200, I can't remember)

4x100 on 1:15 (odd = backstroke, even = freestyle)

200 CD
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Total: 4000m

Swim Camp day 4

I'm thankful the university pool was open today. I don't think I could have handled another swim in the lake.

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WU: 500 free / 100 kick / 500 pull / 200 kick / 200 free

5x400 (each one faster than the one before) all on 6:30: arrive - 6:22, 6:19, 6:16, 6:06, 6:01

200 easy

10x100 (evens = free, odd = IM) on 1:55

100 easy
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Total: 4800m

Swim Camp day 3: Fail

Today, due to holiday hours at the pool and the fact that I still had regular working hours, my only option was to swim at the lake.

Despite dressing like a lame superhero from head to toe (wetsuit, neoprene cap, socks and gloves), I was only able to get in 3500m before I started loosing some motor function.

Everything was going okay once I could stand to put my face in the water. I was ticking off 350m loops every five minutes. Pretty suddenly though, about 2900m in, I started shivering in my legs, so I tried picking up the effort to keep warm. That only lasted for another few minutes. The next split I took had me swimming about 30 seconds slower, which is not common for me. A minute later my whole body was shaking and I was having trouble getting my arms around. I called it a day at that point. Hours later, after a long, hot shower, plenty of food and beer: I'm still cold.

It might not help that I was also racing the sunset. Here in Texas, the minute the sun drops, the temperature plummets. My highly scientific personal measuring system put the water temperature at 33 degrees Fahrenheit... or maybe in the 50s somewhere, the system is kind of glitchy.

Anyway, no 4000 meters for today. Fallback goal is 50k over the two weeks. I'm just shy of 12k now.

Today's workout:
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3500m continuous in the marginally above freezing lake. I saw a frozen snake. Or a reed. One of the two.