Namaste and Aloha

(CNN) -- Legendary wrestling figure Captain Lou Albano, perhaps best known for his association with pop singer Cyndi Lauper, died Wednesday, according to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Albano, 76, was "one of the company's most popular and charismatic legends," the company said in a statement.

I posted on Facebook “Regardless of the weather tomorrow morning, I am gonna wear a Hawaiian shirt in honor of Capt. Lou Albano”

Yeah, so I ran 4 miles this morning in a Hawaiian shirt. Cold and windy, but no rain; the extra layer was welcome, believe me.

D: "What time did you get up?"
R: "Early"
D: "Did you run?"
R: "Yep"
D: "In that stupid Hawaiian shirt? For your Facebook friends?"
R: "Yep, but I wore my long sleeve skull shirt underneath"
D: "Why?"
R: "Because it was cold and windy"
D: "I mean why did you do the Captain Lou thing?"
R: "Because I said I would"
D: "You're an idiot"

That goes without saying. I’m also someone who gives himself little challenges like that, to keep the fun in running. Plus, if I promise my friends I'm gonna do something silly like that? I damn well go through with it.

I don’t do marathons; I’m long past chasing PRs [well, v1.0 ones, anyway … I have v2.0 ones I could take down a little bit, given the opportunity]. I get up and do my run. No schedule, no plan, no goal race … essentially, for no reason at all, other than “What else am I gonna do at 5:15AM?”

This tags me as somewhat of a freak on the boards. “If you’re not gonna push yourself to do your best - to put on a bib and compete - why even bother to run at all?”

Some things are more subjective than that, I guess. My morning run sets me up for the rest of the day; and if I do my three or four five miles a little quicker than the day before, that’s great. If not? I’m cool with that, too.

Just getting out there and having fun, is what it is for me.

Of late, eople have taken my laid-back training philosophy to mean that I mock them for their schedules and plans and calendars and gadgets and what not.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. I have a great deal of respect for those who use those in their training; I’m just self-actualized enough to know that I lack the discipline to make them function for me. As for the gadgets [Garmins, HRMs, and so on]? The simple truth is that I can’t afford them and really have no use. Of course, I kinda wish I had a treadmill, so I could prove to D’Wife that I DO have some common sense, and I'm not just a silly little surfer, running around outside in the wind, the cold, and the rain.

Perhaps they felt that my lack of “documentation” and “running just for fun” implied that I considered MYSELF elite; that I imagined myself as some sort of running purist? Not at all, really. I’m just a dry-docked surfer who found a sustainable metaphor to going out at dawn for a few waves to clear my head at the start of the day; no judges, no scores, no awards. Just me, the road [such as it is], the dawn and the woodland creatures; together and alone at the same time.

Sure, I have the itch to race, to compete, to prove myself in a way the others can identify with; but I’ll do it why and where the time is right for me. No pressure. Again, if I should do better than last time, that’s great. If not? I’m cool with that, too.

I’m not gonna let my Zen get rattled over it.