Running is like stimulant, but swimming could be like depressant?

I feel like that. Because when I went running after work, I had hard time going to sleep feeling so awake like having many cups of coffee, but when i went swimming in the evening, I could be relaxed and sleep better. My heart rate won't drop to normal for several hours when i go running, but when i go swimming, it drops to normal much quicker than after running. 

Both exercises for me usually last about 40 mins. Maybe it's something to do with difference in impacts that your body takes. Running is extremely high impact on your body where swimming is very low impact on it.

Maybe something to do with cooling system you are using for each of exercise. For running your body is air-cooled during exercise which isn't most effective especially during muggy summer evening. During swimming your body is water-cooled efficiently and it cannot be overheated. Often time, by the time i'm done swimming, I feel rather cold with sneezing. 

Even if intensity of both running and swimming might be similar, but the recovery of your body and heart rate could be significantly different because of these reasons, I wonder.

Across the Ocean

This was the news this morning. 

Group of 6 young folks challenged swimming across the ocean from Yonaguni Island in Okinawa to the North Eastern Shore of Taiwan to show their appreciation to the people of Taiwan who had made donation of 18 billion yen (235 million US dollars) to the people of Eastern Japan who suffered from the earthquake 6 months ago. 6 young men reportedly departed from the island of Okinawa on September 17. Each member taking their turns every 30 minutes safely arrived to the shore of Taiwan on September 19, swimming total of 110km (68-mile)!

When these young folks approached close to the shore, 170 people of Taiwan who were waiting them to be arrived jumped into the ocean and swam back to the shore with 6 swimmers who came across the ocean despite of choppy surface affected by the Typhoon No 15 which was passing through the Pacific side of Japan, then hugged each other to celebrate the moment, as the news reported. 

The help and the thoughts came across the ocean when the tragedy occurred, then 6 young men swam across the ocean to say thank you personally. This is the friendship across the ocean!

Memorial

As we know, today is 10th Anniversary of September 11 attacks to the twin towers of World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Coincidentally the day also marks 6 months (a half year) since the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 taking nearly 20,000 lives in the region, leaving 6,800 people still living in the shelters away from their home.


In 2001 when September 11 attacks happened, I was in Minneapolis going to school, and the semester had just begun. That morning, a call from my friend woke me up telling me something terrible happened and told me to turn on the TV. TV news was reporting the attack to one of the twin towers with smoke rising from the middle of the tower. Moments later, I saw the second airplane diving into the second tower. Watching it live on TV, at first, I wasn't really sure what I just saw was the replay of the attack which was just told by the reporter or another attack just happened in front of millions of people's eyes.Then buildings collapsed. It was hard to believe what I just saw happened and the magnitude of the incident, because it was surreal to witness something like that. The school was closed that day. 


10 years later, I came to work in the morning as normal day on March 11 2011, and my coworkers were telling me about the news of the earthquake in Japan asking about my friends and families. Usually news about earthquakes didn't surprise me, because it  was normal in Japan, and I thought my coworker who wasn't really familiar with earthquake being worried too much. I went online and saw the videos of tsunami wiping out the towns like they are miniature models. At first, I couldn't comprehend what I just saw. It was too surreal to believe it was real at first. I couldn't really believe what just happened, just as I couldn't believe the attack ten years ago. Until I hear the news talking about the possible numbers of death tolls and the tsunami damages to the nuclear reactors, I did not doubt it was going to be just fine as usual. But it was like worst case scenario written by a science fiction writer, the news seems to became worth as days goes by. I kept the news streaming on my desktop at work and at home hoping to hear some miracle that somehow avoid what we thought would be worst case. It was cruel to watch the incidents from outside and I wish I was in Japan at the time going through this with others. But I decided to believe that to do the best on whatever I was doing here somehow went around the glove back to my home country there. 


I went to New York City last weekend and I had a chance to look over the ground zero memorial site of September 11 attack, which supposed to have grand opening today. In the early morning, I came back to the hotel from a walk and went to the 20th floor terrace of the hotel which was located right next to the site, and I was seeing two large square depressions which are going to be waterfall features where two towers used to stand. 

These holes are exactly where the two towers used to stand and collapsed taking 3,000 lives 10 years ago. There are countless stories around the world about this incident and the memorial is to remember what had happened to the country and what it means to all generations around the world. Watching this memorial site, I couldn't stop thinking about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It significantly changed everyone's perspective about our lives and nature, and we needed to change how we lived in the new world we entered. It must be remembered as long as the future exists. How we remember the lost lives and the countless stories about the people who fought and helped and what we can get out of this painful lessons is key to our future prosperity.