Training
Quote
Oct 18th
Not sure where this came from but, “There will be a day when you can no longer do this. TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!” Similar to Carpe Diem!
Simon Lessing Quote on Training
Oct 4th
“Now lot of athletes feel they can bide their time and hide behind gadgets like power taps and heart rate monitors and fundamentally lose the notion pure hard work gets you to the finish line. I see it all the time. Athletes look for the easy way out. They buy expensive equipment aero helmets training gadgets – power taps, and constantly hold themselves back. They have notion that it is easier to do it that way. But the bottom line is this is a hard sport. You have to swim, bike and run and the combination makes for a physically grueling, tough sport. There is nothing like hard work.” –Simon Lessing
While I think this holds true, the gadgets can help if you use them properly, but I do read race reports all of the time from people trying to hold back and lower their HR and their Watts, I go full out and races and I have always figured if I blow up, I messed up in training, not in racing.
2009 Races and Goals…HELP!!!
Sep 26th
I am racing a 50mile Ultramarthon in April (10-12th) 2009, I would like to do Nutmegman 1/2 (September 20th, 2009). I am torn if I want to race IMKY or do Mooseman (1/2) in June and Beach to Battleship (1/2) in November 2009.
So choices are
1) Ultra, IMKY, maybe Nutmegman
2) Ultra, Mooseman, Nutmegman, and maybe B2B
3) ?
The conundrum is this, I honestly am not sure if I can get in enough long rides to truly be ready for IMKY. The distance really does not intimidate meet, as much as my lack of long bike rides. I also enjoy ocean swims, and like my wetsuit (DeSoto), so in that respect IMKY is a bit of a turnoff.
Advice?
What is In the Journey?
Sep 12th
If Katie Holmes can run a marathon, Why can’t anyone? I got to talking with a friend about racing and we both came to the conclusion that if you are not at a minimum sore and tired at the end of a race, you didnt race or compete. All you did was go out and merely go through the motions. People have different motivations for entering a race, in the end whatever the reason is, the fact still remains that it is a RACE, not a funny happy take your time event. Have you ever watched someone truly compete?
So what if you ran a marathon or completed a triathlon. Now what? Are you all done? Back to your regularly scheduled programming? If you did one that’s great. Did you truly race it? or did you merely complete it? Do not get me wrong the level one person races at can be vastly different from another person, but to go out there and merely finish? So what. Almost anyone can go out there and do a 5 or 6 hour marathon, how are you now a better person?
What did you learn about yourself? For those that go out there to truly race, you learn nothing. You are out there, you are in pain with a single focus. Finishing. You may know that you will not win, but you still want to place at least one position better than the person next to you.
Those who enjoy racing, enjoy pain. Maybe it is how they prove to themselves that they are worthy, better, more fit, or alive. Maybe they have a desire to push their bodies to the absolute limit, it could be they truly enjoy the pain and use racing as a form of destruction.
How is training different? While most people understand that there are days when you go out easier, those days are simply there to allow yourself to go harder the next. Working out / training should not be easy.
When you see a bodybuilder or powerlifter in the gym and they are squatting 675lbs, and it looks easy, it is not. Like endurance athletes they train to exhaustion, breaking everything down to rebuild bigger, and stronger.
Racing and training to race, I truly believe is different than simply being happy while active. I love being active, and enjoy most outdoor activities.
So go out there, race, enjoy the pain.