IF

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling


I have always liked this one, especially the second to last couplet about the 60 second distance run. At the time of Ifs publication in 1910, the record for the mile run was over well over the four minute mark established by Roger Bannister in 1954, although this is mired, somewhat in controversy. What is NOT controversial is the message behind the Nobel winning words of Mr. Kipling.

Despite opposition, amid hardship, against all odds and in the face of danger, scorn or bias, keep moving towards your most nobel goal.

And if you should get lost, frustrated or sick along that path, start again where you left off. If you can pick yourself off the pavement and get back in the race and if you can sustain this as oppression builds, you will have won a bigger race even than that of Sir Roger.

But that is a pretty big if. And here is the biggest part of that big if: I do not want to look back upon my puny and inconsequential life and ask, "What if?"

So today I am inventing a new training protocol, gleaned from the testing and wisdom of those that have gone before me, including poets and sprinters. Here it is:

Warm up. Start from a fixed position that can be repeated. Go (run) as hard as possible for 60 seconds. Mark that spot (my old pet rock will do nicely). Continue with "normal" training. Repeat once a week. Gauge the movement of pet rock. Most watches these days come with a built in timer so you can pre-set and then just listen for the ring tone to signify completion. Please also note that this very protocol is the basic time trial, with inverse time-distance-speed metrics applied. Nothing really ground breaking here and (not surprisingly) it can be applied to the bike easily using the CompuTrainer.

It is simply one more way to get another high-intensity power session into the routine in an environment that is repeatable, manageable and measurable.

Rocking on with Rudyard and Roger. Pics and results tomorrow.