Directions. They are given. They are advertised. They are utilitarian. Sometimes they even come with a warning. The Ten Commandments of Training. The Ten Commandments of weight loss.This post might be all of the above. I was reminded (again) yesterday that I can be (often) less than perfect. Way less. Without empathy, tact, sensitivity or diplomacy, even. Gosh, me?
Yes, you. And all because I feel very strongly on a subject near and dear to my heart? No.
Then what?
Because the manner in which you choose to demonstrate your understanding of the subject introduces additional irritation. In short, you have a tendency to shoot the messenger. And we are running out of volunteers. Not all roads lead to here.
Ah. My turn?
I have some core values, things that I believe in so strongly that I will fight to keep them. Freedom is one. Fairness is another. Balance a third. Truth hitting cleanup. So I plead guilty to yesterday's ruffling of feathers when one of these is (seemingly) questioned. It was simply MY TRUTH in defense. In no way did I attempt to call it universal. You are free to do as you wish.
And what we do is not for everybody. Matter of fact, it's only for very few. But we believe firmly in what what we do and why. This tiny group is united in common cause and we want the best for ourselves (and our best selves) so hopefully the same will result for others that might choose to join, experiment or imitate. We accept challenge. Gratefully.
The requirements are surprisingly simple: Show up, work hard, eat good, rest and recover, repeat. There are myriad details and directions within the directions. Managing stress, finding stasis, support, dedication. There are many lefts to take before the next right. It will challenge your sense of limit and expand your definition of pain. It is a monstrous task. You might fail. You can quit any time. You can create a volume of excuses and perfect their usage. You can deny. You can pretend. You can hide.
You can.
I won't. EVER. I have just made that public.
And as such, I also make public my apology for a knee-jerk reaction to an opinion that runs on a slight tangent to my approach. I am sure when the messenger is released from the ER he will recover. I will do better in the future. Better in filtering media. Better in responding, offering counterpoint. Better than I was this morning at Michelle's wonderful and contentment building 0530 Yoga. (I come seeking balance).
Better than all of that. Directions. Which way? Which Road. What Tao. Easy? Not today, thanks.
Pix: Balance between bamboo. Go left here and await further directions young man (Chilly Hilly turn at Battle Point Dr.).
8 comments:
This has been a fascinating exposition of heart.
I suspect the initial post was related to heart rate and how comparing the before and after over time can lead to clues about effort and intensity going forward.
I had no clue that there would also be such a heart felt response to pursuing excellence, and I similarly had no clue that the opportunity to use heart rate as an excuse was even a possibility.
It's just that with so many contemporary metrics of performance such as wattage or power to weight ratio or average speed, it's easy to overlook a simple but reliable measurement: heart rate. The trick is to document it over time and evaluate any trends that may be evident.
In the pursuit of faster and stronger performance, an athlete's coach or trainer can look to heart rate as an important indicator of the effectiveness of a training program in parallel with the numbers garnered from the stop watch.
that makes sense. I saw a Quaker Oats commercial this morning with a spin class setting and one of the spinners was shown checking his heart rate. pan to the bowl of cereal.
I immediately went to the supermarket and filled my pantry with this great Quaker Oats cereal. I'm thinking about taking up spinning tomorrow.
I have no problem whatsoever in using heart rate as a tool. The issue I took to the initial post was to the term and subsequent danger of using "overtraining syndrome", as an excuse. In order to be 'over' trained one must first be trained. There are enough distractions and limiters already without adding more to them. Somebody does a 5K and takes three days off to recover because they don't want to get "overtraining syndrome", you want to ride today? "Naw, I've got overtraining syndrome from last weeks spin class". It is a myth. There is no such thing, especially at our level. We want to encourage MORE work, not less, and instilling a fear "syndrome" is borderline criminal.
I am all for smart training, rest, recovery, performance based training. This is not that. This is propaganda. It is evil. You have to earn getting to the point where you can be affected from training. We are nowhere near that. I don't need anybody telling me that if I work out too much I will get sick. I already know that. If I get sick despite this knowledge, is it a syndrome? No, I took on a virus. When I recover I will get back to work. Guys ride 100 miles a day, hard. Runners run 80 miles a week, fast, college kids do 5,000 daily meters in the pool twice a day, triathletes do 25 hours a week. Us? Nowhere near. Overtraining? I wish I was.
The biggest syndrome we have in America is lazyness syndrome and anything that puts a limiter or fear on our exercise is bad. That is my take. Nothing personal. I wish 66% of Americans were overtrained instead of obese.
PS, my other peeve is that 'moderation in all things' crap.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I think this is important, thanks for the debate. It's not the heart it's the message.
eat a lot of cereal then.
Seems as how I am lifting a slogan from another (highly successful) campaign, I will add another here in reference the the cereal thing, it was a pure stroke of genius to brand dried, wheat flakes as 'The Breakfast of Champions."
It if were only that easy.
Thats what I'm eating now. Wheaties and protein powder = champion. Its the new Balco of sports; placebo power and legal.
http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US/free
Post a Comment