I have been competing for 10 years in triathlons thanks to terrific friends and also a coach who encouraged, pushed and trained me to reach beyond myself doubt. She taught me to listen not only to her, but to my inner voice.
With technology, we have become slaves to the Garmin, the heart rate monitor, the power meters, the Ipods, the Ipad apps, the statistics and even the televisions on gym fitness equipment. Stats have become a game for adults, OCD minded folks and the analyst in all of us.
I have been in races where my brakes failed, my gearing snapped, my goggles got lost, I deuced in my shorts and even have had to get IVs for dehydration. But nothing is more frightening than losing a computer.
What did athletes do before this technology? Coaches had stop watches, you did your intervals, you would breathe hard, puke and then repeat...some how you did get faster and stronger. You also learned the premise of perceived exertion and recovery.
I recently spoke with a group of talented triathletes and runners about "training with a purpose". Yes, there are days when yacking it up with your friends on a run is a blast, but this is about your inner voice and the connection to your body.
A training plan is a map to follow to get to the finish line. Each day it shows duration, activity, intensity and possibly distance. But it doesn't tell you the purpose. That comes from within. Breathing, leg turnover, timing of nutrition, lengthening your swim stroke, working on your kick, staying in the aerobars, - the possibilities are endless.
But I want to redirect to the technology mentioned above...when is the last time you went without it? Do you have an inner voice that pushes you before the alarm beeps? Do you know your rate of perceived exertion? Can you maintain speed on the bike without the RPM/Odometer gauge?
There are many intentions when we go out for our daily dose of addiction, but I challenge you to disconnect for one day so you can truly learn about your body and that inner voice.
2 comments:
What are goals in one's life? Some people may say cleaning the house, going home projects, working on the car, just doing nothing or doing something that was put off for sometime. But at the end of the day, how do you feel in completing the goal or goals that were set to be done?
As for us (runners, swimmers, or triathlete), we can say these things above can wait to be completed on another day to ensure we are not taking away from our training or personal goals to stay healthy, fit, overcoming personal situations, maybe overcoming some type of personal limitations or the medical folks saying you can't do them because of these limitations. We know people's willpower can overcome any limitations if you set your mind to doing these challenges. I know I been there and probably many of us of dealt with as well.. We know all of us have limitations that need to be worked on continuously to become stronger and better with these goals that we have set in order to see the finish line at the end for saying another personal victory done. What's next?
As we know these finish lines are really a stepping stone to the next finish line or next challenge. Trust me I know since I'm always looking for another challenge to obtain the shining medal token(s) given at the finish line and the right to say I did it.. Meanwhile, we cannot forget about the love ones, friends, and family that allow us to put in the additional hours for training to completed these challenges in order to see the finish line we have been working so hard to complete.
As athletes, we have sacrificed many hours of family time to get these personal victories done; we have put on one's self to boost one's confidence level for overcoming some type of limitations in one's self... You have to ask yourself was it worth it. If you say yes, congratulation you have completed another finish line within yourself which will be projected to the others around you. This will be seen by the ones that supported you during these training times and will be noticed that it was not wasted time in their eyes.
As for technology, I would agree sometime unplugging from our devices is a good thing to hear the nature music not the ipod or ishuttle music play to pass the time for these training session as many of us have done in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love my garmin watch that tracks my running, swimming, and cylcing times/distance for see my personal times to see where I need to improve my skills on and my ishuttle during these long times of training.
Sorry for lengthy posting but I'm very passion about that this since I have spend many days soul searching while out of the country doing my daily duty for the military on why I'm always training in and out of the gym after work. I would like to say Thank you allowing me to post this.. Maybe this will allow you to understand why we are who we are as athletes and why we do it...
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