NB: nothing which follows should be construed as metaphysical truth.
Lately I have started working more on
technique in my training. It's something that I have been neglecting
and gotten away with for a long time. Similarly, I used to ignore
training at all! I would just go about my usual day to day
activities and gut it out on race days. Surprisingly it worked okay
and I got away with it for a long time. I ran my first marathon with
zero training. I managed 3rd place in my first 24 hour
mountain bike race with only two mountain bike rides under me...ever.
Attempting to ski Arrowhead though
taught me that I can only expect to get so far on natural talent. I
had to start training on a regular basis. Just putting in the time
has gotten me a long way (literally). I managed to ski and walk
Arrowhead and run the Superior 100, but I have pretty much reached
the limit without changing something in the way I run/bike/ski.
That something I am now changing is
technique. I am starting to study more closely, listen to my body,
and try new things. It is easy to say “keep your hips forward”
and another to find out what that means. To that end I am reading
and trying out some methods from books and taking yoga classes. I
would like to learn from a teacher, especially when it comes to
skiing, but that doesn't seem to be a possibility at present. The
one person nearby whose skill I respect is not willing to teach and
all classes are prohibitively far away.
As it is I think I have made some minor
breakthroughs in running and skiing, mostly involving posture and
lean.
It is tough to back off on the physical
training though and focus on technique. It is hard not to go all out
and believe that soreness is the only indicator of progress, but I
know better. The way I see it there are three aspects to endurance
sports, and maybe life in general: Body, Mind, and Spirit. (Now
don't freak out, spirit isn't something supernatural in this case.
It's just a way of talking about something which we all understand.)
- Body is the physical part. It is muscular strength. It is what is trained by lifting or running (I have no intention of going into the strength vs. conditioning argument here. Suffice to say both are covered by “body”).
- Mind is technique and planning. It is what we think about. It is consciously paying attention to what we are doing and how we are feeling and making changes to it.
- Spirit is willpower and determination. It is not stopping when things get tough. It is our attitude.
Now of course we need all three to do
anything, but we all have our strengths and weaknesses. And we can
compensate for a lack in one by strength in the others. My forte to
begin with was spirit (if I do say so myself). I could keep going
even with terrible pain, blisters, etc.. By incorporating some
training of the body I managed to improve, a lot, but I am not an
incredible physical specimen and likely never will be. I continue to
improve here, but gains are likely to be gradual. My weakest third
is the mind.
I have rarely paid attention to how I
am doing what I am doing. Instead of listening to my body when it
tells me it isn't working I fall back on spirit and ignore the pain.
Nor do I do a good job of planning either in training or in racing.
Not a good long term strategy even if it has gotten me a long way.
Now, hopefully, with some mindful training I will be able to improve
yet again.
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