Triathalon training in the UK. Training Bible.

Friday 8 July 2011

Inspiration & Desperation


Recently, the tragic death of cyclist Rob Jeffries hit the local cycling community hard. And not just locally - Rob was very well known nationally. He had worked for British Cycling and had only left in February this year to pursue a career in Teaching. Rob’s role with BC involved training Officials and volunteers and through this he came into contact with a lot of people. The sentiments on various forums and message boards are very moving; it truly is a sad affair. The 18 year old lad who struck Rob from behind, (it is referred to as “a collision” in the local paper?) was arrested and later released. Emotions are raw, should we blame him? I want to but how can I? Was I a model driver at 18? I can tell you with some shame that I certainly was not. I never knocked any one down but I was lucky. So I cannot blame him. He will have to live with the events of that fateful evening. I hope he is remorseful. I hope he thinks deeply about what happened. I hope one day he rides a bike - he might. I hope he experiences the fun, enjoyment and pain that two wheels can bring. No matter how far into the future this happens then at least some good will have come from this devastation.

Earlier in the race season, I spent the day at the Swashbuckler Triathlon, over in Hampshire. Well it started at 05.15am so it was more like the night shift. Enjoyed myself, some impressive performances and some not so. Good fun though and it did take me back to when I used to jump into rivers at some unearthly hour. I have been to a lot of races lately, I am not a very good spectator so have been taking a few photographs. Now, I am no photographer so I take a lot of pictures and in amongst the rubbish I get a few good shots. I am trying to capture the event, sometimes I think I get it but most often not quite. I put the good ones on my regular blog page – if you’d like to take a look here.

I have decided to have a year off racing. My involvement with the GB Para-Cycling squad means I am away a fair bit so I do not feel I can do myself justice, yes I know, it’s an excuse. I need to keep fit though, I do train hard, always have done, but without the commitment of a race at the weekend it is easy to miss a session. Entering a race always was the best motivation, I thought. So I have ridden a couple of club 10s, but that just seems to highlight the lack of training, reminding me I need to do more. But hold on, I am supposed to be having a year off, so no need to worry…. but what about keeping fit?……I seem to be going round in circles here, so why don’t I just ride the bike - which is kind of the same thing.

At a recent committee meeting of our cycling club we were discussing, why, as a club we seem to be failing? I am sure all clubs, be they, cycling, fishing, triathlon, sowing circles, are struggling. Perhaps the days of the traditional club are over? People lead busy lives and do not seem to be able to commit to club runs, races or marshalling etc. They want to do their own thing. Cycling is on the increase we are told. Participation is growing! I am not sure that is reflected in racing - numbers are down for most local club time trials, the simplest form of racing. I see plenty of people out on bikes so I am sure more people are riding but its not racing that drives them, it seems to be sportifs. They have become very popular, with huge numbers riding more and more events. I am sure some of the people riding these sportifs will have a go at racing. Whenever cyclists ride together competition is not far from the surface. Perhaps modern living provides enough challenges throughout the working week, without the added pressure of racing at the weekends. Riding a sportif on a Sunday with your mates is a great way to relax, no pre-race nerves, no need to suffer if you do not want to, just good fun on the bike, with no results to confirm how good or bad you were. It must be a great way to de-stress, leaving you refreshed and ready to face the coming week.

Take care out there, see you up the road!!

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Learning how to suffer


The Tour de France has just kicked off and we have the opportunity to watch some of the greatest endurance athletes in the world 'duke it out' for the next 3 weeks. When you start to take part in endurance sports one of the things that you learn all too quickly is that the events we challenge ourselves with hurt! They are both mentally and physically draining. This weekend just gone we had TBC athletes at distances from sprint Triathlon to Ironman and all in their own way will have had to learn how to suffer. To put up with often a high level of discomfort in the hope of beating our PB, hitting the podium or gaining a qualification to another race so we can suffer some more.

Pain and our responses to it is a very interesting subject. I have always wondered how some people seem to be able endure what seems like an intolrable amount of discomfort while others pack at the drop of a hat. What are some of the factors that make some people more able to suffer than others?

Some interesting reseach in this area has been developed by the behavioural economist Dan Ariely. I have been following his work at MIT and Duke University for a few years now. You may be wondering what a behavioural economist is doing with pain studies? He researches a wide range of subjects but the study of pain is closer to him than most - he was badly burned as a child and suffered terrible burns to his body - so his work comes with a lot of authority and experience on this particular topic. Take a look at this You Tube video and this might provide some interesting insights into why some people are able to handle more suffering than others.




Dan's research revealed that everyone who had suffered some sort of acute injury developed the ability to adapt to pain and the more severe the injury the more they seemed to be able to endure pain. He made a fascinating distiction from working with chronic pain sufferers, and that was, our ability to endure pain very much depends on how we atribute pain - either positively (i.e. its tough but I can deal with it)or negatively (i.e. its tough and there's no hope of it getting better).

So how does this relate to swim, bike, run? Think about the kind of conversations you have with yourself when the training starts to hurt, are you having positive, self-affirming conversations? Saying to yourself... "this is how I should be feeling right now, its ok, my body is working hard and thats just how it should be", "this is doing me good, its getting me where I want to be in 3 months time" - because these are exactly the kind of positive attributes for pain that helps us learn to endure it. If you have any ambitions to get good at endurance sport learn to love that feeling, because thats the positive feedback that your body is adapting. Keep going comrades!



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