At the risk of oversimplifying things, I think you can pretty much divide endurance athletes into 2 groups: competitors and casual athletes. The former group is focused primarily on attaining PRs, podiums, trying out the latest and greatest training strategies and equipment, and always striving to go longer and/or faster. Suffering is an acceptable part of the equation. The latter group seems more interested in the more, shall we say, "organic" reasons for partaking in endurance sports. Having fun, socializing, being healthy, and just generally enjoying their endurance sport of choice, casual athletes always seem so comfortable in their own skin. I admire that.
I can confirm that I most definitely consider myself to be of a competitive mindset. Racing is my passion and I enjoy training hard as much as just about anyone. After a while, however, training and racing with laser focus and high intensity (while making lots of sacrifices along the way) has a way of getting me to a point where I feel flat, checked-out, and looking for a boost of motivation. While there are various ways to regroup, here's a quick story about a recent personal experience that drove home a very important lesson.
With this season's big A-priority races behind me, I wanted to do something I haven't tried in a long time...running for the pure fun of it. So I signed up for a local road race and decided to run it with friends. Moreover, I left the heart rate monitor at home, checked my ego at the door, forgot about target splits, lined up at the starting line with zero expectations, goofed off with my friends throughout the race, and low and behold I ended up having a blast! Imagine that. The casual athletes are really onto something!
So for my fellow competitors out there wondering how to recharge during these next few weeks, try slowing down. It's a great way to dig your way out of what, at this point, may be a persistent state of fatigue, perhaps even bordering on overtraining syndrome. Don't worry, you can ramp up again at a later date and return to full steam ahead. Just remember that the body and mind perform best when stressed in cycles. Besides, wellness is what we should all be after and fitness is only one spoke of the wellness wheel.
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Cindy H.
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... Well, there's the third category, IMO: the casual athlete who wants to compete. Compete being relative: for me, I want to compete in my age group, or within my own capabilities of endurance & speed. This means 1) very improbable that I will win anything and 2) I'm not running for fun. So while the elite athletes have the ability to have "fun" and kick back off their performance, those of us who want to push ourselves have a harder time doing just that. :-) For me, learning how to endure the pain of racing hard (I'm a late bloomer) is not that easy. I'm working on it, but my story is an almost complete flip of your article. Cool that you were able to experience the casualness of it all. I have a lot of admiration for the 'back of the pack' because they are doing this completely for themselves without care of where they are in the standings. |
