Monday, December 18, 2006
THE LAST WEEK!!!!!
Sorry for the blogging issues the past week - Blogger changed the settings and all postings became Anonymous unless you were a Google member. I think it is fixed now - but I'm not 100%.
13 WEEKS!
I had a pile of notes I have been keeping for this blog - but now that we are days from 2007, I'm not sure how much is relevant.
I realized yesterday I have no resolutions for the New Year. There is nothing I want that I don't already have and I don't feel a crying need to improve very much.
Wally and Kevin are going to think I've gone soft in the head. But the obvious stuff is gone - I don't need to quit smoking or drinking, lose weight or get fit. I have a very loving wife and family, solid friends and some damn fine riding buddies. It's not that I think I'm perfect - I'm just a very lucky and pretty content.
I'd like to ride more, take whole days in the summer and maybe that will be possible. Kevin will have to stop travelling so much to make that happen though because he is a key part of our ride team and he always seems to be away or catching up with family when he gets back. So I hope he has a few more weekends this summer available to him.
Wally's going to be building a house this year and that will keep him busy too. I hope he has a good contractor so he can get away with the same frequency as before.
I hope I get a chance to spend time with others on this blog. It is possible. We tried the experiment with Frank and Cathy this summer and it is possible to see good friends more than once a year. It just takes a little planning.
So Merry Christmas team and I hope all of you have a great New Year.
Russ
13 WEEKS!
I had a pile of notes I have been keeping for this blog - but now that we are days from 2007, I'm not sure how much is relevant.
I realized yesterday I have no resolutions for the New Year. There is nothing I want that I don't already have and I don't feel a crying need to improve very much.
Wally and Kevin are going to think I've gone soft in the head. But the obvious stuff is gone - I don't need to quit smoking or drinking, lose weight or get fit. I have a very loving wife and family, solid friends and some damn fine riding buddies. It's not that I think I'm perfect - I'm just a very lucky and pretty content.
I'd like to ride more, take whole days in the summer and maybe that will be possible. Kevin will have to stop travelling so much to make that happen though because he is a key part of our ride team and he always seems to be away or catching up with family when he gets back. So I hope he has a few more weekends this summer available to him.
Wally's going to be building a house this year and that will keep him busy too. I hope he has a good contractor so he can get away with the same frequency as before.
I hope I get a chance to spend time with others on this blog. It is possible. We tried the experiment with Frank and Cathy this summer and it is possible to see good friends more than once a year. It just takes a little planning.
So Merry Christmas team and I hope all of you have a great New Year.
Russ
Monday, December 11, 2006
Week 11! Dec 4 - Dec 10/06
The Challenge Challenge!
1) Writing this Blog is a challenge. Cutting and pasting stuff off the Net is easy, but far less satisfying. Some may argue with me but I don't beleive I have enough "opinion volume" to support a weekly blog on my own. How does anyone come up with this stuff on a daily basis? To rant, you essentially need to be unhappy or vitriolic. I am too content.
2) My leadership coach (something the company I work for is paying for) says I am too competitive. And I wrote a test that backs that up. Who would have thought there was such a thing as being 'too competitive'? Apparently competitiveness doesn't drive excellence, only frustration and public displays like the kind seen routinely on YouTube. So I am chilling. Since challenges are all about competition (of some sort) then I need to find a new way to promote my own activity. Maybe I will just be at one with the universe. Forget about trying to beat a time or a distance. Is that possible?
3) I would research that idea about competitiveness in Part 2 but that would mean more cutting and pasting. I'm going with it for now. Being less competitive is more relaxing and far less demanding I've noticed.
4) OK. I took a break after part 3. I felt I needed a rest. In the 10 minutes I dozed, nothing new came to me on this subject. The problem remains. In order to get up off the couch and climb on the treadmill for 45 minutes I need an incentive. I've actually tried ju-jubes. I put a handful on the little treadmill shelf and reward myself with one every 4 laps. Don't attempt this at home - especially when you are gasping for breath. A ju-jube is just the right size to block the human windpipe.
5) I've noticed no one at the Wellness Centre uses this technique but that could be because ju-jubes were invented in the 50's and most of the members were way into their middle age by that decade.
5) So if I can't use competitiveness to encourage my own participation then I'm stumped. I need your ideas. Email me at rsmith@noncompetitiveworld.ca !
Russ
1) Writing this Blog is a challenge. Cutting and pasting stuff off the Net is easy, but far less satisfying. Some may argue with me but I don't beleive I have enough "opinion volume" to support a weekly blog on my own. How does anyone come up with this stuff on a daily basis? To rant, you essentially need to be unhappy or vitriolic. I am too content.
2) My leadership coach (something the company I work for is paying for) says I am too competitive. And I wrote a test that backs that up. Who would have thought there was such a thing as being 'too competitive'? Apparently competitiveness doesn't drive excellence, only frustration and public displays like the kind seen routinely on YouTube. So I am chilling. Since challenges are all about competition (of some sort) then I need to find a new way to promote my own activity. Maybe I will just be at one with the universe. Forget about trying to beat a time or a distance. Is that possible?
3) I would research that idea about competitiveness in Part 2 but that would mean more cutting and pasting. I'm going with it for now. Being less competitive is more relaxing and far less demanding I've noticed.
4) OK. I took a break after part 3. I felt I needed a rest. In the 10 minutes I dozed, nothing new came to me on this subject. The problem remains. In order to get up off the couch and climb on the treadmill for 45 minutes I need an incentive. I've actually tried ju-jubes. I put a handful on the little treadmill shelf and reward myself with one every 4 laps. Don't attempt this at home - especially when you are gasping for breath. A ju-jube is just the right size to block the human windpipe.
5) I've noticed no one at the Wellness Centre uses this technique but that could be because ju-jubes were invented in the 50's and most of the members were way into their middle age by that decade.
5) So if I can't use competitiveness to encourage my own participation then I'm stumped. I need your ideas. Email me at rsmith@noncompetitiveworld.ca !
Russ
Friday, December 01, 2006
Week 10! Nov 27 - Dec 3/06
How do you know when you've given 100%?
Did you have a coach in High School asking you to give 110%? Didn't everyone?
World-famous triathlete, Chris Legh, knows what that means. Chris is best known for his painful collapse and near-death experience at the 1997 Ironman Hawaii finish line, and a subsequent Gatorade commercial that aired all around the world. Safe to assume that Chris gave it 100% - with nothing left for breathing, brain function etc. I hate to think what 110% would look like.
I also think this question is related to last weeks blog - is that final 10% you need to dig out of yourself really just 10%? With Wally close on the heels of the 135 Floor Stepper Challenge - how far is he away with his 120? Math tells us another 12.5 % of exertion will do it. But we know that's not how the body and physics in general works. As we move closer to our maximums, we are testing all the links in the chain - transfer of oxygen, muscle effectiveness, energy use both aerobic and non-aerobic - and we face the inverse square rule. We get smaller and smaller returns from increasing effort at the top of the curve. (Just playing with your head, Wally!)
When I started running in 1998, I logged every day in a spreadsheet. After a year I noticed a basic training truth. In the beginning, big improvements were easy but even small increases became more and more difficult as time went by. Eventually I began looking for 1-2% improvements over a month and even those were hard to come by.
On one perfect night, the stars were aligned, I felt great, and I hit my best time for a mile, 7 minutes. Not a big deal for anyone but myself (certainly not for Roger Bannister who was the first person to break the 4 minute mile back in the 1930's), but it was a goal I had set a year before. So I was pretty pleased.
I never got even close to that time again no matter how I tried.
How much of that would be 'heart' or 'spirit' versus pure ability or preparedness? As motivated as you might be, and as pure of heart, you're not going to win the world's fastest 100 Metre without training, coaching, commitment and a ton of natural ability. But if those things are in place, heart will help to get you there. (Are you motivated yet?)
There are hundreds of movies I have seen since a kid which extolled the virtues of 'heart'. If you beleive, you can accomplish miracles. And that's essentially true. Most humans are hampered more by their own perceptions than by real obstacles. But one of the lessons they need to include is that belief has to cover more than just the two hours of the big game. Beleiving in yourself has to happen months and years before the big event and includes all the sweat and tears necessary to prepare one for big challenges.
Congratulations to all of you Super Challenge achievers. You're doing a great job! Vince Lomabardi would be proud.
Did you have a coach in High School asking you to give 110%? Didn't everyone?
World-famous triathlete, Chris Legh, knows what that means. Chris is best known for his painful collapse and near-death experience at the 1997 Ironman Hawaii finish line, and a subsequent Gatorade commercial that aired all around the world. Safe to assume that Chris gave it 100% - with nothing left for breathing, brain function etc. I hate to think what 110% would look like.
I also think this question is related to last weeks blog - is that final 10% you need to dig out of yourself really just 10%? With Wally close on the heels of the 135 Floor Stepper Challenge - how far is he away with his 120? Math tells us another 12.5 % of exertion will do it. But we know that's not how the body and physics in general works. As we move closer to our maximums, we are testing all the links in the chain - transfer of oxygen, muscle effectiveness, energy use both aerobic and non-aerobic - and we face the inverse square rule. We get smaller and smaller returns from increasing effort at the top of the curve. (Just playing with your head, Wally!)
When I started running in 1998, I logged every day in a spreadsheet. After a year I noticed a basic training truth. In the beginning, big improvements were easy but even small increases became more and more difficult as time went by. Eventually I began looking for 1-2% improvements over a month and even those were hard to come by.
On one perfect night, the stars were aligned, I felt great, and I hit my best time for a mile, 7 minutes. Not a big deal for anyone but myself (certainly not for Roger Bannister who was the first person to break the 4 minute mile back in the 1930's), but it was a goal I had set a year before. So I was pretty pleased.
I never got even close to that time again no matter how I tried.
How much of that would be 'heart' or 'spirit' versus pure ability or preparedness? As motivated as you might be, and as pure of heart, you're not going to win the world's fastest 100 Metre without training, coaching, commitment and a ton of natural ability. But if those things are in place, heart will help to get you there. (Are you motivated yet?)
There are hundreds of movies I have seen since a kid which extolled the virtues of 'heart'. If you beleive, you can accomplish miracles. And that's essentially true. Most humans are hampered more by their own perceptions than by real obstacles. But one of the lessons they need to include is that belief has to cover more than just the two hours of the big game. Beleiving in yourself has to happen months and years before the big event and includes all the sweat and tears necessary to prepare one for big challenges.
Congratulations to all of you Super Challenge achievers. You're doing a great job! Vince Lomabardi would be proud.
