My reading of late has been as enjoyable as ever. Reading is something that I consider an essential part of my daily existence; it is definitely something that I would have trouble doing without. Give me a vast supply of reading material – of my subject choice, naturally – and I can be content for a long while.
During my school
days I was blessed with a few great teachers and coaches – plus a few complete
dickheads/bitches, but I digress – who had a knack of imparting their wisdom in
unique way. For instance, my high school geography teacher once told us that,
whilst the standard text books and subject material in the library were
certainly a sufficient source for any geography project, some of the best
sources of information lay in the articles of National Geographic
magazine. Initially dismissing his reasoning as archaic bullshit due to my own
laziness, it turned out that he was right. All I had to do was dig a little
deeper into the archives of National Geographic and I would have more than
sufficient material for an authentic geography project.
I've never
forgotten this and have since applied this approach many times in other fields
of my life, sports included. If one applies this analogy to the world of
endurance sport, there is a plethora of
training/racing/nutritional/lifestyle/miscellaneous information in scribes that
have no semblance of “mainstream”. Yet much of this information remains
overlooked in our modern world of commercialism and conventional wisdom. If one
considers many of the endurance sports magazines adorning the shelves of your
local newsagent, the same re-hashed garbage is recycled over and over in
various guises; the common denominator being peak performance attained in the
shortest time possible. Two-Minute-Noodles as opposed to the slow and simmering
process of a Sunday roast.
All you have to
do is dig a little deeper; there are archives of information out there, often
found in the most unlikely of places.
Scott Jurek's brilliant Eat and Run is an example of a book that, whilst touted
as an autobiography of one the world's greatest ultra runners, is a veritable
encyclopedia of health and fitness interwoven with the author's personal
journey to athletic stardom. In fact, any person with a general interest in
health and fitness would probably enjoy the sheer rawness (no pun intended) of
this vegan athlete's life and times, which are certainly inspiring to say the
least.
It was whilst reading Jurek's memoir that I came across a term that I am still trying to
grasp the true meaning of. Existentialism is described in the Pocket Oxford
Dictionary as being “an anti-intellectual philosophy of life based on the
assumption that reality as existence can only be lived and not be the object of
thought.” He describes the likes of the great Percy Cerutty, Arthur Newton and his best friend Dusty Olson as being “existentialists in shorts”;
basically outsiders go against the flow of normality, doing things that most
people only dream about/would not even consider, blazing a path into the
unknown in manner that only they understand. Random individuals breaking down
barriers without a) consciously setting out to do so, and b) diverting from
their ideals and ethos.
Having only these
athletic examples of existentialism to try and understand the term, I've been
scouring through the internet looking for more information on the subject:
Wikipedia description
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy description
Needless to say
that my quest for the true meaning of existentialism can best be described as
“work in progress.” And all because I read the life story of some crazy ultra
runner who eschews all foods animal. Who would have thought?
Peiper's journey
is indeed an interesting one and highlights the fact that life then was
definitely a lot simpler – and often a lot harder – than that of today's
professionals. But that is not the true lesson that I took from this book.
Rather, it is Peiper's search for optimum health and fitness throughout his
career; his sense of loss upon his retiring from cycling; his deep love the
sport; his maintenance of an extremely high level of fitness to this day; his
travels into Asia post-cycling: all of these subjects and more written in
no-nonsense manner, which I found truly inspiring and thought-provoking all the
same.
Again, another
veritable encyclopedia of information on a range of topics so often
“dumbed-down” into the spreadsheets, flow charts and power files of today. Life
experience versus science: I'll take the former any day.
Many of the top
athletes of today maintain their own websites, often with a section devoted to
their activities in diary form. Whilst many of these “news” sections are rather
bland to say the least, there are some notable exceptions. One such example is
current Hawaii Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs, whom I've touched
upon in a previous blog post. Jacobs explodes the stereotype of a
professional triathlete in just about all aspects of life, training included.
The guy could quite possibly be a modern day athletic existentialist, right up
there with the likes of Cerutty et al.
He has had a period of prolonged layoff
due to injury every year for the past four or five years, which at face value
would be catastrophic for any person earning a living as a sportsman or woman.
Yet Pete views every injury that he has incurred as a positive and a chance to
learn, even going as far to view these setbacks as paramount to his pursuit of
winning triathlons crown jewel that is Kona. Here is a guy who counts
daily naps, massage, physiotherapy, kinesiology as actual training
sessions! Even more amazing is that, while he was working out a more efficient
running gait to counter various muscle imbalances, he spent an extended period
running in a pair self-modified slip slops to determine his optimal foot-strike!
Goofy, some may say, but the guy has the results to back these experiments up.
I guess that part
of a person's education is really learning how to learn. As my primary school
teacher who was later my coach once chirped to me in the middle of long
swimming session: “For goodness sakes Bailey. When we're doing a specific set
like this one, please try to actually do the drill, even if you totally suck at
it. Bi-lateral breathing will enhance your swimming like nothing else. I know
you don't like breathing to your right, but that is the whole point of this
exercise!”
And of course he
was right.
If only I had
actually listened to him.
There is always
more than one way of doing things. The process of athletic improvement should
be as educational as it is physical. Learning from the sages via their own
periods of trial and error can be a truly worthwhile exercise if you open up your mind to it.
Enjoy the
journey.
Some random recommended reading/listening:
When Does Education Stop? By James Michener - link
Jog Hard - link
Dr. Phil Maffetone - link
Chris McCormack's podcasts - link
