Anti-Generic; Pro-Diverse
I read a great blog post the other day. The authour is 2012 Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs, who is one of the sports more intuitive and balanced characters.
I read a great blog post the other day. The authour is 2012 Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs, who is one of the sports more intuitive and balanced characters.
After a less than inspiring title defence – he was out of contention for most of the day finishing far back – Jacobs provides an update to his activities since mid-October as he looks towards 2014.
Many athletes who under-perform in Kona tend to DNF before the marathon leg in order to save themselves for a salvage-attempt at other late season Ironman competitions. This is understandable given the need to earn a living as well as to justify spending an entire year preparing for and getting to the Big Island. Yet Jacobs seems to have done the complete opposite of what might be expected of a defending champion's seemingly faltering title defence.
Pete details how he has attended to various sponsor appearances, run the New York marathon with his wife and placed tenth in a triathlon in Thailand on the back of little to no training. More importantly - and perhaps more tellingly – though, he has spent the past two weeks at home immersed in day-long landscaping and carpentry projects, essentially spending his time working outdoors, with only a slight smattering of swim-bike-run workouts. The physical benefits of manual labour aside (there are plenty), Jacobs relates how his mind is now clear after what must have been a catastrophic period of self-doubt and reflection of his Hawaiian performance. He is now ready for the challenge of 2014 and perhaps in no small part due to the following: he has outside interests that, whilst not seemingly beneficial to his chosen sport in a scientific or even logical sense, complement and benefit his professional athletics career that no amount of extra training could.
A few months ago whilst commuting to an up-country mountain bike competition, my fellow travel companions were having a debate regarding sports specificity. A mutual friend had gained an entry into South Africa's premiere MTB stage race and was beginning his preparation in earnest. Much to the frustration of his riding partner was the fact that this guy was maintaining his other sports (running; weightlifting) at the expense of extra mileage in the saddle. Whilst there is most certainly a case for sports specific work – I'm not sure if soccer would benefit someone's swimming prowess, but I digress – many people do get a marked benefit in seemingly unrelated complementary activities, be it other sports, manual labour, chess, dish washing, etc.
With modern day athletic preparation becoming increasingly generic (and detrimentally so), athletes of all levels who exude a certain level independence or unconventionality in their approach are often dismissed as weirdos, loose cannons or just plain "different." But are they really? Or do they know something that the masses do not? Does fence-building make Pete Jacobs a better triathlete? Possibly, but certainly not at face value. Have you ever read a magazine article praising the benefits of manual labour on athletic performance? OK, there is this one, but seriously now. The fact that Pete derives benefit from such a natural and unrelated activity does not necessarily mean that the guys trying to beat him should all just replace their training wheels for a pick and shovel. It is more a case of doing something else that benefits the individual as opposed to creating a new fad.
Some selected and unlikely complementary activities across the endurance sporting spectrum:
- many French professional cyclists go for a short walk after dinner.
- former Olympic middle distance athlete, Craig Virgin, would go dancing on Thursday nights preceding a weekend competition in order to loosen his legs.
- World Masters MTB Champion, Nico Pfitzenmaier, spends much of his off-season stand-up paddling and surfing.
- cyclist Adam Hansen prefers to hike in the Croatian mountains for the period between off-season training camps, spending as much time off his bike as possible.
- Former pro-cyclist and Team Garmin owner, Jonathan Vaughters, would spend his off season (and sometimes in-season) immersed in post-graduate university work and oil painting.
Years ago, former World Surfing
Champion Shaun Tomson was asked
what differences he saw in the top surfers of the current era as
opposed to his contemporaries of the 1970s and 80s. He related how most
surfers of his era approached the sport in their own unique way, in
terms of preparation, mindset and even down to their accommodation
preferences. Tomson went on to distinguish the role that this diversity played in bringing out the best in each competitor, not to
mention the personal growth gleaned from just being different. His
own post-surfing career most certainly has benefitted from his unique
approach to the sport whilst at the top of his game.
This past Saturday started out less than perfectly for me. I had wanted to do a two-hour hilly ride but had to delay starting owing to some mechanical issues. With several other activities planned for later that day, my preffered early start ended up being later than anticipated; but once I was out there life was great.
One of my planned activities was a spot of gardening and general outdoor work, something that I relish and truly love doing. With circumstance dictating starting those activities much later than originally anticipated, I was suddenly taken aback with the sheer enjoyment of walking around barefoot in our garden raking leaves, mowing the lawn, fine-tuning and cleaning my bike, scrubbing the swimming pool and trimming the edges. By the time I was finished it was well after 8pm, with dusk approaching. Aside from the obvious physical benefits (just ask any Paleo-enthusiast), I was truly in a heightened mental state of positivity and euphoria, similar to the phenomenon of "Runner's High". And I truly believe that this sort of preferred activity does add immense benefit to my various athletic conquests and life in general. It just might not be for everyone though.
I really hope Pete Jacobs can rebound from his disappointing 2013. Not many athletes can lay claim to a 2hr40min marathon in Kona, especially on a fraction of the training of many age-groupers and swapping tri-bars for garden forks. He is certainly not afraid to share his thoughts on social media either – perhaps the following Tweet would explain why.
This past Saturday started out less than perfectly for me. I had wanted to do a two-hour hilly ride but had to delay starting owing to some mechanical issues. With several other activities planned for later that day, my preffered early start ended up being later than anticipated; but once I was out there life was great.
One of my planned activities was a spot of gardening and general outdoor work, something that I relish and truly love doing. With circumstance dictating starting those activities much later than originally anticipated, I was suddenly taken aback with the sheer enjoyment of walking around barefoot in our garden raking leaves, mowing the lawn, fine-tuning and cleaning my bike, scrubbing the swimming pool and trimming the edges. By the time I was finished it was well after 8pm, with dusk approaching. Aside from the obvious physical benefits (just ask any Paleo-enthusiast), I was truly in a heightened mental state of positivity and euphoria, similar to the phenomenon of "Runner's High". And I truly believe that this sort of preferred activity does add immense benefit to my various athletic conquests and life in general. It just might not be for everyone though.
I really hope Pete Jacobs can rebound from his disappointing 2013. Not many athletes can lay claim to a 2hr40min marathon in Kona, especially on a fraction of the training of many age-groupers and swapping tri-bars for garden forks. He is certainly not afraid to share his thoughts on social media either – perhaps the following Tweet would explain why.
