Eleven
minutes, dirt tracks and the power of common sense
Having
just returned home from a most enjoyable week working at the 2014 Cape Rouleur,
my inquisitive nature has once again led to more than a few reflections and
observations.
Life
on the road certainly has its advantages, being removed from daily reality
being at the forefront of those. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I get
really excited in anticipation of these
working holidays. Early starts and late nights, meeting new people,
reuniting with old faces, negotiating unexpected challenges, establishing a
good rapport with co-workers: all of these attributes suit my lust for
adventure and love for the “job” that is team or rider support.
On
the flip side, if you are an athlete of any sort and work in this sort of
capacity, maintaining your own fitness - particularly ahead of an important
sporting goal – can seem daunting, if not difficult to accept.
But
it doesn't have to be that way.
On
the contrary, I have found that an extended time out of my daily rhythm (read:
habits), occasionally missing meals, high physical workload together with
greatly curtailed specific training has a marked benefit on my physical and
mental well being. I would even go as far as to say that these attributes are
wholly performance-enhancing, but only if approached in a holistic sense. One
just has to be sensible. And creative.
Let's
face it: endurance athletes (myself included) are a pretty obsessive bunch,
with any deviation from our daily schedule often being met with worry, stress
and even guilt. Part of the problem is the plethora of information and
“coaching” in the modern world. In short, many folks are so caught up in what
everyone else is doing that they can forget what is good for themselves. This may sound selfish, but remember the old
adage of peer pressure in one's teenage years? Or keeping up with the Jones'?
Well it is exactly the same in endurance sports.
Again,
it doesn't have to be that way.
Consider
my “training” on the Wednesday of Cape
Rouleur. With a 4:30am wake up and over twelve hours driving the lead car at
22km/h on the cards, all the while talking on a two-way radio and feeding tired
cyclists, I knew that any form of normal training would be detrimental. Over
the years, I have learnt that forcing workouts to happen during busy periods
does catch up with you later on. Encroaching on sleep patterns for the sake of
achieving weekly mileage totals might make for inspirational stories and sell
books but is simply a one-way ticket to sub-par mental and physical health. Yet
this sort of phenomenon is all too familiar in today's environment of more,
faster and fitter.
Instead
of worrying about a missed day of beloved movement, I resolved that I would jog
from our accommodation to the assembly point, a total duration of around eleven
minutes. I mean, I would have to walk there anyway, and so evolution of the
short commute. Eleven minutes! This amount may sound ridiculous, especially
given my preparing for an ultra-marathon
in one month, but this jog was more meditative than for physical
benefit. This sort of brief workout gets the body moving and the mind centred
ahead of major task, similar to a study break or power nap. BMC Racing Team
Sports Manager, Allan Peiper, alluded to this when describing his own daily
regimen whilst on a Grand Tour. Having attempted to run for an hour early every
morning in his early DS career, he eventually found his daily sweet spot at
around twenty minutes pre-breakfast, which kept
him physically and mentally alert throughout each day.
In
the case of the Cape Rouleur, over twelve hours on the go is actually an
endurance event in itself. My short commuting workout gave my body and mind a
taste of what it is used to, which was enough given the circumstances. In fact,
a former professional triathlete once related how he would treat international
travel to a foreign race in much the same way as tapering for a major event;
rest, hydration and easy workouts would feature strongly in the days leading up
to a Transatlantic flight.
Conversely,
when an extended amount free time does occur in unfamiliar surroundings, an
athlete can use it to his or her advantage, depending on the circumstances of
course. We stayed in a local backpackers, which is a converted high school
hostel. One of the facilities available is a stadium with a dirt athletics
track, virtually a few steps from the hostel's kitchen door. Upon arriving on
Saturday afternoon and with our working tasks only beginning on mid-Sunday
morning, I decided to take full advantage of the neighbouring sporting
facility, engaging in some rare intensity. On the flip side, when an hour of
free time came up on late Tuesday afternoon, my intuition dictated some easy
reading and a short pre-dinner nap as the preferred activities.
Being
able to tap into one's inner voice of reason is perhaps the number one most
underrated training tool that athletes of all levels can call part of their
arsenal. Forget complex gadgetry such as heart-rate monitors and power taps; a
persons mind and intuition is their single greatest asset in terms of
biofeedback.
One
of the returning participants from the 2013
Cape Rouleur was a Johannesburg lass who is preparing for Ironman South
Africa this April. She has improved in leaps and bounds since last year's event
and is now nipping at the heels of many of our elite category females. Having
completed Monday's 120km stage in the front bunch, she opted to go for a six
mile transition run shortly thereafter, excellent preparation for her upcoming
ultra-distance triathlon. Yet on Wednesday's 200km-jaunt around the Overberg,
she was involved in an unfortunate touch of wheels resulting a bruised hip and
not a small amount of roasties. The fact that she decided to drop down a group
and ride out the rest of the stage with a friend indicated a distinct amount of
intuition, not to mention common sense. Again, a good example of adjusting to
the circumstances at hand. Some days we can indeed do more than others.
Waking
up on Saturday morning, I was feeling fairly refreshed after two nights back in
my own bed, yet still slightly fatigued after a long week. Having elected to
not take part in a local running event and with plans to meet friends at a
local coffee shop at 8am, my workout plans evolved to several 200m repeats in a
local park. Running each repeat on a slight downhill nestled under tall pines
and in cool early morning conditions derived a true sense of joy, an emotion
that most certainly would not have manifested itself at the halfway mark of the
running race in question.
I
really do hate racing tired. Let circumstance dictate.
