So says Andrew MacNaugton, a name unlikely to be familiar with triathletes and followers of the sport in the modern day.
With a professional palmares impressive in both quality and quantity, the Canadian was recently guest on Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns’ latest health and fitness venture, The Primal Endurance Podcast. Andrew and Brad go back a long way, starting out on the pro triathlon circuit way back in the mid-eighties. Both are in extremely good health to this day and, in MacNaughton’s case, still competitive in the realm of endurance sport.
The podcast is a great listen, especially for old-time triathletes, but the take-home message applies to athletes of all ability levels and eras, that is: trusting one’s mood, instinct and gut feel and focus on loving the activity.
Now in his fifties, MacNaughton philosophy is markedly similar to that of when he was competing professionally, indulging in a lot of what he terms “enjoyment” as opposed to training. Most of his physical activity consists of low-level aerobic activity, “smelling the roses” as he puts it. Sometimes he’ll put the proverbial hammer down on a favourite climb, but only if mood and energy levels align. Most of the time is spent cruising around, taking in the scenery and reveling in his love of cycling and running.
Ah, that connection: mind versus body, body versus mind or whatever you want to call it. Interlinked with that little voice called intuition, it is surprising how many of us go against our own biorhythms for reasons only known to ourselves. More often than not we overreach as a result, but sometimes we sell ourselves short of going for it or, as MacNaughton says, seeing what we can do.
Recently, I competed in a short distance road running event. Whilst my actual finishing time was rather average by my own standards, I was really satisfied with my effort. While a short, intense race on a weekend morning would normally mean engaging in generally lazier activities for the rest of the day, I found myself out running again only a few hours later. This time on a beach and sans shoes, I jogged along the shoreline with a friend, indulging in the pristine winter sunshine and taking in the sights of excessive seaweed congestion after a recent storm and just shooting the breeze in general.
This “effort” was a little longer than the race duration and less than half the speed. What the hell would my fellow competitors think or say if they saw me now I thought. Then again, who cares I countered; life is there for living and I’m not sure if some endurance athletes have figured that out. Surfers are good examples of soul athletes who “do it for the love” in pursuit of the perfect wave.
Then again, is there a perfect wave?
As MacNaughton concludes that many athletes are slave to the regimen, race-tapering included. If you hate taking days off, don’t take days off, he muses.
“Be curious. See what you can do”
