The Tortoise and the Hare

The battle between strength-based and endurance training for this recovering addict

Well, I returned home from vacation late yesterday afternoon. The trip was wonderful in so many ways, but I was thrilled to get home so I could jump back into my last 5-week block of intense training to prepare for Ironman North Carolina 70.3. To addition, I am coming in off of a shoulder injury and a short bout with overtraining, which added greatly to the excitement. I believe excitement is good. But not the type that I currently have as I sit here typing. You see I need to get back to training to quickly prove to myself I am strong enough to complete this race, not for the sheer joy. Excitement can be a good thing, but if I try to do it too quickly I will end in ruin. Proving to myself I am strong enough is a symptom of instant gratification. I like things to be proved to myself quickly and I have been fairly good at this my entire life. This is not a good thing for long distance triathlon. Let me expound.

Endurance training is a whole new monster for me. I grew up in sport- football, basketball, baseball, track and field, and wrestling practice. I stayed healthy. I am learning that endurance training is a whole new monster. These other sports, as a non-professional require an athlete to train for the season to gain power and hone in on technique to push the limits for a short time. This fit well with my personality because as an addict I like to see effects quick. I live for instant gratification. I like to see results and I like to see them fast. Therefore, short, hard practices for a month before a short hour-long string of games began were an easy thing to wrap my mind around. It was also an easy thing for my body to endure. Long distance triathlon, on the other hand, requires months stacked on months and if you have it, years upon years of training for races that require a full day of intense exertion. 

In baseball, my throw was not hard enough to zing from third base to first base with the speed to make the cut. I hit the gym and worked out my shoulders and forearms. My throw became significantly stronger by mid-season and I made the cut. In football I was not quick enough off the snap to start as a defensive end. My coach worked me harder in wind sprints and encouraged me to work my legs more during gym time. After a month of doing this I was ready to start on the varsity football team. In triathlon my run is quick, but not fast over long periods of time. The problem appears to be the same, but the equation that I have used my entire life does not work.

The equation I have followed flows to the rhythm- if my legs need to strengthen up to perform better then be hard on myself. Work them extra hard. This helps increase the load capacity for performance. If I follow the same equation for long distance I fail. I understand performance; I do not understand long distance. Much of my life has been this way. I understood what love feels like and how to show it strong, but I did not understand commitment. I can do a good job and be a solid worker, but historically I do not hang around one job very long. I can get all excited about a book and read for hours one day but I don’t seem to finish the majority of my books. 

The problem I have noticed is two fold. First, I want my deficiencies to be fixed too quickly- compromising safety and depreciating effectiveness. Second, I am too hard on myself for long-distance. I tell myself something like this, “my run is not fast enough over long distance, which means I need to do half marathons a few times a week and do them faster each time.” I need to work hard to prove to myself I can do it. This worked with my baseball throw. However, This is not going to end up helping me in long distance triathlon. This will end up destroying my physical body and wearing my emotional being down to a thread. For baseball, I could hit the gym a few times a week and work out that muscle. I can’t just work out my marathon muscle in the same way. I have to take it easy, or I will crumble my muscles. I will slip into overtraining again. I will shred my shoulder in the pool. I will end up with another bout of Achilles tendonitis. 

Now for a little bit of science but not too much. Excitement has the same hormones as stress. Excitement is good, but stress is not. Stress, over a long period of time gives people heart attacks. Chronic stress to muscles increases cortisol levels and breaks down the muscles. When the muscles are needed for hours at a time throughout the week, but your stress level is too high then your training becomes unproductive and you become prone to injury.  When I want to push myself to see results I hop on my bike and pedal as fast as I can up the steepest hill that I can. When I make it, I feel better and I have proved strength to myself. This type of training is strength based and has a place in my training repertoire, but must be limited and used very sparingly. The problem is that this is the type of training that instantly shows me that I am strong enough. A long and moderately paced bike ride takes a long time until satisfaction- generally about 4 hours, whereas in strength based training my rides are one hour. If I only do strength based training I will never be able to withstand the long duration of exertion that my body needs for an Ironman- so I have to use a valuable lesson that recovery has taught me- take it easy, man! 

I struggled coming to terms with recovery for a long time. Truth be told I have been in and out of various recovery programs for 15 years. Because I wanted results too quickly and have been too hard on myself I kept relapsing, over and over and over. I had as much discipline remaining in a program as I did in relationships or long distance training. I wanted to see results right when I started. Not only did I want to see results right when I started, but I wanted those results to be perfect. I did not only want to be sober. I wanted the happy smile, the zen, the patience, the calm, the clarity and no drama and I wanted it every day and all day. The problem is that this is impossible. Recovery is a long distance triathlon. It is slow grinding work that does not show results in a month. If I need to work on patience I can’t work out the muscle in rush hour traffic and expect to see results. I will end up with anxiety through the roof and feel hopeless. I have to start slowing everything down. I have to start brushing my teeth with care, drying my hair with less vigor, quit shoveling food into my mouth like I’m a starving refugee. Here I will begin to notice that my teeth get clean, my hair dry and my belly full even if I take things a little slower. When I see these things work out I will begin to see that if I take rush hour slower I still get home. I will then have increased my patience and can use it for a greater number of things and can apply them for the long run ahead. 

I am beginning to notice that stress is only good for me when a tiger is chasing me. If I have stress in this moment then it will save my life. If I have stress all the time then it will end up taking my life. If I train with strength-based stress training all the time it will make me stronger, but it will not benefit longevity. I will close with this question to rattle the brain, feel free to consult google: how many baseball, basketball or football players do you hear about playing until they are 60… how many people over 60 still complete in triathlons and ironman races?

The tortoise does beat the hare. I finally get it.