July 12th, 2008
I’ve re-written this post about three times. I hope this one is the last one. A couple of my blog readers have asked me about my objective goals, and a lot of family members or local trainer types have asked me with a puzzled tone of voice what I’m training for. Well, this is an interesting topic for me and a difficult one to put into words, so if you want them the numbers are at the bottom but the real beef follows directly below.
Goals. Everyone has goals. However we choose to word it or decide to avoid this or that question or finally allow ourselves to come to terms with our training, underneath lies our goals. Personally, my goal is officially to train and kick a$$. After years of wanting to be significantly faster than I had been and never understanding how to do it, I’ve found that the best way for me to move forward is to throw the objective goals out the window and just focus on the training. I tried on and off for TEN (ten!) years after my burn out and subsequent ejection from the WSC (Gunnison) running team to achieve something substantial as an athlete, and repeatedly got too stressed out or too injured to get anywhere. Needless to say, that can break a man down and force him to face some truths about his motives.
A couple of years ago local mountain butt kicker Brad Precosky told one of my training buddies that in order to do well in mountain races the training simply had to be part of your lifestyle. That particular statement has had a major impact on the way I look at being an athelete, and loudly rings the bell of truth in my mind. I don’t know if it was the tipping point, but since then I realized that visualizing racing and winning can’t be the only carrot leading you into physical oblivion. However you choose to put it you *need* to be into the process, and you need to *own* the process. It’s yours, it only works for you, and you will spend 95% of your time in it, and 5% of your time racing. Whether he realizes it or not I can thank my dad (who doesn’t ski or run) for that truth.
Last October’s training experience in Norway cemented that concept of for me. Here was this group of over-40’s out there doing bounding intervals in the rain, $h1t talking and and trying to kick each others’ butts on a Sunday double pole just for the heck of it. They met regularly, liked going hard, and anyone could join in. They weren’t burnt out ex-whatever’s, and they weren’t trying to break any records or place in this or that race - they just wanted to break each other, and they were *fast*.
Above: UAA nordic head coach Trond Flagstad winning Mount Marathon last week, Alaska's most prestigious Foot-race. Trond is a great example of someone with a solid outlook on athletic lifestyle.
As I’m writing this I’m sitting in my living room and I can’t believe how tired I am. I just finished up the most intense couple of weeks of the highest quality running and roller skiing training I’ve ever had, and I knew exactly why I was doing every part, how my body would react, and loved every minute of it. Believe it - this is a big deal for a B-team high school skier that’s never had any instructional coaching. Tuesday was 2 hours of running tempo at Kincaid, Thursday was 6 x 5 minutes classic up Potter Hill, Friday was 6 x 1 minute hiking Mount Marathon. The following Tuesday was a 3 hour skate with blow-out sweat-vaporizing rage-face pickups, Thursday was 2 of 3 hours hard tempo on the crux of the Crow Pass race course, today was a perfectly executed second-place finish at Knoya Peak. Feeling tired almost everywhere on my body I know that I have successfully “thrown my body in the sink,” and have never been this worked.
Crow Pass Race venue. *This* is the point.
What does that kind of stuff mean? Solid training is an amazing accomplishment, and it feels really, really good. I’ve never trained like this before, and as a consequence I’ve never raced like this before. It’s great to place in this race or beat that guy or max these pull-ups to help you stay focused, but at the end of the day if what you want to do is possess a lifestyle that will make you become the essence of what you are trying to accomplish, then learn to love to train, and *become* every one of the small steps along the way. You will race more consistently, enjoy more of your life, and you will absolutely see the path to reach your potential.
If you really want to know, here’s some numbers:
- Top 3 Crow Pass Crossing
- Top 3 Lost Lake Trail Run
- Win my leg, or sub-6 minute 1/2 marathon miles at the Klondike Road Relay
- Top 3 or 5 in Sven Johanson, Pia’s Classic, or Tour of Anchorage
- Ski at Senior Nationals
- If not this year, then next year, or the year after, or the year after, or the year after….
Tags: goals, motivation, punishment, redemption, the will to live., Training, truth
July 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Good points. When I quit skiing on an official team my goal became to make the guys next to me work hard, whether I was first of last. What do you know, my results improved. I recall Bill Spencer (a few decades ago) saying something to the effect of “racing justifies a lifestyle with lots of training”. Bottom line. Good luck at Crow Pass! If nothing else you are having fun being fit!
July 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
The statement “racing justifies a lifestyle of training” has merit. But often the merit of this thought process can be obfuscated by obsession. In particular, the obsession in winning. When I once lived in Alaska I knew all of the folks mentioned here – Flagstadt, Spencer and Precoski. All of these guys are great guys. Yet all at one time, either now or in the past, they have all been obsessed by winning to the point you have to ask if such obsession was a benefit to them in the long run. By putting life on hold to train, race and to feed their ego for many years, did they get ahead in life? Do the kids they are raising now have a father with a balanced view on life? Are they as well off financially and emotionally as they could be? Do they really know much about life after living decades as a cloistered athlete?
The happiest people in life are the ones that have found balance in their lives. Yet many people seem to struggle for decades to discover what balance is in the first place. Patrick – time will tell if you are truly happy and have balance now. Or whether you are going through an obsessive self-discovery-struggle phase. Time will tell.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Will, thanks for the comment. You made one valid point that I failed to include myself (although I was already pretty tired of editing!). I’m really glad that these comment boxes are here because while I couldn’t have fit that idea into the main article it’s nice to get it out down here!
I guess it is a good idea to remember that a lifestyle fits the person, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to try to figure out what they were made for. Times and people change, and maybe next year something else will come along, or maybe you’ll still dig the athlete thing, but it’s how you are spending your time that matters most. Ironically, my training buddy Tor (the one who passed on Brad’s quote) manages to maintain a much more sustainable training lifestyle than I do at present. The main idea, and an important one for the younger people reading this, is that you do what you are doing because you just want to do it, not because you care about the money or popularity or internal gratitude it may afford you. Same thing goes for all art forms I suppose.
Personally I see a time when training in it’s present form will pass on, and I’ll be excited to get back into my programming work and music again. Self discovery? Yes. It all started a couple of years ago, and part of that discovery for me is generally learning how to stay focused in order to allow myself to develop more meaningful relationships with people and various art forms, and this particular life period has been pretty good for that. In the mean time, everyone wants to have a work that they’ve done and to feel like what they devoted themselves to meant something. For a lot of people that don’t otherwise have access to it, achievement in sport does a good job of providing that kind of satisfaction. Afterwards time does it’s job in the form of wisdom and hopefully you get the opportunity to pass it on to the next round of crazy people in the form of comments under the blog box. In that context, it’s game on baby!
Thanks for reading.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
First of all, great blog Patrick! Heard about it a while ago from Gary Snyder, checked it out recently, and as of late it has provided some motivation and thoughts about my own training goals. (Great sense of humor too).
You talk about admiring the fast 40+ year-olds Norwegians who “weren’t out to break any records or place in this or that race”, yet half of your racing goals are “place oriented”. I guess it works for you in terms of motivation, but be careful. I used to make similar goals and would get bummed out even after having a great race because I was too focused on others who were faster than me. Your finishing place can be more dependent on how many bad-a$$ runners showed up (and could afford the entry fee) than how well you trained. I have found this concept hard to explain to family members and coworkers who have unreasonable expectations and ask, “Not even in the top 10!? What the hell happened?!!”. Having said all that, I now predict you probably will place in the top 3 in both Crow Pass and Lost Lake, right?
Train smart and keep enjoying a healthy lifestyle!
July 15th, 2008 at 1:24 am
After reading Wills comments I need to respond, and I question how well he knows me because what you are saying sounds more like a generalization of a type of person that I certainly am not.
One thing is for sure, physical activity, training and racing is a life, style and a great life style if you know how to enjoy it. I was done with my athletic carrier when in 1999 when I was 29 years old before I met my wife and had a kid. Even than I wasn’t obsessed by winning how can you be when you are a skier in Norway - if you won a lot you would be as rich and popular as Brett Favre. To say that I am putting my life on hold to train can’t be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact I hardly have time to train, raising a kid, being a husband, working a fulltime job and building a house at the same time.
Most people I know in Alaska and most of my friends are the same way. We are all training balanced to stay in shape and be as fit as we can with what time we have and enjoy racing each other on the weekends. Training smart becomes the key Yes, some of us have been athletes at a high level and have a training base that with some training (mostly muscle and brain memory) can yield some good results every no and then.
I ran Boston Marathon this year in 2.56 running an average of 15miles per week. Yeah maybe I could run a 2:30 if I put my life on hold but I am not willing to do that. My mountain running training probably averages no more than 8 hours a week. It’s hardly more than what the doctor recommends for a healthy life style. When you are older and have some good experience it comes down to what you do in those 8 hours and I’ll tell you that everyone of those 8 hours are pure quality sessions - that all it takes for me -try it and you’ll be surprised!
To me and my wife, an active lifestyle with physical activity, training and some racing is just a way of living and gives us great balance in life. Balance from stress at work, computers, thech gadgets, bills you name it. What do you want to do after a long day at work? Sit in front of the TV or go for a hike with your kids or a run with your friends.
We live in a great community with lot’s of great people that like to hike, bike, run, ski, BS, drink beer, have bonfires and talk smack about training but actually never do it, all this with kids and dogs running around, What a great way to grow up, it was for me and I hope my kids will enjoy it to.
PS, I know for a fact that Frodo wasn’t obsessed by training and winning still he kicked ass - and kicked real hard!!
Pro a balanced and healthy life style!
Train smarter than the next guy
July 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Could not have said it better, Trond.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Well hello to you too Will - as it turns out, I just can’t seem to place you in my memory. And I’m fairly sure from your comments that you have no clue who I am. I find it interesting, that while there’s a strong show of intelligence by your management of large words into directly succinct sentences, I am left with the impression that you’re not a very mindful person. You made some incredibly gross generalizations about people you don’t know based on assumptions that I can only imagine come from inside you. Have you ever run with any of us? Have you ever had coffee with us and talked about running? Have you ever called any of us and asked why we run? Have you ever heard me say, as you suggested, that the most important thing in my life was to win.
Look Will, I go to run in the mountains for the same reason I go to the faucet to drink water. To live. It’s inside me buddy - for half of my life now. The competition aspect of it is what saved my soul. When I started running in the mountains 20 years ago, I was a heavy drinking, cigarette & pot smoking, rowdy partying commercial fisherman. When you’re 20 years old, you have an outlook on your life of who you might be, and at that time I saw myself as a fisherman. Not that that’s a bad life, but as it turns out it wasn’t enough. Being in the mountains has kept me from getting into trouble, it’s given me direction, and it’s put me in a place where I feel comfortable. I’ve met my closest friends in the mountains. Most importantly, it gave me hope during a very impressionable period of my life.
Is running and competing obsessive? Maybe. But it’s all about perspective. The number of times I mentioned “mountains” in the above and ensuing paragraghs could be considered obsessive for that matter. But that’s how I feel about the mountains. I raised 2 dogs while going into the mountains, one died at 14 and the other is 15 now. If you could ask them, I’m sure they’d say I didn’t take them into the mountains often enough. How obsessive is it when Habuk drags my dirty running clothes over to me signaling that it’s time to go for a run? —”We just went for a run ‘buk” It’s a lifestyle Will. It’s being compelled to go to the mountains, and loving being there - not forcing yourself.
Balance is all about your own personal life - how you structure it around the things you want to do versus the things you have to do. Honestly, I can’t think of a time when running got in the way of anything I needed to do - it’s quite the opposite generally. I intend to show my son the mountains, and as far as he wants to be up in them, I’ll enjoy that time with him up there.
As far as training time during the week, I spend loads more with my son Braun than running. In fact it’s uncalculable how much more time. Before Braun came into existence, I spent more time chasing women than I did running. (secret training method) On average I spend 45mins-1hour going into the mountains or running about 5 days a week. Figure that out boys - less than 5 hours per week. It’s not the time so much as it is the value put on that time while there. It’s about making the most out of that time. And never do I feel more in the moment as when in the mountains.
Sorry if I sound a little bit pointed in your direction Will, but I take it personally when someone insinuates things about me that aren’t based in any kind of reality. The points you made are valid, they just don’t apply to me. Maybe to you. Next time, please gather your information first.
See you on the mountain….
July 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Yep, valid points, poor choice of characters to use as examples. Terrible choice.
I can think of some names in the mt running community that you might consider to have an unhealthy obsession. But Trond, Brad and Bill could write a book on the subject healthy competitiveness (see Trond and Brad’s prolouges above). And if you really know Bill, you know that the most amazing thing about him is his lack of ego and obsessiveness, despite all of his competitive successes.
These are three guys who hammered hard when they were young but were able to find balance as their lifes got susier. Now they are all raising kids who will grow up to be passionate about whatever they choose to do, compete for the right reasons if they choose to do so,and understand that competition is one small part of the fiber of life. And one day I suspect they will be proud as hell of their dads’ accomplishments.
Not that they need anyone advocating for them, but there you go……
July 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I know that it is hard for some to understand training as a lifestyle but for those of us that understand, understand it very clearly it is not about winning or loosing a race or obsesing about being the biggest or the best, it is exactly what it is, a lifestyle. A lifestyle of finding balance within yourself, physical activity, pushing yourself because you know you can go harder, staying fit and it is about the realationships you have formed with those that share the same pasion as you. Everytime i have participated in one of the many local races in Anchorage i really strive to do better for myself, push myself to the end then enjoy why i am really there, which is to share in the experience that everyone in the race came to share. Everyone cheers everyone on during and after the race and when you have reached the end you are certain to find a friend with a nice cold beer to cheer with again. I love the social aspect of training and I love the friends I have to train with. We all motivate eachother and love what we do. It is all a balance and something we just do! Its a lifestyle!
July 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Great job today at Crow pass Pat really good time. Looks like you hit your top 3 goal. See you at Klondike.
Chad
July 21st, 2008 at 1:15 am
Nice job in the Crow Pass race! OIA !
November 24th, 2008 at 2:30 am
[...] L4-L5 day might come into play. This summer I pushed the envelope to see where my limits where, and it took a lot of faith to do that. Maybe pushing it quite hard again but backed off a click or two will be a good idea this time [...]