CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT OF ATHLETICISM

Once every four years, our global pace of life softens and slows as folks the world over pause in awe to witness the Olympics.  Athletic or not, everyone is moved by the grace, speed and precision of human kinetics.

The Summer Games include events as diverse as table tennis, modern pentathlon (which includes shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian and running), decathlon (including 4 running events, 3 jumping events and 3 throwing events), gymnastics (with another long list of events that individual athletes master), rowing, synchronized diving, and of course triathlon – just to name a few.

The thread of continuity that empowers this incredible array of Olympic human talents is our kinetic intelligence.  Every four years, we suspend (or at least soften) the intense engagement of logical intelligence to ensure monetary sustenance and survival.  For two weeks, our lives are synchronized to a different time clock, several time zones away.  Vicariously, we become super humans, able to hurtle our bodies, tumbling and twisting through space, lightly landing on two feet, arms extending like wings overhead, eyes sparkling and energy dazzling.  We witness modern wizardry at its finest.

The diverse Summer Games include many elements of our human kinetic intelligence – acceleration, speed, grace, synchronicity, precision in alignment, balance and orientation, endurance, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, strength, power and the proprioception that makes so many of these elements possible and appear so effortless.

Never have I seen a more fitting appreciation, a more masterful demonstration of our kinetic intelligence than the Beijing Opening Ceremonies.  2008 drummers in absolute synch, 2008 T’ai Chi practitioners flowing in perfect symmetry, the dancing calligraphers, the human-animated mosaic, the planetary runners (running upright, horizontally and inverted, and the torch lighting.  It is China, the oldest existing culture on the planet, that most values and prizes human kinetic intelligence, our fundamental form of wizardry.

For millennia, Chinese have cultivated and articulated “chi”, our universal life energy.  Ironically, thousands of years later, the popular acceptance of modern science still cannot measure or detect chi.  (I suppose this is a blessing – it hasn’t been shaped into a bullet, locked into a chamber and projected at high speed toward “the enemy”.)   Through its comprehensive mastery of chi, China not only produces athletes like Guo Jingjing (Women’s Springboard Diving Champion), but continues to refine ancient medical arts like acupuncture and qi gong – medical arts that are finally gaining international credence.
 

Athletic Excellence: Perception and Attitude 

As a multi-sport geek, I am fascinated with how training and racing enhances the quality of our lives.  It’s almost like magic.  Sure, it’s obvious that as we patiently and consistently improve our physical fitness, we enjoy strength, good health, and an improved energetic state.  But, seasoned veterans will tell you they enjoy enhanced qualities in their lives that seem to have no connection to swimming, biking or running. 

Some of these more “remote” areas include improved emotional composition, more harmonious relationships, and mental acuity that extends to just about anything we place our focus on.  There is one key element of multi-sport training and racing that really seems to be the root of this under current of well-being.

The primary goal for most of us when we begin training and racing is to experience athletic growth and improvement.  There are two basic components in our training that actualize this progress.  First, we structure and design workouts that will improve our fitness by focusing on endurance, strength and speed.  When we sequence these workouts effectively, and combine them with the right amounts of recovery and adaptation, we get faster, stronger and longer. 

As “newbies”, the first area of improvement is usually in the area of endurance.  To increase our endurance capacity, we must improve the body’s metabolic system.  In this process, the body actually goes through a physiological metamorphosis.  Endurance training increases the capillary density of the circulation system.  Think of this process as a plumbing improvement, or a supply distribution improvement.  As you “grow” more capillaries in your muscles, your blood can deliver oxygen and fuel, and remove carbon dioxide and waste, more effectively. 

As you patiently build your aerobic base, you also create more mitochondria in your muscle cells.  These mitochondria are the cell’s processors that turn the oxygen and fuel delivered by your improved plumbing system into energy, and hence into forward motion.  In simplest terms, this metabolic morphing process enables us to conserve the body’s glycogen stores and to burn fat as the primary fuel source at higher and higher levels of intensity. 

Experiencing this body-morphing process is an incredible revelation.  Each of us discovers that the body is not an object that we must lug around with us as it rusts and wears out.  We discover that it is actually a constantly evolving energetic entity. 

After years and decades, this morphing process plateaus and metabolic improvements are subtle at best:  The capillaries and mitochondria can only reach a certain density, and then the development process is virtually complete.  After that, it’s just a matter of maintenance.  However, we can continue to enjoy improved athletic performance and enhanced quality of life long after we reach that morphing plateau. 

At this level our focus in the pursuit of athletic excellence shifts.  As we maintain aerobic capacity, our focus narrows to strength and speed.  How can we enjoy the greatest gains with the least training?  How can we make the most effective use of our time and energy as we endeavor to improve both strength and speed?  First, we must shift our perceptions and attitude about training.  We must realize and acknowledge that increased strength and speed don’t occur by simply working the muscles harder.  As I’ve written several times, when we train the bodies three primary physiological systems – muscular, metabolic and neurologic – the muscles respond and improve the least to training.  Our greatest gains in strength and speed come from training the neuro system. 

In strength training, we improve the neuro system’s ability to recruit and orchestrate more muscle fibers to execute a specific movement.  Therefore if we design a strength program that is sport- and movement-specific, we can enjoy increased endurance and speed. 

The same is true for speed training.  Certainly there are metabolic and muscular gains to be had through speed work.  However, the greatest speed gains will come as you learn to execute faster movements more efficiently.  This happens as you improve your technique.  The bottom line:  Once you have reached the metabolic plateau, your greatest gains will come through a relentless pursuit of perfect technique. 

We now come back to identify the component of training and racing that reaches out to enhance all areas of our lives:  We cannot improve our technique if we can’t perceive what it is that is inefficient, if we can’t perceive what it is that doesn’t work.  The first perceptive step towards recognizing our “disfunctions” is a shift in our attitude:  “Am I willing to acknowledge that there are indeed areas where I can improve?  Can I accept that I am not perfect?”  We must be willing to open our minds, to let go of our pride, to be humble, patient and curious.  We must be willing to experience naivety and confusion.  We must be willing to say, “Huh, I don’t know, I am uncertain.” 

Ah, the joys of uncertainty!  Once you can break the link between uncertainty and fear, once you can embrace uncertainty as opportunity and not as a death sentence, then you can really begin to learn and grow.  At that instant, your perceptive capacity sharpens like a razor.  Think of it as shifting your awareness into hyper-drive. 

When you jump off that cliff of self-composure into the abyss of uncertainty, you engage your perceptive capacities like never before.  These heightened perceptive capacities act as your wings, allowing you to fly. 

When we really hunger as athletes to get faster, stronger and longer, we are willing to jump off that cliff of self-composure.  We psych our selves into that state of hyper-awareness.  This is when we realize our greatest improvements in technique.  We discover more efficiency, economy, grace and speed than ever before.  This is what we live for.  It is our moment to feel like the comic book super hero. 

As we relentlessly pursue athletic excellence through this state of perceptive hyper-drive, we get more familiar and comfortable with jumping off the cliff of self-composure.  We permanently sever the bond between uncertainty and fear.  By breaking this bond repeatedly through racing and training, we discover the capacity to embrace uncertainty and to befriend our fears in many areas of our lives.  We are willing to calmly jump off that cliff of self-composure more frequently and to abide in that hyper-perceptive state. 

Most importantly, we must realize that hyper-perception does not require hyper-stimulation, such as large doses of caffeine or adrenalin production.  I can tell you from experience this is not a sustainable way to live in the hyper-perceptive state.  Rather, our greatest sustainable perceptive capacity occurs when the body and brain are relaxed and serene – paradoxical as that may seem. 

I’m not saying that we should never chemically induce this state.  But each of us has a physical and mental limit.  Once we exceed that limit, we have to crash and recover.  The farther we go beyond that limit, the harder we crash, and the longer it takes to recover.  If we wish to consistently enjoy a hyper perceptive capacity throughout our daily lives, we must cultivate serenity.  The path to serenity is different for each of us, and is one of the greatest challenges of life.  Each of us must be able to distinguish self-composure and security from inner peace and serenity.  Lucky for us, we are endurance athletes.  Our training and racing already provide us with the perfect opportunity to step beyond the comfort of security and to develop serenity. 

And that just happens to be one of the subjects layered into a book – Zendurance.

Namaste, Zenman

STRENGTH AND SPEED ON THE BIKE: A ZEN APPROACH

Introduction:  With a conventional approach, we associate both strength and speed with effort and exertion: If you want to push a big gear, you have to grit your teeth, tense up and bear the pain.  If you want to go fast, you have to force your legs faster through the pedal stroke.  However, a patient study of Zendurance Cycling Technique offers you the opportunity to explore strength and speed intelligently, through a mastery of technique.  In cycling, strength is your capacity to turn the pedals under resistance loads.  Speed, is your capacity to turn the pedals at high cadence.  Stationary training offers a great opportunity to focus on applying technique to increase strength and speed, as it allows you to accurately control both the resistance and the cadence, and therefore the intensity of your workout.  (For this reason, some pro and elite athletes conduct their all-important interval workouts on a stationary trainer, even though they may live in a cyclist’s paradise.)

As you train, it is important to challenge yourself, to patiently develop your capacity to execute great technique at higher levels of intensity, by increasing resistance and/or cadence.  Use these guidelines to govern appropriate limits:

Strength is your capacity to recruit more muscle fibers to execute a movement – say a pedal stroke.  As you train your neuromuscular system to recruit more fibers, you are able to increase your power output at the same rate of perceived exertion, or maintain the same power output at a lower rate of perceived exertion for a longer duration.  There are two components of strength you must train as you challenge yourself with resistance: The first is your capacity to recruit more fibers to execute each pedal stroke, both in your legs and your core.  The second is your capacity to stabilize and precisely align your joints for maximum biomechanical efficiency and economy under high loads.

Consider these two aspects of strength every time you crank up the resistance and start to hammer.  You cannot mentally “will” yourself to recruit more muscle fibers for every pedal stroke.  Patient and consistent training will take care of that.  However, you can monitor your joint stability and precise alignment at every moment, through your proprioception.  (On the stationary, use a mirror placed in front to verify the accuracy of your proprioception, specifically knee alignment and tracking.)  As you perform high-resistance intervals on the stationary, when you observe even the slightest faltering in your alignment, it’s time to back off.  And remember, your proprioception excels when you are relaxed.  Therefore, even under the great duress of heavy resistance and intensity, the connective tissues of your joints must be able to relax to align precisely.  Pursue cycling strength with patience and consistency, and you will learn to maintain enough relaxation for the proprioception necessary to maintain precise joint alignment, even under high resistance loads.

Strength and endurance: As you develop cycling strength you are recruiting more fibers to pedal your bike and to stabilize that leg power on your bike through core strength.  Strength figures prominently into endurance as well.  Since you recruit more fibers for every pedal stroke (at every level of intensity) you are able to prolong the activity for longer duration.  This makes sense, since your body is relying on a greater “base” or “foundation” of trained neuromuscular connections.  By training neuromuscular strength, you will endure longer.

Speed is your capacity to turn the cranks faster.  Like strength, pedaling at a higher cadence requires efficient, economical biomechanics.  Another term you might consider is “fluid”.  To efficiently spin at high cadence, you must be fluid in your movement.  Your foot must move in harmony with the circular orbit of the pedal itself, since that orbit is fixed and unyielding.  Applying force to the pedal that deviates from its circular orbit is inefficient, causes discomfort and increases the risk of injury. 

Relaxation is absolutely crucial for a fluid pedal stroke.  In a single rotation of the pedal stroke, many muscles and connective tissues in the legs and torso are stimulated to contract and then to release.  If specific muscles and connective tissues do not release and relax in order to lengthen at the appropriate instant, they create resistance for the opposing contracting tissues.  More energy must be exerted to overcome this resistance, resulting in inefficiency and diminished endurance.  This resistance to relaxation also diminishes the fluidity of the pedal stroke.  The result is a degradation of proprioception, biomechanics and technique, a slower maximum sustained cadence and an increased potential for injury.

Focus on relaxing your muscles, connective tissues and joints to increase your cadence.  This will develop fluidity in your pedal stroke and help you to maintain “saddle silence” as you spin.  Since there is an actual fluid that lubricates your joints – synovial fluid – the description of a fluid pedal stroke is literal.  As you learn to float your joints around the pedal stroke at high cadence, you allow this fluid to perform its function.

Summary:  It’s possible to increase both strength and cadence on your bike by focusing on your technique.  As paradoxical as it seems, relaxation is key for both.  Relaxation promotes the proprioceptive capacity to accurately align and stabilize the joints under high resistance.  This is essential to building strength safely.  Relaxation is also essential in coordinating the timing of release and contraction of the many muscular movements that constitute a fluid and fast pedal stroke.

If you work to develop your individual capacities to relax at greater resistance loads and at faster rates of cadence independently of one another, you will naturally be able to combine them for greater performance.  Work on each independently and then begin to draw them together as you approach your goal races.  Even under the greatest duress, we can find the inner peace that will allow us to stay calm and relaxed, as long as we include that in our training.  This inner peace is a great asset for athletic performance.  It is even more valuable as we embrace and respond to stressful situations of our everyday lives.  This is a great example of transforming aerobic fitness into spiritual fitness.

Rejoice!  We are training for life!  Zenman

Note: This material is excerpted from the Zendurance Cycling Stationary Clinic material.  Clinics are now being offered internationally.  Contact Shane if you want to host one in your region.

CONSIDERING ATHLETIC POTENTIAL AND ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE

With all the scientific research now available for our sport of triathlon, it is possible to execute every single swim stroke, pedal stroke and run stride under stringent numerical values: cadence, power, velocity, heart rate, duration, specific hill grades, altitude, etc.  Feed the specific training data of each workout into a computer-based coaching program and receive ever more refined and specific guidance in planning the next workouts.  Striving to reach the highest athletic potential by adhering to precise numerical parameters can offer substantial guidance in building to a peak performance for a goal race many months in the future.

When the pioneers of our sport first set out to explore the uncharted wilderness of triathlon, they did not have such sophisticated navigational guidance.  There was no extensive scientific data base, no accurate “GPS” unit for navigating the triathlon training and racing wilderness.  If they had any guidance at all, it was a crude sketch of some vaguely defined terrain.  The pioneers had to rely heavily on their perceptions and intuition.  Athletes like Paula Newby-Fraser, Mark Allen and Scott Tinley produced legendary performances that still stand up to current standards, regardless of the substantial advances in equipment (i.e., nano-tube technology, knife-edge-thin, feather-weight aero bikes) and training technology (i.e., computer designed object-oriented training programs).   The most sophisticated technology they had was high-resolution perception and the gut feeling of intuition.

I have the utmost respect for our sport’s brilliant science and the remarkable performances it elicits from dedicated athletes committed to reaching their highest potential.  But, I must confess, I do not train and race at my scientifically-based maximum athletic potential.  Yes, I occasionally use a heart rate monitor (the last time, about 10 months ago) and I am aware of my pedal stroke and running stride cadences.  I understand and work with the metabolic science behind Zone Training (usually measured through heart rate.)  I have learned to increment my rate of perceived exertion to those specific zones.  Ultimately rate of perceived exertion is more accurate than using specific heart rate values, because the heart rate values associated with specific training zones will slide up and down on a daily (even hourly) basis.  Working without a heart rate monitor places the onus for effective training and racing on the athlete’s accuracy of perception – just like the pioneers of triathlon did it.  (See my article ‘By the Numbers” in the Nov 2007 issue of Triathlete Magazine, or check the Essays section of this website in the next week.)

I experience a distinction between scientifically-based athletic potential and athletic excellence.  As an illustration, imagine structuring every single parameter of every single workout over the course of, say, 8 months for a peak performance at an Ironman.  Imagine that this structured training program was based on the very latest scientific research.  From a “lab rat” perspective, this is the ultimate approach – no guess work, no mystery, no grey zone.  But what about the human being?  I learned early on (the hard way) that I have to be a healthy, whole, balanced human being before I can be an athlete.  (See the beginning of my book, “Zendurance” for more on this realization.)

The pursuit of athletic excellence may be defined as using athletic training and racing not only as a means to realizing one’s highest athletic potential through remarkable athletic performances, but also as a training ground for excellence as a human being.  Endurance training can develop discipline, patience, mindfulness, balance, consistency, perseverance and the capacity to stay calm and present even during challenging and painful experiences.  We can develop these noble qualities even if we choose not to adhere to strict, scientific numerical parameters for each stride and stroke of our training.  Surely these qualities make us better human beings as well as athletes; better family and community members, and more capable in our occupations.  We also enjoy elevated physical, mental and emotional health – not just during our training and racing, but in every moment of our lives.

The pursuit of athletic excellence can certainly lead to remarkable athletic performances without sacrificing the quality of our human lives.  I’m not saying that following a cutting-edge training program to the letter will diminish our potential as happy human beings.  However, I do feel that faithfully following the latest training program of precise numerical parameters with complete disregard for perception and intuition leaves out a significant aspect of our training and development as unique human beings.

While I understand and work with training zones and periodization principles, I do not use a numerically-based, specific-parameter training program and schedule in my pursuit of athletic excellence.  I “shoot from the hip”, relying on perception and intuition for guidance in designing and scheduling my workouts.  Eschewing a strict training schedule and protocol grants me the flexibility that is necessary to gracefully integrate my passion for athletic glory with my humility as an ordinary human being.  Choosing a flexible, intuitive approach to scheduling my workouts requires honest and accurate perception of my body’s (and my mind’s) energy state and the capacity to set the appropriate parameters for my workout using my rate of perceived exertion.

It also requires creativity and an open heart and mind.  Some athletes (especially “Type A’s”) are terrified of employing even the slightest hint of creativity into their meticulous training program.  There seems to be a deep mistrust of the creative mind by the logical mind.  For me, part of the pursuit of athletic excellence is honoring the inherent creativity of the human being.  (Einstein, as much an artist as a scientist, was famous for asserting “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.)

While I may never perform to my absolute highest scientifically-based potential, I derive a tremendous satisfaction and happiness from the activities of training and racing.  I sincerely love watching how the training season unfolds, how I navigate the wilderness of endurance training and racing with intuition and high-resolution perception.  I may get a little disoriented at times in that landscape, but the experiences, the vistas and the discoveries are remarkable.

There is one constant in my training, one thing that motivates and guides me each and every day.  I approach each session, from the most crucial breakthrough interval session to the most mundane recovery session, with a genuine sense of curiosity and a passion for technique mastery.  There is always, always something new to discover, as I strive to execute each and every stride and stroke gracefully, efficiently, economically and joyfully.  I strive to go farther and faster with less effort, less struggle.  This relentless pursuit for excellence through perception, curiosity, creativity and an open heart and mind carries over strongly into every activity of my mundane life as an ordinary human being.

If you are relatively new to the landscape of triathlon, I encourage you to work with a coach, or a training program for orientation.  However, just remember that your most valuable navigational tools are your high-resolution perceptive ability and your intuition.  Do not forsake them simply because your almighty training schedule dictates something counter to what you feel is appropriate.

If an ordinary swim stroke can transcend the associated heart-rate and stroke velocity, it can be an act of balance, grace and joy.  By consistently practicing such a diligent approach towards athletic excellence, we discover the same grace and joy in our everyday lives: in a simple greeting with a stranger, a menial task, or the sharing of deepest truths with loved one.

I have not yet seen a cutting-edge training program that reminds the athlete: “Before you start today, take a moment to appreciate how fortunate you are.  And, at some point during your workout, smile and enjoy your mastery and grace!”

Namaste, Zenman

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PURE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION

I’ve just finished reading an extraordinary book, “Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  The subtitle is “Steps Toward Enhancing the Quality of Life”.  This book provides the inspiration for the following discussion.

One way that we all identify quality in our lives is through optimal experiences – those times when we are completely engaged in a task, where time suspends, where we lose all self-consciousness, where our actions seem effortless – even if we are under duress.  Every nuance of our activity – every movement, thought and breath – is in perfect harmony.  We experience grace, brilliance, happiness and a genuine sense of well-being.  “Life is Good”.

Pursuit of athletic excellence, in its purest essence, is to diligently seek optimal experience through training and racing.  Ultimately, we seek optimal experience in all areas of our lives as what we call “quality of life.  Throughout human history, athletics has provided fertile ground for enhancing quality of life.  Currently, triathlon seems to be at the pinnacle of this pursuit; globally we are seeing record numbers of participants in record numbers of races.

The question I’d like to address here is: What function does competition serve in this pursuit of optimal experience and quality of life?

Competition is sometimes viewed as “Me against you”.  (There is at least a little bit of this in each of us.  It’s a natural, tendency of the ol’ ego.)  In this scenario, the first one to the finish line wins, everyone else loses.  If each of us held closely to this view, very few of us would continue to race, since there is only one winner in this form of competition, (be it overall elite, or gender/age-group category.)  Experiencing only loss at (for most of us) the vast majority of our races will do little to enhance quality of life.

A more beneficial pursuit in competition is optimal experience.  The word “competition” can be interpreted as a petition for companionship.  The true magic of racing is in the synergy of our congregation.  As Mihaly points out, “The roots of the word ‘compete’ are the Latin con petire, which meant ‘to seek together.’”  He goes on, “What each person seeks is to actualize her potential, and this task is made easier when others force us to do our best.  Of course, competition improves experience only as long as attention is focused primarily on the activity itself.  If extrinsic goals – such as beating the opponent, wanting to impress an audience, or obtaining a big professional contact – are what one is concerned about, then competition is likely to become a distraction, rather than an incentive to focus consciousness on what is happening.”

This is the empowering spirit of competition.  We realize our greatest potential in the presence of one another.  The strength of our synergy in competition takes on different characteristics at different races.  The grand scale of an Ironman is quite powerful, with an extensive field of athletes – some highly experienced and accomplished at the distance, others embarking on the 140.6 distance for the first time.  Inseparable from this vast and diverse field of athletes is the high energy level provided by the volunteers, spectators and race announcers.  The scale and power of the Ironman synergy is enough to bring tears to the eyes of almost anyone – athletic or not.

Yet, there is an equally empowering synergy at the eclectic ultra distance races – double, triple and deca irons, and 24-hour races.  The synergy of these races comes from the deep intimacy of sharing such an enduring experience with a small tribe on a small course, repeating countless laps back forth.  The most paradoxical aspect of multi-day ultra events is the gentle approach the athletes must employ to endure the event.  It’s refreshing to discover that gentleness can be an asset in competition.

There is also the competition of low-key local events.  Some of my most cherished competitive experiences come from the Sunday morning Peaman Biathlons in Kona, Hawaii.  With no sign-up and no entry fee, these short swim-run events have shared the very same start-finish line as the legendary Hawaii Ironman, the Kailua Pier, for over two decades.  The motto is, “if we don’t have a category for you, we’ll make one.”  If you want to do the swim with your dog balanced on a paddle-board, then place him in a stroller and roller blade the run course, that’s just fine.  (Yes, I’ve seen this done.)  At the conclusion, prizes donated by local businesses and the athletes are raffled off.  Most of the regulars have nicknames like “Peaman”, “Road Runner”, Harry “The Hammer”, “Carbo Man” and “Jah Peaple”.  (That last one is my nickname, from my dreadlock days.  I did Hawaii Ironman under that name in 2002.)  While these races are full of humor and genuine “o’hana” love and camaraderie, the competition can be pretty intense.  Many a world-class pro athlete has raced a Peaman and thrown down a world-class performance.  Until I discovered these races, I shied away from competition, though I ran and swam frequently.  The Peaman races showed me a very healthy and nurturing side of competition.  I’ve been hooked ever since!

“Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one’s skills; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun.”  “However unimportant an athletic goal may appear to the outsider, it becomes a serious affair when performed with the intent of demonstrating a perfection of skill.”

“Flow experiences based on the use of physical skills do not occur only in the context of outstanding athletic feats.  Olympians do not have an exclusive gift in finding enjoyment in pushing performance beyond existing boundaries.  Every person, no matter how unfit he or she is, can rise a little higher, go a little faster, and grow to be a little stronger.  The joy of surpassing the limits of the body is open to all.”

I’m certainly grateful for all of you, for your inspiring presence in my life.  I’d be slower, less graceful and unable to go the distance without you.  What makes me competitive is that I petition and appreciate your companionship.  I know that’s true for you too, so I’ll see you at the races.  - Zenman

February 20, 2007

March, 2007

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September, 2007

Alignment

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