ONTO BOOKS!
I don't devour books like some people I know, like my mom, who makes it through 2-3 books, if not more, within a week, or even like Alina, who doesn't really profess to be a reader, but every time you say something like, Hey! I just read this great book, she responds by saying.. OH right! I read that one. She reads so much she often forgets the books she's read, and upon picking up a "new" book discovers a few pages into that she has, in fact, already read it. She is also one of the only people I know who actually reads The New Yorker--cover to cover--every issue. Now THAT is a reader.
Anyway--I'm not really like that, exactly, but I'm pretty steady. Recently I have been on a biography / memoir featuring endurance athletes binge. The binge continues because so many of these books I've read have struck a deep chord with me. (I say so far because I am still in the midst of the binge...)
In the last month I have read:
A Life Without Limits, Chrissie Wellington
Finding Ultra, Rich Roll
Beyond the Iron, Wayne Kurtz
Running on Empty, Marshall Ulrich
The Thrive Books, Brendan Brazier
I'm in the midst of Eat and Run, Scott Jurek
and I have on my bedside table:
Running With Kenyans, Adharanand Finn
14 Minutes, Alberto Salazar
I think to talk about each of these books in depth would be laborious for me and boring to you... so I'm going to write on what STUCK with me in each of these books (that I have read so far). Here goes.
Wellington's book started my kick.
I like Wellington. Really, how can you not like her? She's an amazing athlete, but also quite humble while still being super confident, and she is giving--like, to the world.
That said, I know I would not be good friends with her. She would intimidate me way too much, and not because she is so good at Ironman.
In short, as I read her words I puzzled less about her meteoric rise to greatness under the tutelage of the controversial Brett Sutton, than about how she traveled the world as a younger person--alone--with seemingly very little fear. Sure, she is World Champion 4 times over., but way more astounding to me is her fearless world traveling.
That said, I know I would not be good friends with her. She would intimidate me way too much, and not because she is so good at Ironman.
In short, as I read her words I puzzled less about her meteoric rise to greatness under the tutelage of the controversial Brett Sutton, than about how she traveled the world as a younger person--alone--with seemingly very little fear. Sure, she is World Champion 4 times over., but way more astounding to me is her fearless world traveling.
I, by contrast, am really quite terrified of traveling alone, let alone living, to/in foreign countries.
I don't want to be this way. I am in awe of people who travel alone consistently, as a way of life. Wellington spent her young adulthood traveling and working in South Africa, vacationing in New Zealand and Australia, traveling alone across Asia, and biking, climbing, and working in Kathmandu. She did not require companionship to make these travails. In fact, her writing conveys that it has perhaps not even occurred to her that such solo traveling and living might scare the shit out of someone else. I find her fascinating and awe-inspiring and extremely intimidating because she has lived, and continues to live, this way. She is independent and courageous in a way I have always desperately wanted to be--but have not had the courage to become.
Somehow--and I'm not sure I can articulate how or why--but I believe her courage in being able to travel and live like that is connected to her success at Ironman. If she has fear, she apparently rolls over it in favor of doing, seeing, and accomplishing what she wants. People like that achieve their dreams.
Of course, it does help that she is clearly insanely gifted when it comes to endurance racing. That also has helped in achieving her dreams.
The other aspect of the book that stuck with me is the idea that one might be able to "train" something out of oneself. Chrissie describes herself as clumsy and accident-prone. She likely is. But Brett Sutton told her to simply train this "undesirable" trait out of her--especially when training and racing.
This made me wonder--what do I want to train out of myself?
Well, fear of traveling alone would be one such thing.
But I'm not sure that is what others I know and love would like trained out of me as much as a few other things...
And anyway, is it really an achievable thing to train out a trait?
_______________________________
I loved the Rich Roll book.
I need to start by saying that the book is part biography and part training and eating guide--and the two parts by no means flow together seamlessly. This is a flaw in the book for sure. But I still liked it.
One thing I noted is that basically all of these endurance memoir type books start in the same way: in the middle of a race in which the athlete is struggling. It works fine as a device, I suppose. Perhaps readers do need to be hooked in at book's beginning.
But I found each of these beginnings cliche. Just saying.
Okay. Onward. Rich Roll is interesting because he was quite the athlete as a kid (as opposed to Wellington, Kurtz and Jurek who describe themselves as more average as athlete children.) He swam Division 1 at Stanford and was really very good. The unfortunate thing here is that he also discovered alcohol during his college years, and descended into full blown alcoholism pretty darned quickly. A lot of the first part of the book describes this descent, and then his slow climb out of it into sobriety. That was the most interesting part of the book, I thought.
He had another epiphany years after he got sober, during which he decided he was basically fat and out-of-shape, and would die young if he didn't get his shit together. So he decided to get fit and get healthy. BAM. After a bumpy start, he moved to an entirely plant-based diet and signed up for his first real endurance event (not including an early-on, half-hearted stab at the half IM). He signed up not for an Ironman, but a DOUBLE Ironman.
Fascinating.
He trained for the ultra--and completed it--in like six months. And he did it while eating only plant-based food. No sport drink, no synthetic gels, no protein recovery beverages out of a can. Just a lot of avocado sandwiches and super green smoothies. Sure, he had been doing some solid training, with a coach, prior to taking on the training for the ultra. And sure, he pretty much eats perfectly (minus the usual fare one USES to train for such events.) But still!
I think I was struck by the way he just took on the ultra because we advise that triathletes take their time getting to Ironman. One needs to build up gradually in order to be able to absorb the heavy training that a SINGLE (let alone a double) Ironman requires, we argue.
And this dude just goes out there and says, HEY! I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do it on this plant-based diet. Just see if I can't. And he did! And he did it well! A few years later, looking for a still greater challenge, he describes how he and a friend completed five-iron distance events in seven days--each one on a different island of Hawaii. And again.. he did this basically while eating like 1000 avocado sandwiches a day and drinking coconut water.
What I find fascinating is that we have these ideas about how the body should be trained, and how much it can do, and what the body needs as fuel in order to do those things. But it can do much more than what we believe, and it can do it on avocado sandwiches. Should it? Oh, I don't know. But the body can. That's what's cool. The mental hurdle of believing it's possible is insurmountable to most people, but it's not actually insurmountable in a physical sense.
That said, there are some nasty things that happen to you mentally and physically when you do push the envelope so far. Reading about the feelings/emotions and physical effects of doing something so extreme helped me to make light of the Ironman. Not that the IM SHOULD be made light of. It is a very difficult event. But it did put into perspective some of the things I have experienced in endurance racing and training, and put them into perspective. Barfing? Pretty darned common. Extreme chafing and saddle sores--yes. Totally normal. Seeing double--having hallucinations and visions--transcending the body? Par for the course if you do that ultra stuff.
Last year I was so dehydrated after barfing throughout the bike and the run at IMLP that I experienced some of that weird out of body, double-vision, hallucination stuff. I wasn't frightened when I experienced it, but after the fact, looking back, I became pretty freaked out. Was I about to pass out completely? Was I about to go into cardiac arrest?
Yep. Probably not. I was just messed up and needed a few bags of fluid via IV. And I wonder, now, how long could I have gone on before actually expiring for real? 10 more miles ? 20? 1? 100? I asked my body to make it 26.2.... and even though it didn't do it very quickly, and even though I couldn't hold my head up and I couldn't see straight and I didn't recognize my own son when he was waving in my face... my body still did it.
Fascinating. And kind of cool! (in a really twisted kind of way.)
Okay. I can't wait to talk about The Ulrich book and the Kurtz book. You think 5 IMs in seven days on the 5 different islands in Hawaii is bad ass?
Just wait!
But enough for now. I have to make some avocado sandwiches for dinner.
Of course, it does help that she is clearly insanely gifted when it comes to endurance racing. That also has helped in achieving her dreams.
The other aspect of the book that stuck with me is the idea that one might be able to "train" something out of oneself. Chrissie describes herself as clumsy and accident-prone. She likely is. But Brett Sutton told her to simply train this "undesirable" trait out of her--especially when training and racing.
This made me wonder--what do I want to train out of myself?
Well, fear of traveling alone would be one such thing.
But I'm not sure that is what others I know and love would like trained out of me as much as a few other things...
And anyway, is it really an achievable thing to train out a trait?
_______________________________
I loved the Rich Roll book.
I need to start by saying that the book is part biography and part training and eating guide--and the two parts by no means flow together seamlessly. This is a flaw in the book for sure. But I still liked it.
One thing I noted is that basically all of these endurance memoir type books start in the same way: in the middle of a race in which the athlete is struggling. It works fine as a device, I suppose. Perhaps readers do need to be hooked in at book's beginning.
But I found each of these beginnings cliche. Just saying.
Okay. Onward. Rich Roll is interesting because he was quite the athlete as a kid (as opposed to Wellington, Kurtz and Jurek who describe themselves as more average as athlete children.) He swam Division 1 at Stanford and was really very good. The unfortunate thing here is that he also discovered alcohol during his college years, and descended into full blown alcoholism pretty darned quickly. A lot of the first part of the book describes this descent, and then his slow climb out of it into sobriety. That was the most interesting part of the book, I thought.
He had another epiphany years after he got sober, during which he decided he was basically fat and out-of-shape, and would die young if he didn't get his shit together. So he decided to get fit and get healthy. BAM. After a bumpy start, he moved to an entirely plant-based diet and signed up for his first real endurance event (not including an early-on, half-hearted stab at the half IM). He signed up not for an Ironman, but a DOUBLE Ironman.
Fascinating.
He trained for the ultra--and completed it--in like six months. And he did it while eating only plant-based food. No sport drink, no synthetic gels, no protein recovery beverages out of a can. Just a lot of avocado sandwiches and super green smoothies. Sure, he had been doing some solid training, with a coach, prior to taking on the training for the ultra. And sure, he pretty much eats perfectly (minus the usual fare one USES to train for such events.) But still!
I think I was struck by the way he just took on the ultra because we advise that triathletes take their time getting to Ironman. One needs to build up gradually in order to be able to absorb the heavy training that a SINGLE (let alone a double) Ironman requires, we argue.
And this dude just goes out there and says, HEY! I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do it on this plant-based diet. Just see if I can't. And he did! And he did it well! A few years later, looking for a still greater challenge, he describes how he and a friend completed five-iron distance events in seven days--each one on a different island of Hawaii. And again.. he did this basically while eating like 1000 avocado sandwiches a day and drinking coconut water.
What I find fascinating is that we have these ideas about how the body should be trained, and how much it can do, and what the body needs as fuel in order to do those things. But it can do much more than what we believe, and it can do it on avocado sandwiches. Should it? Oh, I don't know. But the body can. That's what's cool. The mental hurdle of believing it's possible is insurmountable to most people, but it's not actually insurmountable in a physical sense.
That said, there are some nasty things that happen to you mentally and physically when you do push the envelope so far. Reading about the feelings/emotions and physical effects of doing something so extreme helped me to make light of the Ironman. Not that the IM SHOULD be made light of. It is a very difficult event. But it did put into perspective some of the things I have experienced in endurance racing and training, and put them into perspective. Barfing? Pretty darned common. Extreme chafing and saddle sores--yes. Totally normal. Seeing double--having hallucinations and visions--transcending the body? Par for the course if you do that ultra stuff.
Last year I was so dehydrated after barfing throughout the bike and the run at IMLP that I experienced some of that weird out of body, double-vision, hallucination stuff. I wasn't frightened when I experienced it, but after the fact, looking back, I became pretty freaked out. Was I about to pass out completely? Was I about to go into cardiac arrest?
Yep. Probably not. I was just messed up and needed a few bags of fluid via IV. And I wonder, now, how long could I have gone on before actually expiring for real? 10 more miles ? 20? 1? 100? I asked my body to make it 26.2.... and even though it didn't do it very quickly, and even though I couldn't hold my head up and I couldn't see straight and I didn't recognize my own son when he was waving in my face... my body still did it.
Fascinating. And kind of cool! (in a really twisted kind of way.)
Okay. I can't wait to talk about The Ulrich book and the Kurtz book. You think 5 IMs in seven days on the 5 different islands in Hawaii is bad ass?
Just wait!
But enough for now. I have to make some avocado sandwiches for dinner.
3 comments:
I've been meaning to get Chrissie's book. But also want to get Torres book as well. There is something different about this level of athlete. Really different, and I think it's in their brains. Lots of people train lots. But these two get results that are out of this world. Until Torres did it, nobody ever dreamed of an athlete her age going to the Olympics, let alone winning medals. And the other day she missed going again by the fraction of an eye blink.
Og, goodie! I've been using your book recommendation link for a while now and it never fails me:)
Chrissy and traveling - you know, the young lacks fear; people often ask me how I came to the US alone at 19 and honestly I had no fear. In retrospect, I should have had fear, ha! I guess if you start traveling at a young age you learn you can take care of yourself and can hold on to that confidence as you get older and the adult like fears creep in. One of my favorite parts of the book was the description of Chrissy's coach; that type of coaching would be ideal for me:)
Loved Chrissie's book. What struck me was how multi-interested (and interesting) she was. All this experience of traveling and working in the 3rd world means she has a big wide perspective on life and living. She's not just someone who just thinking about Ironman and training the entire time. Not sure about being able to train something out of yourself - I guess you can improve things - and I think you could travel independently. It's not that you stop being afraid or doubting yourself, it's that you do it anyway. Go for it Mary! First stop UK...
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