Weekly News Number 37
37 weeks of blogging in a row already. That means I’ve managed to find stories to tell you 36 times before, so I’m sure I’ll find something to talk about this week as well.
There is definitely some progress to share when it comes to running, because quite a bit has happened over the last seven days. Apart from that, I had three workdays that I really enjoyed, while also trying to find the right balance between training and recovery. After a race, I always notice that I’m pretty tired, even though this time I didn’t actually do the run.
A Few Thoughts About Professional Sport
At the same time, I can see where triathlon is heading at the moment. And with the fact that I don’t earn a single cent from it, sometimes it feels a little bit like turning up to a gunfight with a knife when I stand on the start line of a race.
I’m probably also starting to reach the limits of what is possible with the resources I currently have. In our world, people with more resources often have more opportunities. Whether that’s fair or not doesn’t really matter – it’s simply the reality. Of course, you can also create many opportunities for yourself, but you always have to keep in mind how much energy it takes to actually get there.
When you then can’t give 100 per cent because of the running situation and you’re tired after a race anyway, it’s easy to start feeling like things are slipping out of your hands a little. I’m not sure how many people can really imagine what it takes to be competitive in this sport. And that’s completely okay. Who would voluntarily train 25 hours a week, some of it very intensely, while knowing that things like sleep, recovery and nutrition every single day can determine how good the next training day will be?
On the other hand, it’s also completely understandable to choose to sit behind a desk for eight hours a day and not spend parts of the day so tired that you can barely keep your eyes open. At the end of the day, you also need to earn money so there is actually something in your bank account.
Why Do I Do It?
The beautiful thing, though, is that not everyone gets to have this kind of passion for something – the sort of passion professional athletes have for what they do every single day. How many of you would get up and work 45 hours a week without getting paid? I’m pretty sure a few people would quickly ask: What are you doing? Why are you doing this?
For me, the answer is actually pretty simple. It’s the passion and my genuine fascination with finding out how far I can go. Even if, at the moment, I might be heading into that fight with a slightly blunt knife.
At some point, I told myself that with whatever I have available, I’ll try to give 100 per cent. Maybe I’m currently sitting at 99.9 per cent because I’m already making pretty good use of the opportunities and resources I have. But maybe I’m only at 70 per cent and there is still a lot more somewhere that I can improve.
How do I find out? By not letting myself get knocked down. Because I don’t think many people stick with something for a really long time and keep going even when the wind isn’t exactly blowing in their favour.
At the end of the day, it’s a story I’ll be able to tell. And if what I’m doing can inspire even two or three people, then I think that’s something pretty special as well. Maybe someone is at a point right now where they feel like giving up, even though the success or the solution they’re looking for is just behind the next door. They just haven’t found the key to open it yet.
But just because you can’t find the key right now doesn’t mean you won’t find it.
Back to Running
Anyway, back to my running progress. At the beginning of the week, I was doing 6 × 3 minutes of running with a 1-minute walking break in between. By Saturday, I was already able to run 2 × 15 minutes. That’s definitely something positive to take away from this week. Running is heading in the right direction.
At the same time, I know that an irritated plantar fascia, or one that has healed from a partial tear, can take quite a long time before it really feels good again. So we’ll see how things develop over the next few weeks. Once again, it’s about sticking with it, even though sometimes it would obviously be much easier to just lie on the beach instead.
As long as I’m a professional athlete, I want to do everything I can to make this work. And right now, that means sticking with it at exactly the point where things become uncomfortable and require a lot of work.
If you’re dealing with something physically that’s worrying you, do your physio exercises, get into the gym and invest the time. Even when it’s exactly the thing you don’t feel like doing. Your future self will probably thank you for it.
And with that, I’ll send you back into your week.
We’ll be back here again next week. Have a great rest of the week and enjoy the autumn. Over here, it’s slowly but surely starting to feel like summer again.
See you next week.
Cyrill
