I read a story, a fascinating story, of a Lebanese woman who while working in her sons restaurant opened an oyster and found 26 pearls.
Now, while this is a physical manifestation of finding the literal buried treasure don't we as endurance athletes find the same treasure in sometimes a literal sense but most often in the metaphysical sense during a seemingly routine workout. I read this article and thought, "Man. How many times has she bought the same type of oysters from the same vendor and preformed the same cleaning and preparation of them, maybe five or six thousand times and now she finds this."
How often have you dreaded a workout, only to finish with some of the best results of the month? Maybe even the best results ever?
Far to often we get so caught up in making our distances on the swims, riding exactly the bike distance, (heaven forbid a century ride ends at 96.8 miles, you WILL ride that extra 3.2 mile around the parking lot if you have too to hit a century), carefully researching the exact distances of our runs online, (even doing a short out and back to round off the number), that we often dismiss or blindly pass over finding a pearl in a routine exercise. We need to seek out the pearl in every workout and celebrate it. Isn't completing a workout in and of itself something to celebrate?
The point of this post is to remind you that in everything you do from the boring to the extraordinary there is beauty. This woman could have skipped over the oyster because of some incalculable flaw or lapse in effort. But she didn't and instead has something worth a world record. Don't yourself lapse in your effort to improve your performance and you too may very well find that during the most boring part of the day, (shucking oysters) you find your best before you.
Now, while this is a physical manifestation of finding the literal buried treasure don't we as endurance athletes find the same treasure in sometimes a literal sense but most often in the metaphysical sense during a seemingly routine workout. I read this article and thought, "Man. How many times has she bought the same type of oysters from the same vendor and preformed the same cleaning and preparation of them, maybe five or six thousand times and now she finds this."
How often have you dreaded a workout, only to finish with some of the best results of the month? Maybe even the best results ever?
Far to often we get so caught up in making our distances on the swims, riding exactly the bike distance, (heaven forbid a century ride ends at 96.8 miles, you WILL ride that extra 3.2 mile around the parking lot if you have too to hit a century), carefully researching the exact distances of our runs online, (even doing a short out and back to round off the number), that we often dismiss or blindly pass over finding a pearl in a routine exercise. We need to seek out the pearl in every workout and celebrate it. Isn't completing a workout in and of itself something to celebrate?
The point of this post is to remind you that in everything you do from the boring to the extraordinary there is beauty. This woman could have skipped over the oyster because of some incalculable flaw or lapse in effort. But she didn't and instead has something worth a world record. Don't yourself lapse in your effort to improve your performance and you too may very well find that during the most boring part of the day, (shucking oysters) you find your best before you.
3 comments:
In my experience it is the very most dreaded workouts that are the best. If I go into a workout really not wanting to do it then when I get done I feel like I just found 26 pearls (without the monetary boost). Knowing it will feel good has become what it takes to keep from skipping the thing all together. And, as you point out, there's always that performance thing. Good post!
Great post.
Very good post, Comm.
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