Why I don’t think I’ll be running for election

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

images-1We runners tend to be independent types. Sure, there are liberals and conservatives among us, and even some Libertarians and Green Party voters. But overall, we’re independent.

Which means that when it comes to a choice between sitting in a meeting for 3 hours on a Saturday morning or getting out to ride 50 miles, we’d choose the latter, not the former.

And when it comes to getting business done and finding time for a workout, we’d much rather have an agenda that lasts an hour and gets us home on time to sleep rather than staying up to midnight eating stale donuts and talking about Line Item #126.

I have not run for office. Lately. I was Class President at Kaneland High School in 1972. I don’t remember how I got elected. But I sucked at the job. My mind was on how to help our cross country team win conference and how to drop my mile time below 4:40. Choosing the class ring was about all I can remember doing.

My stint as President of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce was not what anyone would call smooth. Though I was an art major in college, I immediately recognized problems with the budgeting process for the organization when I came into office. For starters, there was no real budget. None of the events run by the Chamber had a reporting process, so I put that in place and it really pissed people off. For the first time in possibly 10 years they now had to project what they were going to spend and stick to it. Years had gone by where the Chamber ran in the red. When my year as Prez was done we finished in the black, produced all new marketing materials, increased membership and cut the board from 20 people down to 9, a more manageable and light-footed structure.

But people hated the headstrong approach. Batavia has always been a go-along to get-along kind of town. I came in as a marketing exec from a newspaper and was a suspected carpetbagger.

Yet the most telling moment of the tenure came on the night of my installation. The executive director at that time introduced herself to my wife in the restroom that evening. She said to her, “Oh, you’re Chris’s wife. Well, you’re not going to see much of your husband this year.”

“Then you don’t know my husband,” said my wife.

And she was right. All our Chamber meetings lasted an hour. People got things done. It may not have been so nice, but it was efficient.

Same thing goes for the church committee I ran to choose a new Praise Band Leader. We had an agenda each meeting. We stuck to it. Meetings ended in one hour. The Pastor Emeritus turned to me one night and said, “I wish you’d run all my church meetings over the years.”

There’s no reason to waste time you see. People who run and ride have a special appreciation and respect for time. They value it for perhaps selfish reasons at times. But they do value it.

Back in college as an RA the dorm meetings were held at 10:30 at night. I insisted that was ridiculous. My training required getting up at 6:00 a.m. to run two-a-day workouts. Jerk that I was, I got the meetings moved to 10:00. Secretly everyone was relieved. They told me so.

There is a certain sort of social justice that also comes from running and riding. The year after I served as Chamber of Commerce President I was elected President of Batavia Rotary. Our big fund raiser was a Corvette Raffle that raised $10,000. There was one problem. The Vette was purchased each year from the same dealer in town, a member of the club. I asked about that and found out that we could perhaps get a better price by bidding out the car to another dealer in the area. The member was none too happy. So I went to his office with another Rotarian to discuss the possible bid process. The angry car dealer chain-smoked while he harangued me for not understanding “how things work.”

And I got that. The Good Ole Boy System always works. But we bid the car and made $5000 more than year for charitable purposes. It helped that there were a few women new to the club who supported the effort to do more good for all rather than play favorites.

Am I alone in thinking that people who run and ride have a generally firm sense of social justice? That’s a big generalization to make, I know. It’s likely there are plenty of corrupt athletes among us. The worldwide scandal in cycling shows us that. It wasn’t just Lance Armstrong you know. The whole game was fixed.

So unfortunately we have to call ourselves to lead lives that are good. Running for office may be the way to do that, or it may not. There are thousands of ways to serve society and still satisfy our selfish need to run and ride and get our heads and conscience in order.

I think about these things on the way to the voting booth, you see. I wonder if people running for election understand the purity of running for other reasons.

It’s hard to tell.

But I don’t think I’ll be running for election too soon. Admittedly I value my time too much, and politics is all about taking the time to hear everyone out.

I’ll take the other road for now, and listen to those who respond to these posts.

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Craig Virgin exemplifies the best of American distance running

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

0219_craig-virgin2-624x413During the Sochi Winter Olympics, three-time Olympian American distance runner Craig Virgin was interviewed on NPR for his perspectives about the 1980 boycott of the Soviet Olympics by the United States. Virgin’s lucid, compelling observations about the futility of that boycott in terms of world politics has been validated by the political situation in Ukraine following the Winter Olympics. Russia’s move into Crimea has driven futile protests in the West. It was clear back in 1980 that the Olympics were a poor tool for nationalistic policies, and they remain so today.

Craig_VirginVirgin’s lost opportunity to represent the United States at the peak of his athletic career had personal costs that continue to resonate today. The lost opportunity to earn an Olympic medal damages an athlete’s value as a personal brand on the marketing front. There were hundreds of other athletes who similarly lost that opportunity in the 1980 games. But none perhaps was a more solid hope than Craig Virgin, who 10 days before the Olympics ran the second fastest 10,000 meters of all time. He was primed and ready to race, the product of years of disciplined and productive training.

True grit

It didn’t all come easily for Virgin. At an early age it was discovered that he had a congenital urological problem that in later life would result in removal of a kidney. But Virgin was raised as a tough little farm kid in downstate Illinois. His work ethic was framed in isolation from distance runners in the Chicago area whose weekly competitions raised the competitive stakes in a hundred ways.

4eb059ceb92a4.preview-1024Yet it was farm boy Craig Virgin who in 1972 ran the time that still stands as the fastest-ever time recorded on the now-classic Peoria cross country course used for the state championships. There were no school divisions back then. Virgin put the hammer down with his iconic arm-pumping running style and made the most of his smallish frame to begin a legacy in American distance running unmatched by almost any other competitor.

“You could argue that Craig Virgin was one of the toughest competitors of all,” said a former rival Tom Burridge, an All-American distance runner from Kentucky, and former American Half Marathon record holder. “He wasn’t blessed with the perfect body for distance running, and he had to overcome those physical problems. He was the grittiest of runners.”

Such compliments are perhaps overdue in Virgin’s case. His appetite for competition saw him break therecords of Steve Prefontaine and many others. Then his career in college resulted in prodigious honors including national and Big 10 titles. After college he went on to become a top American road racer with victories in all the big-time races from Falmouth to Crescent City to Atlanta’s Peachtree races. Then Virgin went on to win two World Cross Country championships. No other American male before or since has won that title. Craig Virgin was a runner who competed with the world’s best and won.

When Virgin tried the marathon, he placed second at Boston to Toshihiko Seko who by one second broke the course record set by Boston Billy Rodgers.

The gravity of Pre

Some of the potential appreciation for Virgin’s accomplishments was lost in the shadows of Steve Prefontaine’s demise in a car accident in 1975. The echo of fame surrounding Pre’s death turned him into a legend. Even runners who surpassed Pre’s times or exceeded his accomplishments could not match his charm as a personality, the focus of no less than two Hollywood movies about the runner’s life.

Virgin gladly acknowledges the importance of Pre in American distance running as well icons such as Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers and lesser known yet just as accomplished athletes such as Lynn Jennings. Virgin is in fact an avid historian for his sport. In conversation he readily relates enthusiasm for fellow competitors yet isn’t afraid to point out the vagaries of runners present and past, including himself.

Speaking out

Recently that perspective resulted in a social media dustup when his commentary about the apparently superhuman capabilities of distance runner Galen Rupp produced a lively discussion on Facebook. Virgin questioned whether Rupp should have been running a set of amazingly hard intervals immediately following a race. The workout consisted of several low-4:00 mile repeats, concluding with a mile run at 4:01 pace.

Here is what Virgin wrote on his Facebook page, which reaches more than 7000 followers. ”

“A week ago I put a post on my FB page (6000+ followers) that saluted Galen Rupp for his indoor AR 5000 race…. and saluted/congratulated him and his coach as best I could in so few words. Nearly 5500 people saw it. 36 hours ago I did the same thing again…. but this time I expressed astonishment/reservations… not about his 8:07 2-mile (which I think is totally conceivable after a 13:01 5K)… but that I found his 5 x 1600 workout just 15:00 after his AR race result to be a bit unbelievable (but not impossible!) especially when it ended in a 4:01…and I expressed concern over whether he was risking illness or injury (that might curtail either his season or career) by doing this…. and simply asked rhetorically what Galen was doing or taking to be able to “recover” so fast. As someone who designed my own training regiment…and reached high results in distance running as a result…from HS to int’l… I feel that I have the credentials to ask that question and not be criticized for “sour grapes.”

That Facebook posting produced thousands of responses. Some were in agreement with Virgin’s perspectives. Some were not. But given the fact that Craig Virgin’s 27:29 10K time is still not that far behind Galen Rupp’s 26:48 10,000 meters 30+ years after the fact, the man does know what it takes to train, and recover, in top level distance training. In fact his best time of 27:29 would have beaten both Mo Farah and Galen Rupp in the 2012 Olympics. 

Uncompromising truth

10mil_trials84So it is a unique place in the sport of distance running that Craig Virgin occupies. His accomplishments speak for themselves. Yet his ability to elucidate with clarity such issues as Olympic perspectives and the intelligence of training regimens makes him a continually compelling figure in America sport.

As always, with the growing recognition of personal branding as a tool for success, it is interesting to consider the efforts of pioneers in the field, especially among people who broke ground in personal branding before the advent of digital age, and who are now active in the process of leveraging their brand through new and multiple channels.

The Craig Virgin brand

Even in absence of Olympic Gold, Craig Virgin’s accomplishments have earned him status as one of the greatest American distance runners. He was inducted into the National USA Track and Field Hall of Fame for his career-long success that included breaking Steve Prefontaine’s high school two-mile record (a record only recently broken) to setting an American record 27:29.16 10,000 meters. And if you need inspiration to never give up, watch this video of Virgin winning the first of two World Cross Country Championships. 

CraigVirgin2Building on this foundation of success in running, Virgin converted his fame into a career as public speaker, TV commentator and media spokesperson. Minus the opportunity to win an Olympic medal, Craig Virgin had to work extra hard to leverage his name in the distance running world and beyond. He persisted in building a company around the brand name Front Runner, a move that did not directly leverage his name, a decision that Virgin now thinks might have been a better choice. Virgin also fought sniping from other runners who thought he was too self-promotional. All those were hurdles to overcome, but far from the first or last setback Craig Virgin would face in his life.

Life challenges 

Craig Virgin is unique in that he achieved world-class status as a distance runner despite the congenital urological condition that nearly cost him his life as a young child. His somewhat isolated upbringing on the farm protected him from childhood diseases until he entered kindergarten. Then he was hit with a series of conditions that stressed his congenitally compromised urological system.

“I had to have a kidney removed in 1994 due to my lifelong urological condition,” Virgin relates. “Then in 1997 my vehicle was struck in a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver that nearly took my life. It took 10 surgeries and extensive physical therapy over a six-year period to get well again.”

In 2004 another freak accident ruptured his right quadriceps due to a fall on black ice outside his office one winter day. All that adversity hit a major PAUSE button on the personal branding program of Craig Virgin. While the initial accident was difficult to overcome, the slip on the ice is what actually stopped Virgin from his approach of pitching himself as a running icon. Given his inability to participate in races, some race directors did not see the value in bringing him on board for promotional purposes.

Good company

Yet Virgin is in good company in the pantheon of track and field athletes who have achieved glory yet come to view the meaning of their personal brand in a new way.

Two such examples are marathoner Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar, whose classic race in the Boston Marathon is chronicled in the inspirational book Duel In The Sun. The two runners are now forever paired because the race took so much out of them they never fully recovered as athletes. They have chosen to share their personal struggles and that has resulted in the ongoing effort to give back to the world and make it a better place.

Parallel struggles

Beardsley used his winnings from running to begin a career in farming, only to fall victim to a farm accident and a car accident that led to a pain pill addiction.

Alberto Salazar struggled to return to world class running form after the Boston race. After years of dark frustration stemming from physical issues, he learned that depression was actually hampering his ability to function.

Both runners moved through these challenges to success in personal branding. Beardsley is now a popular public speaker whose tale is one of triumph over adversity and addiction. Salazar found help in the prescription drug Prozac and is now one of the leading distance coaches in the world. His protégés have won the Olympic medals that evaded Salazar.

In these parallel examples of post-running change and ascendancy, Craig Virgin recognizes that personal brand is something more than what anyone does on the track, roads and cross country. It is in fact the entire journey that counts, a chronicle that may soon become a book about the life and times of Craig Virgin.

Telling the story

Author Randy Sharer, a longtime sports reporter for the Bloomington (IL) Pantagraph, has written a thoroughly researched book about the life and career of Craig Virgin.

The book is well-timed because Craig Virgin is now at the forefront of an international movement to heighten awareness of the sport of cross-country. He just returned from an international conference in Belgrade where Olympians such as Sebastian Coe discussed the role of cross-country in the current running boom. The idea of getting cross-country added to the Olympics has been discussed because of its appeal as a raw, pure sport. But in order for cross-country to be added, some other sport would have to go. That’s a long road to hoe. But Virgin as always is determined to promote the sport.

Unknown-1It all comes at a time when the sport of cross-country and distance running happen to be surging in popularity. Even at the middle school level in America, hundreds of kids turn out for meets where every effort is encouraged and cheered. Parents appreciate the low cost and high physical benefit of a sport that combats childhood obesity and promotes positive social interaction. Many meets are co-ed, and women’s cross country at the high school and college level has grown and continues to thrive.

Virgin is planning to produce a training guide aimed at helping runners in high school/college and older runners perform their best. He is also interested in writing a guide for older runners to help them achieve goals while avoiding injuries and other setbacks. With his success in track, road running and cross-country, Craig Virgin is uniquely qualified to provide advice and direction in training guides such as these.

Craig Virgin the brand

These days Virgin along with distance stars such as Bill Rodgers do work on behalf of major running events in race promotions. “When it comes to getting media coverage, it helps to be able to share more about a race than just the pre-race spaghetti dinner,” Virgin notes. “The major events have a lot to offer runners, and I enjoy representing these races and bringing more attention to the participants and athletes. Basically I help races get their money’s worth in terms of promotion, awareness and exposure for the sponsors, especially in advance of the race.”

Virgin also delivers motivational speeches about achievement and perseverance on the corporate circuit where he relates his training and racing to the disciplines necessary to succeed in business. Certainly the perseverance he’s shown through athletic achievement and personal challenges in both his medical history and accidents are examples of the type of grit appreciated in business.

In recent years Craig Virgin has been shifting his personal brand from the Front Runner moniker to a simpler, more direct focus, including CraigVirgin.com. As always, he’s using his leadership instincts and ability to move ahead. It should be an interesting journey from here on out, especially if he keeps using Facebook to question the vagaries of distance running in the amped-up, big-money era of high-stakes training and racing.

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It’s Sunday and time to give a little thanks for being able to run and ride

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

chuck and MeYesterday afternoon I arrived home to a quiet house because my dog was on a visit to the neighbor across the street. She watches him on occasion because she does not like to think of him being alone in the house.

That’s sweet, but I know that he’s fine most days being alone. When I work out of the house all day he pretty much sits on the couch uttering an occasional bark at a dog or person walking down the street. He also hates the mailman. So he barks like an insane canid when that time of day comes around.

So I’m grateful for my neighbor’s sentiment. But dogs are used to spending periods of time alone if they don’t have a partner pet in the house. My companion’s dog and cat used to mess with each other on occasion, which was hilarious. The dog would snuff and drop to his haunches, stoking the cat into that arched back pose. Then they’d box and chase and that would be that. Just a little fun.

Rivalries

It’s like that with siblings growing up. We leave each other alone for the most part. Yet there are days when teasing or worse, a full-on fight breaks out. It’s how we test ourselves.

Tom and FredIt strikes me that running and riding is a lot like sibling rivalries. You have these friends and training partners who come in and out of your life on an occasional basis. You trust them to test you, and they welcome your tests. Then we all go back to what we were doing in between opportunities to run and ride.

I have always been grateful for those relationships, and for the ability to pretty much go out and run and ride when I like. Injuries have been few, but the last two have been doozies. Crashing my bike in 2012 cost me a busted collarbone. Then last fall it was an infection from a sliver that nearly cost me a finger. Those incidents cost me weeks of running and riding.

Gratitude

When you’re in that circumstance you really begin to appreciate your running and riding. You miss it. You grieve it even. Your friends and training partners talk about their runs and rides and you can only sit and smile.

Which is why yesterday and the quiet house turned into a bit of a scary place when I slipped on a section of hardwood floor in my fleece socks and wound up flat on the ground.

I’d been peeling off layers of cycling gear after a 25 mile ride. My riding partner and I had stopped at Claddagh Pub for an Irish BLT and a couple Smythycks. Just a little St. Patrick’s Day fun.

So I don’t think the beers were responsible for the slip and the fall. I was walking back to the shower when I fell. It happened because my feet kept going from the slippery socks. I crashed to my side and my back instantly spasmed. “Oh no,” I thought. “Here we go again.”

I could feel the impact all the way across my shoulders. Nothing was broken fortunately, but it hurt. So I sat soaking in the warm spray of the shower and that loosened up the muscles.

HandPerspectives

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the freak nature of the last two accidents I’d have, the bike wobble incident and the infected finger, and how much they’d cost in terms of medical bills, time away from training and overall inconvenience.

Then I stopped such ruminations. There are people in the world whose bodies have never allowed them to enjoy the freedoms I know so well. They function with profound disabilities or wrestle with lost physical or mental capabilities. They’re lives are seemingly so much harder.

One longtime acquaintance was a 6’6″ basketball star who is now paralyzed from the waist down. Yet he leads a more than fruitful life and drives his own modified van.

Another friend has Lou Gehrig’s disease. He has been living with deteriorating functional capacities for years. Yet he harbors little regret. He and his wife make the most of life, and they continue enjoying landmark events including the birth of a new granddaughter this past year.

We all know life can change quickly. All it takes is a car accident or a fall in the hallway on a slippery floor to change everything. We do our best to be attentive knowing that fate is a fickle thing. But accidents happen. One of the tarsnakes of participation in sports is that you risk your physical and mental health while you try to improve it. That is the irony of what we do.

Cumulative effects

It’s hard not to think back on all the bumps and falls in sports. From the line drive that shattered my smile at the age of 14 to the torn ACL on the indoor soccer field in my 40s, there have been life-changing events.

We carry around these wounds in some form or another. The fake teeth in my smile is a direct result of that line drive 40 years ago. For a while my ACL was replaced by a cadaver part that I called “Jake” until it tore again. Jake died twice.

So I’m thankful to be moving as well as I can. So should you. Give thanks for what you can do, and be respectful of those who are forced to make do. We have far more in common than you might think.

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It’s Fat Friday: Scaling up and down as we run and ride

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

photo-253I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that 125% of us who run and ride are doing so to lose weight.

While I flunked algebra and am no mathematician by any measure, I feel justified in using that 125% figure to cover the 25 lbs. everyone wants to lose to get down to racing weight.

Do the fat math

Because if you say that 100% of us want to lose weight, and everyone loses 25 lbs., then only 75% of us actually wound up as people with weight loss. The other 25% of us is gone somewhere.

You can’t see the weight you lost, because of course it’s lost. That means you can’t find it anywhere on your body. Or anywhere.

Except that fat might actually be washing down the shower drain, into your local river and all the way to the Mighty Mississippi.

This illustration shows the Fat Delta formed from all the cellulite washing off the bodies of those who run and ride.

This illustration shows the Fat Delta formed from all the cellulite washing off the bodies of those who run and ride.

And once it gets there it floats all the way past Hannibal, Missouri until it reaches the big Fat Delta at the mouth of the Mississippi River down by New Orleans.

Which may explain why Hurricane Katrina was so bad. The tidal surge that flooded that great city was the result of millions of tons of water cresting over the Big Bar of Fat lurking just offshore. From there the water was essentially rolling downhill off the giant Love Handle of the Mississippi Delta where it flooded New Orleans.

Fat is hot sometimes.

Fat is hot sometimes.

Of course we know that George W. Bush was the President assigned to handling the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Which is good, because GW was always concerned about cutting the fat out of government. Perhaps he didn’t think ahead to cut all that fat out of the Mississippi Delt in this case. That’ why Katrina was such a problem. Here’s what Bush had to say about that: 

“What I intend to do is lead a – to lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong.

And I’ll tell you why. It’s very important for us to understand the relationship between the federal government, the state government and the local government when it comes to a major catastrophe.

And the reason it’s important is, is that we still live in an unsettled world.”

Good Old George. He seemed like a good guy with a little too much fat between his ears, perhaps. If he had started thinking a little harder rather than just spouting off ideological statements about No Child Left Behind, he might have lost some of that fat between his ears and America would have been better off.

American Weight Loss programs

If John Candy had lost weight would he have clogged the Mississippi when it washed downstream?

If John Candy had lost weight would he have clogged the Mississippi when it washed downstream?

All of America is trying to lose weight these days.

But let’s consider the possible import of all that weight loss.

If you weigh 220 in February and get down to 180 come April, there is forty pounds of fat that suddenly disappeared into the universe. That might explain the planet Jupiter, with its lard-ass size and that weird, twisting bellybutton that seems to be the result of some sort of cosmic cellulite attack.

For all we know the sun might be one giant, churning, burning fat globule from the ass of Satan. He might have had cosmic (not cosmetic) surgery all those millennia ago and the sun is the result. If that’s the case we’re all alive due to the sacrifice made by the devil when he trimmed down his back fat and bubble butt. Fat really is evil, you see.

Third Law of Thermodynamics. And fat. 

The universe shifts and fat takes hold.

The universe shifts and fat takes hold.

You’re getting the picture by now. All that fat we run and ride off our bodies has to go somewhere doesn’t it? The Third Law of Thermodynamics states the following: It is impossible for any process, no matter how idealized, to reduce the entropy of a system to its absolute-zero value in a finite number of operations.

That means if you lose fat, it has to go somewhere. It doesn’t just vanish into Dark Matter or clog up the Milky Way. But I have seen some people’s asses that were big enough to stop the Milky Way in its tracks. So we better test that scientific theory.

Fat Science and Fat Magic

The scale is unforgiving.

The scale is unforgiving.

We all seem to hate excess fat, and that brings us to a wholly spiritual or emotional dimension in our big, fat equation. Is fat the fifth dimension of the universe? Will scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory someday be discussing Fat Matter as the God Particle?

Sometimes fat almost seems like it has its own mind. It shows up like magic around your middle. Like voodoo it takes over our bodies and makes us pinch and poke ourselves. Then we cover it up the best we can with clothes that are supposed to fit and don’t. It’s like we’re all bad carnival magicians or something.

Not So Excessive

At 6'1" and 140 lbs., my frame was wafer thin.

At 6’1″ and 140 lbs., my frame was wafer thin.

But remember, not all fat is excess, because some fat helps us stay warm and even healthy. When I was training 100 miles a week in the 1980s a Body Fat Tester looked me in the eye and said, “You’re between 1% and 3%. Don’t get caught in the rain. You’ll die.”

But she was wrong. Because I did a 3-hour run in a driving rain at 45 degrees and I did not die from it. We laughed and cursed and swore we’d never do it again. Yet we never quit. I did sleep for 18 straight hours after that. Thank God it was a weekend.

Foreign Substances

So having fat on my body in my 50s is a little foreign to me. I’m currently at 180 lbs. on a 6’1″ frame. Not fat except for my belly, where the six pack I want is covered by the six packs I drank. Liquid calories are not your friend, people.

I feel some days as if my body is engaged in some sort of Human Tectonics. I’ve collided with another continent of being and now we’re a Pangea of some sort. I’ve been skinny all Unknownmy life. Fat is still foreign to me.

The Skinny on Fat

Just a few years ago I dipped down to 163 while cycling my ass off in summer. That might happen again this summer or it might not. My companion has threatened me to not get leaner than her. Yet when I met her she was in training for a Half Ironman and to hug her was like stroking the back of a hunting lioness. All sinew and smoothness.

So the goal is to lose some fat fat fat and get fit fit fit this spring and summer.

And if the fat washes off me in the shower I hope it rolls far out to sea before coming to a halt. Perhaps BP can even use my excess fat to plug the next hole in their offshore drilling rig. That would be a good use of that.

Fat for Good. That needs to be our motto.

What’s a motto? Nothing. What’s a motto with you? Too fat? Join the club. Only I would not want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member. WeRunandRideLogo

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From running to riding, Tom Burridge excels through the ages

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

Kentucky resident Tom Burridge bike racing.

Kentucky resident Tom Burridge bike racing.

It is important to relate the following anecdote shared by Tom Burridge about a recent cycling experience.

“I was entered in a cycling criterium and did not do a proper warmup,” he chuckles. “So the first five miles were awful. I was out of breath and wondering every second whether I’d get dropped. We were flying along and it was still bad at 10 miles. I was just hanging on, trying to keep it together. Finally at 15 miles things started to come together and I actually got to the front and did a few pulls. I actually finished with the sprint at the end.”

Cyclists of all levels can appreciate the truth in that story. All of us who have cycled for years or have taken it up later in life know that cycling can be the most unforgiving of sports. Like they say, “When you’re wrestling a gorilla, you don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla gets tired.”

So the suffering and pain is universal. It occurs at all levels. Even with formerly world class athletes.

A nice pedigree

Burridge in his Kentucky days racing world class times on the track.

Burridge in his Kentucky days racing world class times on the track.

Which is what Tom Burridge once was as a runner. A former American record-holder at the Half-Marathon distance (at 1:04+) Burridge attended the University of Kentucky where he was a 12-time All Southeastern Conference performer in distance events. He was a two-time Division 1 All-America, SEC Champion and 4-time runner up. He set the SEC record for 5000 meters and has a PR of 13:48. Beyond college he ran with the Mason Dixon/Victory Athletic club cross country team that won the national championship twice.

His running PRs are impressive. 3:45 in the 1500. 28:52 10,000 meters. In the one and only marathon he competed his time was 2:18.

Those are formidable stats for any runner. Yet Burridge competed in one of the toughest competitive environments in running history. In high school he followed in the tracks of Craig Virgin who ran the 13:51 3-mile that still stands as the record for the Peoria, Illinois course 40+ years later. You had to run under 14:30 for 3 miles to even get a sniff at an All-State ranking and the Top 25. Burridge did that while running for Batavia High

A clipping from winning the team National Cross Country Championship with Mason-Dixon/Victory Athletic Club.

A clipping from winning the team National Cross Country Championship with Mason-Dixon/Victory Athletic Club.

School, the school to which he transferred in his senior year, instantly raising the quality and stakes of every runner in the program at that time.

Against the best

Burridge loved to compete and was not afraid to take on the world’s best when challenged. His race against Frank Shorter in one of the inaugural Chicago Distance Classic 20Ks left him in second place, but Shorter was after all the Olympic champion in the marathon.

The challenge with those times and those types of thrills is that they are not easily replicated as you go through life. The idea of running a 17:00 5K to win the 40 and over division just doesn’t have the same level of excitement as duking it out on the track at sub-4:40 mile pace.

In Business

So Burridge pushed his competitive energies into business where he is now President of TRH South, a middle market private banking operation specializing in raising equity and debt for small and middle market companies.

On a training trip in the mountains where Tom learned to love climbing, the hard way.

On a training trip in the mountains where Tom learned to love climbing, the hard way.

But the call to compete is never really lost in world class athletes. Which is why, a couple years ago, Burridge began to ride his bike. His running was mildly satisfying at the time, but like most distance runners with thousands of miles on their bodies, something about cycling seemed like a great alternative. Less pounding. More speed. It all just fit together.

“At first I was riding this crappy hybrid bike,” he recalls. “And I tried joining group rides with that. But a friend saw me and said ‘You should really get a good bike.”

He now rides a top level Cannondale 6, purchased from a friend known for his mechanical ability and diligent approach to choosing quality bikes.

Getting schooled

The new bike was much better. So Burridge started showing up at group rides. He chose to jump in with the racers rather than the tempo group. “I got dropped the first time at 5 miles. Then 7. Then 20. I worked my way up the pack as time went by. Finally I was with the lead group and trading pulls.”

That drove his curiosity to race, and race he did. But that did not go so well at first either. “I’ve got this mentor that finally told me how to race, tuck in the draft, things like that I did not know going into cycling.”

The training was different from running too. “At first I was going out to do base distance slowly like you’d do in running. But I wasn’t improving. I learned that you have to go out and get your ass kicked to actually improve.”

The cycling culture

As he rose through the local ranks of cyclists in the Louisville area, acceptance was slow. “At first when I asked to ride with one of the better teams in the area they were like, ‘No, you’re not good enough. You should go form your own team. So we did. And we’re all a bunch of misfits, like the Bad News Bears. We have people from South Africa, Cuba, everywhere you know? And we all got better, and we started beating teams with fancy sponsors and stuff. We’re kicking ass now.”

The same team that denied Burridge early on finally asked him to join their club. “I was like, ‘Screw you. You didn’t want me when I was coming up.’ ”

Recently Burridge immersed himself in training in a new way. “I went to Florida with this training camp. We were riding 100 miles a day. After four days I thought I’d be dead. But we went out and I thought to myself, ‘I can do this.”

Commonalities

What the story illustrates is that getting to be a better rider is a struggle for almost everyone who takes up the sport. It hurts in the same way for a former world class distance runner as it does for the guy who is riding simply to lose weight.

Which, by the way, was also one of the motivations for Burridge. The tall (6’3″)Burridge dropped more than 30 pounds from a frame that got a little large while working in the restaurant industry. He now weighs 178 lbs, and feels awesome on the bike. A great way for an athlete in his late 50s to find new traction.

To that end, the other component of this story is that runners cannot automatically expect to jump on a bicycle and succeed. While the same cardiovascular engine drives both efforts, the muscles necessary to drive a bike forward are very different in composition and use than those used to run fast. The fact that Tom Burridge is succeeding on a bike is therefore not directly attributable to his times as a runner. The more important lesson is the specificity and dedication in training required to succeed at either, or both sports. 

Bookends

It goes without saying that Tom Burridge is a person with exceptional drive at the foundation of his persona. His dual careers in distance running and now cycling read like bookends to a person blessed with considerable endurance ability. The inspiring part is that his re-discovery of those abilities in a new sport is giving new dimension to his general perspective on life. He is racing again, and it feels good and right and natural to bring that love for speed and competition out of retirement.

There’s no guarantee it won’t hurt, or that it won’t test the very fiber of your soul. But when you climb on a bike, strap on your running shoes or pull on those swim goggles for a go at your best, you know you’re alive. You really know you’re alive.

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Your training music, is Classic Rock really good for you?

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

220px-Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_&_Young_-_Deja_VuOn the way home from a business appointment yesterday the Chicago Music station known as The Drive began playing an entire side of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s iconic “Deja Vu” album. I owned that LP back in the day. It ultimately disappeared into some roommate’s collection. But thanks to Spotify and other music-sharing Internet sites, it has been possible to keep that music playing in my house and in my head.

The amazing vocal break in the song Carry On is an epiphany in its way. It’s as if the entire era of that music peaked at that moment in 1970. Rock was catching its breath for a moment before heading into the era of the Eagles, Springsteen and the whole post-Beatles outputs of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Music and media

Unknown-2It was 44 years ago that Deja Vu came out on vinyl. There were no other forms of music media then, other than 8-tracks, which you could not rewind. Then along came cassettes, the first truly portable form of music, and Sony Walkmans. And that’s when the running world first grabbed onto the concept of listening to music while training.

Since then the music media world has moved through a litany of devices to take with you on the run or the ride. You can even swim with music playing in special waterproof devices. I will say that makes sense. People who swim for an hour or more deserve some entertainment.

The Digital Age and Classic Rock

Of course there is almost no limit to the type of music to which you can listen these days while training. With music mix stations such as Pandora, iTunes and others now offering essentially unlimited catalogs, you can mix your own music.

But there’s one category of music that seems dominant in society. And that is Classic Rock.

220px-Beatles_-_Abbey_RoadYou can categorize it any way you want, but Classic Rock constitutes that whole era from the mid-1960s when bands like the Beatles, Cream, Led Zeppelin and CSN&Y led the way, all the way through the early 1980s when Talking Heads, Springsteen and Tom Petty pumped out one great album after another.

We should not be surprised that music is still being played. Sirius XM has channels devoted to Classic Vinyl and Deep Tracks. Even Spectrum hauls out Classic Rock when it fits.

It’s everywhere you go, in fact. The grocery store now plays Springsteen! Who would have thought?

Classic Rock On the Road

f6a3e3f03e432600_178369404.previewAnd there you go, running or riding down the road with Joe Cocker’s song Delta Lady belting through your ear buds. Or Aerosmith. Billy Joel? Van Morrison.

Of course lumped in with those great musical characters are some quasi-classic artists like REO Speedwagon and Styx. Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynrd. The list truly goes on and on. And by the way, if you’re looking for resources on Classic Rock, you can do no better than the “record shop” (it truly is) in my hometown of Batavia, Illinois. Visit Kiss The Sky (link to site). It rocks.

Van Halen? I don’t know. They start to slide off the register for me at some point. As Classic, anyway. We all have our music meters.

Off the Charts

But what do you do with bands such as Head East, whose obnoxious, annoying hit “Never Been Any Reason” took over our college dorm room freshman year? That music just seemed to attract the shallowest crowd. People who liked Head East would stare at you Traffic-John_Barleycorn_Must_Die_(album_cover)with that drunk look in their eyes when you asked if they’d ever heard of Traffic and John Barleycorn Must Die. A Classic album if there ever was one, yet completely missed by the Classic Era party animals to whom music was nothing for than a soundtrack for hard drinking and the vacuous escape from reality.

Soundtrack to Success?

When The Cars came along however, our cross country team adopted that first album as the soundtrack for our season. We played it loud at the starting line of our 30-team invitational. It blared through the biggest speakers we could find. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight. Just What I Needed. Moving In Stereo.

Despite that inspiration we took second to Augustana College, our most hated rivals in the Midwest. They were too much like us. And yet not.

The music did not, it turned out, help us triumph.

Is Classic Rock Good for You?

Those are fun yet strange memories of how music impacts our lives. Yet if indeed Classic Rock is that soundtrack for so many of us, is that a good thing? Is listening to Classic Rock still good for you?

There are so many associations that go along with music. We learned from the film American Graffiti that music can literally define an age. But then we got doused in Grease with its pseudo-50s observations of love and life and things started to get confused. Suddenly it felt like our musical sensibilities were being used to shove sentiment down our throats.

DoobiesAnd so it has continued to this day. Classic Rock is played with a sort of assumption that everyone will automatically love it. Yet I have grown so tired of certain Classic Rock hits that I never want to hear them again. Most of the Doobie Brothers catalog can feel that way. Those songs were played on such heavy rotation in the 70s that they take on a flat dimension upon another hearing. Plus the associations with former girlfriends, bad nights spent drinking Stroh’s beer in some forlorn parking lot or going home alone and depressed to your parent’s house are so strong the music almost seems to pass right through you like some soul-sucking Dementor from Harry Potter.

Not So Classic Moments

Then come the really, really bad memories. The girlfriend who was so jealous she first tried to ruin your running with vicious drinking and sex bouts, and then quit school so you felt guilty. Or that boyfriend who respected you in private but made fun of you in public? Not so good memories.

Then came that awful factory where you worked that summer job with people who had already quit in life. You barely survived all those things. And now the songs that remind you of those days keep coming back on the radio or through some odd Pandora mix. You turn to the music and ask, WTF? Classic Rock is truly one of the tarsnakes in this world. It can be both good and bad for you.

Redemption

But there always seems to be some sort of redemptive quality to Classic Rock. So you almost always forgive it. The song Almost Cut My Hair that played on that Deja Vu listen the other day in my car? It sounded absolutely great on the Harmon Kardon stereo in my Subaru Outback. You can feel David Crosby’s voice shredding the air around him. His perfect pitch and bluesy approach feel genuine to the point that his aural apology to an era is IMG_0221palpable. It takes you back to a time when cutting your hair was actually a sign of giving in to the very ugly social trends we are still fighting today. Aggressively blind conservatism. The military-industrial complex. Unending wars.

Truly Classic Rock fought all that false politik and its associated byproducts; racism, oppression, discrimination. Add to that mix today the continuing battle for women’s equal rights and gay marriage, action on global warming and environmental destruction wrought by bio-engineered crops that kill milkweed and with it, the Monarch butterflies that are an icon of summer itself. Don’t cut your rhetorical hair. The fights aren’t over yet.

Digging Deeper

220px-Bruce_Springsteen_-_The_RiverThen you realize upon a fresh listen that certain songs have so much yet to offer. Have you listened lately to Drive All Night off the Bruce Springsteen album The River? It will tear your heart out. It may remind you of a lost relationship but what the hell? We all lose love at times. Listen to the music. Yes, Bruce wanders all over the phony map at times with lyrics about factories and all, but this is one-t0-one yearning that will make you hug the one you love now.

And so it goes. The music we’ve been carrying with us all these years can carry us now. You put on the right music for a run or a ride and out the door you go.

I’ve even been stopped in my tracks at times while running to listen to a track without the thud of my feet on the ground.

Practically Classic

I don’t listen to music while riding. Too dangerous in my opinion. A rider in our area was so absorbed in his music that he crossed some rural railroad tracks and got crushed by an oncoming train. There’s nothing Classic or Rockin’ about that at all. Our music should sustain us, not kill us.

There’s one other aspect of Classic Rock that must be considered in terms of our emotions and our thinking. If you have ever heard of the Mozart Effect, then you perhaps know that Classical Music, not Classic Rock is better designed for encouraging creative thought processes. Rock, with its incessant beats, infectious licks and suggestive lyrics has the effect of actually over-writing or replacing our thoughts rather than encouraging new ones. So while you might like the supposedly motivational feel of Classic Rock while you run and ride, you may actually, in some ways, be holding yourself back. Think about it.

Keep On Rocking…

it’s a fine line sometimes as to whether Classic Rock is good for you or not. Some of those songs are so powerfully associated with events in our lives you can almost smell the pot, feel the heat of the one you were with and remember those moments like they were yesterday. Whether those memories are good to dredge up or not is a question for the ages.

Psychologists could probably tell us more. It is said that smells are some of the most powerful memory-makers in our lives. But music must come in a close second.

But as we’ve all learned, sometimes coming in second is a real treasured experience. You do your best and if your best isn’t good enough to win, at least you have the memory of your effort, and live to take on another day.

That may be the ultimate value of Classic Rock for all of us. We’ve made it through a lot in life, and plan to keep on trucking. If the music gets you there, it’s hard to argue that it’s not good for you. In some ways.

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Would you apply for a job to run, ride or swim?

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

You love to run, ride or swim. But would you get a job as a runner or cyclist or swimmer if you applied today?

What follows are job descriptions for what it takes to do each of those respective sports, or all three. See if you have what it takes to qualify for the jobs…

POSITION: RUNNER

photo (8)Qualifications: Must put one foot in front of the other rapidly.

Skills: Ability to sense and maintain pace, keep tempo and perform under conditions of duress, stress and cardiovascular exhaustion. No heavy lifting required unless participating in a Tough Mudder competition.

Requirements: Consistent training must be demonstrated with results measured in interval workouts, long distance runs and races. Commit to compete in marathon, half-marathon, 10K and 5K distance events. Some team participation may be required, including relays. Must exhibit overall positive attitude and avoid sickness or overtraining whenever possible. Maintain membership in USATF until Alberto Salazar gets you kicked out for bumping into one of his runners.

Compensation: Performance-based unless otherwise indicated.

POSITION: CYCLIST

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Qualifications: Must be able to stay upright, pedal fast and use brakes.

Skills: Ability to endure 3-5 hour training rides and races is important. Must have strong lower back and exaggeratedly large thighs or extremely thin frame. Willingness to endure embarrassing tan lines a plus. Should have mastered skills of eating and drinking while moving at a high rate of speed

Requirements: Prefer candidate with ability to pedal at speeds over 20 mph solo for at least two hours. Also adept at riding in draft up to 26-30 mph and 33 mph and above in a sprint. Must ride hills with consistency and exhibit proven shifting ability. Ideal candidates will ride at least one Century per year. Prefer riders with GC range of talents, including climbing, sprinting, long and short sprints, Team Time Trial and Individual Time Trial. Tour de France experience desired, but lesser Tours may be considered. Experience with Performance Enhancing Drugs preferred but not required. At least not publicly.

Compensation: Performance-based unless serving as Domestique.

POSITION: SWIMMER

treadwaterQualifications: Traveling from one end of the pool to the other, fast.

Skills: Consistent, productive swim stroke in freestyle. Ability to use other strokes in emergency situations like Open Water Swims required. Or else you’ll die.

Requirements: Ability to swim long hours in the pool staring at the bottom as you put in hourlong training sessions and absorb so much chlorine your are chemically preserved. Hot showers before swimming suggested, but not required.

Compensation: One new set of Speedos or Tri-trunks per year. The rest is up to you.

How about you? Would you apply for any of these jobs, or even work for free as a runner, rider or cyclist?

So many of us do it all for free. And yet we don’t seem to complain about it. We must really like the work.

Some of us even do all three jobs, and for free!!!

It almost turns making an actual living look like the easy part in life.

What a world we live in.

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White ovals take endurance event marketing to a new level

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

White Ovals and their colorful cousins are popular ways to recognize achievements.

White Ovals and their colorful cousins are popular ways to recognize achievements.

Businessman Jim Varga has a history of innovation with data and product fulfillment. His company Neofill built its reputation creating consumer connections for radio and other industries. The company has earned an A- rating from the Better Business Bureau.

Jim Varga is also a runner, and along the way to the finish line he dreamed up a really nice use of competitor data to provide races a way to recognize participants for their efforts. Varga took the classic “white oval” concept and its “26.2” and “13.1” and “140.6” designations to a new level. His use of variable data enables races to output and send out ovals with the exact results of each competitor’s finish time in any type of event from marathon to half-marathon, triathlon, Ironman or Half-Ironman, Century ride or any event that captures competitor data.

Race marketing

Second Sole

Click to enlarge.

That’s a pretty nice way to say “nice job.” It’s also a good way to extend the brand of an event throughout the year. Plus, sponsors can get additional recognition because the marketing piece that carries the white oval is a great way for companies to build connections with race competitors.

Think about it. While the traditional goody bag is a nice touch at many races, the marketing message for that space in time is dependent on the attention each runner gives to the contents. Varga has shown that there is more to a race than living in the moment. White Oval marketing enables sponsors to drive traffic back to their stores, websites or other commerce connection with a followup message that contains a highly personal––and thus high-value––connection.

Big picture. Direct response. 

The model is somewhat similar to the difference between brand marketing by auto manufacturers and the direct response mailings done by dealer groups across the country to bring customers into the showroom. Because it’s not enough to simply brag up your car or truck on TV or the auto show and hope consumers flock to their local dealership. People need reasons to buy and that’s where direct response often comes in. Agencies such as Aspen Marketing in West Chicago, Illinois conduct massive direct marketing campaigns to drive customer buying decisions.

Jim Varga is a business innovator who also happens to be an avid runner.

Jim Varga is a business innovator who also happens to be an avid runner.

Jim Varga looks at race marketing the same way. His use of variable data to drive customer response is exactly what race sponsors are seeking; a tangible way to build relationships with an otherwise fleeting audience.

A shoe company or retail store can add its logo to a designated white oval. The marketing piece that carries the oval can be custom-designed to offer coupons or any other method of driving business or store traffic. The business that helps race directors market their events is found at WhiteOvalMarketing.com. 

Every competitor counts

Of course Varga doesn’t stop there. If a race does not offer white ovals to participants, runners or riders can actually create their own version online by entering personalized data. And it’s free at White-Oval.com.

The flat-out fact is that White Ovals and their colorful relatives are part of the running and riding dialect these days. People work hard for their finish times and the methods by which Jim Varga delivers that capability to personalize white ovals is unique and special.

The data may be variable, but the message is universal: You matter and so does your achievement!

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The 7 Deadly Sins of Endurance Training

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

Even moral people split over the challenges of life and sin.

Even moral people split over the challenges of life and sin.

So you think you live a moral life? Well, perhaps you have not taken complete stock of the sins you commit in the name of your favorite endurance sport.

That means your world may be about to change. Because here, in all it’s dreadful, sinful glory, is the list of 7 Deadly Sins of Endurance Sports. 

1. Pool Envy

This one starts the list because it holds the most difficulty for so many people. In fact there are several kinds of pool envy wrapped into one juicy, wet sin. It all starts with how you look in a swimsuit. Satisfied or not? If you are, then you may be full of false pride. But if you’re not, then you might be full of envy looking at others who supposedly look better. Then Pool Envy moves to your actual swim stroke and how fast you are in the pool. Envy over how long you work out, and whether you can manage an Open Water Swim caps it all off. It all falls under the label of Pool Envy, the feeling that nothing you do in the pool is good enough. You know it’s true. You want to look better in your swim gear, and when swimming, wish you could breathe better and that your arms didn’t look like broken windmills as you swam. But most of all, you wish to hell you were faster. Well, be careful, because with Pool Envy you could just get your wish.

2. Training Food Gluttony

One of the ironies of trying to get fit is that the very foods we eat to help fuel our efforts also contain calories that can make us fatter and slow us down. It all gets real when you’ve finished a 70-mile bike ride and then drink and eat enough sports juices and energy bars to equal or exceed the number of calories you burned on the ride. That’s called “defeating the purpose” but it’s very hard to resist when you’ve ridden or run your ass off for several hours and are so hungry and thirsty you started sucking on your sweaty gloves for fluids and chew up the leather seats of your vehicle for protein.

3. Equipment Avarice

Avarice for new equipment is a constant temptation.

Avarice for new equipment is a constant temptation.

Let’s face it. We all want nicer stuff. All the time. When you walk into a bike or running or Tri shop the new equipment almost jumps off the shelves and into your arms. We may not need another set of bibs or a brand new pair of $45 running shorts, yet somehow you find yourself walking out of the store with a shiny bag containing objects of fitness pleasure along with 6 0r 7 other things purchased at the checkout counter. The other source of genuine avarice is out at the races. Everyone sporting $150 new shoes and $6500 bikes seem like they have it so much better than you. Never mind that your shoes cost $135 and your bike costs $5500, and that’s before the $1500 racing wheels you bought online. Among sins, the More Expensive is Better mentality drives equipment avarice. Ever the case shall be.

4. Training Sloth

Those of us who race after we train know that what we put into the sport is how good we’ll perform. That is why the sin of undertraining or overtraining can be so damaging. When we cease to pay attention and/or get so obsessed that we train ourselves into sickness, the Deadly Sin of Training Sloth kicks in along with guilt, feelings of diminished self worth and worst of all. Basically we are trying to compensate for our stupidity while training by racing harder than we know we should. That’s a sin.

5. Wrath On Wheels or On Foot

Even athletes at the top of their sports have challenges with Training Sloth.

Even athletes at the top of their sports have challenges with Training Sloth.

Getting angry can be a great motivator, yet it can also drag you down. How do you know the difference? If you’re angry that you’re not trying hard enough, there’s always room for improvement. But if you tried your hardest and didn’t achieve your goal, it really does no good to be angry about it for very long. Yet people aim their wrath at themselves and everyone else in the world when they fail, and that’s the sin of wrath in action.

6. Pride Unbound

I found a saying written on an envelope the other day. It was lying in the snow and I noticed it while walking the dog. It read: “When you win say little. When you lose, say even less.” That’s good advice because the worse thing we can do is lord our success over others. But the worser thing is to make all kinds of claims about what you COULD have

Pride and lust can take even superheroes down.

Pride and lust can take even superheroes down.

done if ONLY this or that had not gone wrong. No one likes a boaster and no one likes a complainer. Both are symptoms of Pride Unbound.

7. Lust Without Limits

In the John Irving book “Hotel New Hampshire,” one of the lead characters is a wrestler who lives by the motto “You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.” Good advice if you have unlimited time and resources to train and race. But if you live a normal life where you need to work, your lust for training and racing and love of your sport can be a torment not unlike being sexually obsessed with a lover. So you need to temper your lust for sport and find constructive ways to draw what you need from running, riding and swimming without letting it turn you into a competitive horn dog or nymphomaniac. In fact one of the best ways to measure whether you’re throwing too much of yourself into sports if if you lose all desire for other things. When you don’t feel jazzed about life or your partner, you’ve gotten into a position of Lust Without Limits.

There you are. The Seven Deadly Sins of Endurance Sports. May knowledge of these sins serve you well as you train and race this year. And note that like all things in life, it seems the very things we need to do most turn into sins when exercised in excess. That’s the tarsnake of the 7 Deadly Sins of Training. It’s recognizing your propensities that helps you stay on a better path.

But if you do succumb, remember to forgive yourself or ask forgiveness. Redemption, be it competitive or personal, is one of the sweetest sensations in this world.

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Are relationships the most important part of your training and racing?

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Christopher Cudworth

By Christopher Cudworth

Way back when a book titled The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was published, people were beginning to more deeply consider what it meant to engage in a solo activity as profound as running long distances.

Billions of words have been written about the subject since then. But what is the direct consequence of relationships on those who run and ride?

Here are some answers to that question.

Your relationships help determine how you feel about yourself

Relationships are founded on how things "come together"

Relationships are founded on how things “come together”

If the people in your life do not support what you’re doing, then you’re at a disadvantage from the start. Having clear communications and support for your training and racing has  everything do with your inner emotional health. If those channels are out of whack, you need to consider how to manage the relationships in your life and how to balance your love of sport with your love for other people.

If the people in your life begin to resist your running and riding as you increase the time spent on those activities, you need to open that subject up for conversation. And listen.

But understand that there are times when you need to stand up for yourself as well. People can be jealous of your time and selfish toward you as well. Be prepared to discuss your fitness activities in terms of benefits. Obviously it is best if those benefits do not come with automatic or dismissive sacrifice on the part of those who would otherwise support you.

A great relationship, and better yet, the feeling of being loved can help your training and racing in ways you’ve never dreamed. I always think of the lyrics from the song “Don’t Worry Baby” by the Beach Boys as a great example of the support that can help you overcome anxiety and other issues in endurance sports.

Well its been building up inside of me
For oh I don’t know how long
I don’t know why
But I keep thinking
Something’s bound to go wrong

But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realize
And she says “Don’t worry baby”
Don’t worry baby
Don’t worry baby
Everything will turn out alright

Sentimental? Yes. A bit dated? Perhaps. Sexist? Not really. It could work both ways and often does for men and women. The whole message here is that your relationships can make things better.

Relationships are important whether you succeed or fail

People support each other in multiple ways. Encouragement. Congratulations. Commiseration. It all depends on circumstances. And the relationship.

People support each other in multiple ways. Encouragement. Congratulations. Commiseration. It all depends on circumstances. And the relationship.

Having people in your life to keep your head on straight is vitally important. That’s true when you win and when you lose at what you’re doing.

When you achieve a new personal goal it is wonderful to share it with someone significant. But there are dangers with any victory, and the high you get from competing can lead to a low when that goal is no longer out there in front of you. Having stable, loving relationships in your life to fill that void is absolutely important. And wonderful.

The same goes when you fail. It’s dangerous to put all your emotional eggs in the basket of achievement. If you start your first triathlon only to flounder in the swim, it can be devastating. You didn’t even get a chance to ride or run! Your best events!

Or, if you’re killing it in a marathon only to cramp up at 23, walking it in with dire humility, it helps to have someone tell you, “Relax, it happens to all of us at times.”

Cycling is a particularly grueling activity in which you can coast through 60 miles one day and get dropped like a rock the next. That’s when it’s best to retreat and re-gather your will and self esteem with someone who was not out there beating your ass on the bike. Or, if they were, they need to commiserate and share their own experience at getting their ass beat. That’s called support. If you don’t have it, you might be riding with the wrong people.

But it’s a tough world out there. We all know that. We don’t sign up for these sports to be coddled. Taking your lumps and growing through the experience is just as important. Those perspectives are also important to share through relationships. We grow by sharing and building collective wisdom. When you get your ass kicked. Admit it. You’ll be surprised who much people respect you for that.

But then again, relationships sometimes come with tough love

Relationships are funny things. People who know you well see things you might not see yourself. That includes when you need a nudge.

Relationships are funny things. People who know you well see things you might not see yourself. That includes when you need a nudge.

Sometimes relationships are for getting you to face to difficult challenges in life. I once had a running roommate who told me, “You know, you need to stop complaining. Just shut up and run.”

That spring I went on to set all my PRs. It was tough love. And good advice.

We’re good sometimes at deceiving ourselves into thinking we’re doing our best. A good friend or a loved one can often see that. They may be reticent to say anything critical. But if asked, a truly good friend will tell you the truth. You need to try harder. Eat better. Drink more fluids. The list goes on. We all fail in certain categories and the people in our lives who know better can be life savers on all those fronts.

Good relationships look at the long term

When you’re in love and everything is going great, it is still important to look out for relationship warning signs.

Sometimes the goals you set are Once In A Lifetime Opportunities. You may never be this fit, or this young or this ready again. It can happen at any time in your life.

So if the people in your life are dragging you down during that opportune time, share that perspective with them. Let them know that the sacrifices are real. Because the consequences of giving up on a short term dream are also real.

It’s your job to lead that process. If you’re going to train for a marathon or a triathlon or a Century ride, you know that requires time that might go toward other things. Don’t try to hide from that fact. That’s not fair to anyone in your life. One of the nicest things to see at any race is a family waiting for mom or dad or the kids to come in during a race. That’s a good place to be.

Goals matter. Relationships do too. It’s all about communication and finding common ground and support through relationships. We run and ride for a purpose. Be sure you let the people in your life know what that purpose is, and relationships often grow stronger through that level of communication.

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