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Knowledge alone isn't enough
Do we always behave according to facts we know? Here is an example of how I don’t.Carbohydrate is king for endurance athletes. A pretty safe dictum at this point; almost to the point of sports-nutrition commandment. Education and experience has placed that firmly in my brain. Yet my behavior change reflecting that can drag along slowly, despite my brain knowing better. Here’s my very recent example of this: I like taking time off heavy endurance activity in November and December to achieve some degree of physical and mental rest. Laying low for a couple months offers me a welcome mix-up to the lifestyle, as well as dents the stack of books on my nightstand! True to pattern over the years, this January finds my aerobic activity shift from very low to near daily activity in the form of Nordic skiing.I am still in the early-season adaptation phase for this relatively demanding sport, and likely will be for another few weeks until my aerobic system and muscles are comfortably fit for regular hour-plus sessions. Just like when I begin bike or run training during the warmer times of year.Daily reminders of my budding fitness occur with chronically tender muscles and muted motivation to get up from wherever I am sitting. This is completely par for the course when getting back into it. It is also par for the course for me to overlook my need for additional calories, particularly carbohydrates! Even though I have the knowledge to increase my carbohydrate intake aligned with the increased activity, I am always a couple weeks behind to readjust my eating pattern, this year being no exception. My knowledge isn’t enough, my body has to TELL ME in the form of heavy legs and yawns, for me to change my behavior.Easy enough. I’m now finally changing behavior with oatmeal instead of eggs for breakfast, an extra midday peanut butter and jelly on toast, and some extra fruit after dinner. Top all that off with extra sleep, water, stretching and I’m more or less on track.This whole scenario is a pretty predictable annual occurrence for me. And serves as a great reminder to respect the difficulty inherent in human behavior change. Simply knowing better isn’t enough. I need to feel the need to change.
Portland Tour de Cure, 2010
On July 31st I participated in a cycling event called the Tour de Cure, which is a nationwide fundraising event for the American Diabetes Association (ADA). I work for a company called Novo Nordisk, a international leader in diabetes medicines, innovation and research and a team of fellow employees and I rode on behalf of the company in this event. As a team we raised over $1300 in donations for the ADA. That money will be used towards research and advocacy for the 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes (I think that's a striking fraction of the country who live with this devastating disease!). PowerBar generously donated bars, gels, and powdered drink formula to fuel our 100 mile road ride. My team of 3 fellow employees and I were very appreciative of the energy! It was a long, but great, ride! It was super cool to be a part of an event that was completely oriented around helping people who need it. Thank you to the ADA for organizing the event and thank you to PowerBar for supporting us.
Skate love
Right now I'm skate skiing as much as possible before winter passes. I am also putting in bike training miles for this summer's mountain bike race season. I'm completely infatuated with skate skiing way more than my long-term relationship with the bike. Is it just the excitement of a new sport versus the long haul I've had with biking? Too early to tell probably. Nor is it a fair winter contest when much of my biking is done on the indoor trainer. Skating is going to win every time!Here is a youTube clip of skate skiing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARRFYgVNl8This is my second year really getting into it. I am enjoying seeking the rhythm of it. When I began last year my energy was very devoted to executing some sort of technique. This year the technique feels more "wired in" and I find my attention seeking efficiency. The more I ski, I am also humbled on how never-ending the path towards efficiency is. As much as flow is tossed around as a descriptor of all things effortless, it's a decent way to describe what I chase in skating. Even though my skating is far from effortless (my heart rate regularly hits the 150's!) I find it an excellent activity to become oriented to my core, and synchronize the force of my core to the sports rhythm. So many sports have this same element within them (surfing, snowboarding/skiing, swimming, mountain biking, martial arts, running, etc), but it seems especially accessible during skate skiing. When skiing I try to tune into finding the most efficient and natural placement of my weight and balance while avoiding "forcing" movements. This translates into using more core power. I've already noticed a difference in my cycling efficiency and power, something I attribute to my skate ski cross training. I like!No doubt summer will find me infatuated with biking again but until then I'm just fine.
Action plan
Decide what is wanted then act to get it. That is one of my personal marching orders for myself, in sports and in life. Under those orders I recently mapped out my sport competitions for the year and a training plan for them. Barring any unexpected issues I plan on racing two 100-mile mountain bike races this summer (the same ones as last summer) and another marathon in the fall. My goals are to 1) have faster times and 2) at least as much fun, as last year. To achieve those goals my action began with a calendar and event dates.I first assigned an hourly volume of training to each week. I based the weekly hours on past experience (knowing weekly volumes from years past), performance goals (knowing it takes big training to achieve big performances), and regular life demands (knowing life needs to be balanced to have fun training). I factored sport science into the mix with 2 or 3 weeks of high-volume training "stress" punctuated by low-volume weeks of "rest". Finally, I also broke the training block into distinct phases of lower intensity "base" versus harder "build" training around each event.After an hour of orchestrating, erasing (deleting), and head scratching, I had my rough plan for the year. A plan that I believe will yield maximal performance and fun. The guesswork for the year is mostly done; it's now a matter of putting the hours in as they are laid out for me. This minor process allows the "act" component in my marching orders to be a simple and purpose-filled bike ride without further thought. Without this planning process, "acting" can be an overwhelming duty filled with energy-sucking anxiety. The former option sounds like much more fun to me.
Why?
Over the holiday break a family member asked me why I devote so much of my life to exercise/outdoor activity. I appreciated the question, but I couldn't answer it succinctly. We accept very broad medically-oriented "health" benefits (aren't doctors always telling us to exercise?) but I believe it's not just about health for most of us, including me. I answered the question incompletely with bits and pieces about feeling good but knew my answer could use more defining. Appropriately, New Years time was the backdrop on thinking deeper about why I do (work out, in this case) what I strangely do. When skate-skiing yesterday I came up with Fun. Fulfillment. Friends. None of those are about our cardiovascular system or losing inches off the waist. All three of those are more immediate to me than my abstract long-term health. If these benefits were marketed as much as health/weight loss, would more of the population then have an active lifestyle? Could Madison Avenue convince us to broaden our reasons to get out there? I think it would be cool if they found out. Anyhow, back to why bike, run, ski, et al. Right now, especially, it may feel more difficult to give precious energy to "playing" outside, particularly if medical health and waistlines are not motivators. I know the fun of mountain biking in beautiful country (of course requiring many not-always-so-fun hours of training) is some of the the finest fun I have ever known. That is a powerful motivator for me. So is the fulfillment from progress, for example, along the learning curve in the basic skate-ski rhythm that you mechanically perform, and then eventually feel (Wow! It's starting to flow!) The friends seem to be a standard package with active-lifestyles. What really makes us tick more than the people around us? Especially if in a spell of uncertainty, it seems valuable to not take these grounding-benefits for granted. I'm glad I got the "why do it?" question. Reconnecting to something beyond "It's good for you!" made a window into my automatic work out-behavior a bit clearer. I'd wager that our population's spectrum of core motivations to be active is broad, often unsuspecting and inspiring. I hope the New Year offers some motivation to reestablish your motivations, as well as plenty of fun, fulfillment, and friends.
BLOG ARCHIVE
Oregon, United States
Triathlon, Athletes/Active Lifestyle
BS in biology, MS in exercise science, BS in nutrition/dietetics, Registered Dietitian. 10…MORE
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