WAYNE'S WORDS
February, 2006
TOPIC: DON'T LET OTHERS OBSESSIVE NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS BECOME YOUR OWN

OBSESSED: fill the mind continually, preoccupied

You might know someone who is a multi-sport athlete that is obsessed with their training and racing. If they aren't training, they are always thinking about their next training event, or their next race, or their past performance, or they are always letting you know how far they ran, swam, or biked, or their 10K time, or what their total mileage is so far in 2006. When you talk to these folks, they continually talk about all this stuff. If you try to engage them into a conversation not related to their obsession, their eyes glaze over and you lose them.

If you are a multi-sport athlete, you have to train. You have to find time to do your important everyday activities like your job, and family, and taking care of things. On top of all this, you still have to find time to do your training. Training soon becomes a second job. 15-25 hours a week of swimming, biking, running, weights, stretching, plus the time going to the Docs because you're injured, or sick from all that training.

Now to be competitive you have to be somewhat obsessed with training and racing. When your obsession has a positive influence on your training, racing, your health, and the overall quality of your life that's considered a positive obsession
Conversely, if your obsession causes your body to break down, you're constantly sick or injured, if it influences your job and interferes with your family and your other relationships, that would be a negative obsession.

One of the biggest challenges in being a multi-sport athlete is making sure your obsession remains positive and doesn't become negative. A positive obsession stresses your body so as you rest, your body adapts to the imposed demands of the training and you get stronger. The stresses have to be specific to what you want your body to do. If you want to be a better runner, you have to run, a better swimmer, you have to swim. If you plan your training and allow your body time to rest and recover you will get stronger and faster. The challenge is doing just the right amount of training that you get the positive effects you desire WITHOUT the negative effects of injury.When your obsessive behavior causes you to become injured, you've tipped the balance scale. You've stressed your body to the point that you've ripped or pulled, inflamed, stressed or fractured some part of your body, so that you can't continue to train at the level you were. Not only can't you train at that level, but you are now forced to rest so the injury can heal, which now puts you way back in your training, with the future possibility that you'll injure that part of you body again.

I'd be willing to say the biggest reason we engage in this negative obsessive training is because we get swept up in someone else's obsessive training behaviors. Good ol' peer group pressure. The kind of pressure that made me wear those weird polyester shirts in the 80s. If you allow their obsession to become your obsession, and your body isn't ready for that kind of training and stress, you going to get hurt. The key is to be able to train with others, but not allow their obsession to become yours. Now training in a group is always more fun and you probably will push yourself harder than you do by yourself.
It's good to be part of a team because of the support and friendships that develop. But, be cautious in those group workouts.

Example: You've just finished a hard bike ride and you're ready to take a hot shower and relax, but some of your training partners want to do an "EZ" run, which starts out EZ but after a mile or so everyone's clicking off six minute miles. You succumb to the pressure, you go out and start running and BAM!!! You pull a hamstring. You're out for a month and in that time you've lost about two months worth of training.

The point being, all things in moderation. Follow your plan and do your goals. Other athletes are going to be on different mega and micro cycles of training. They'll be racing different events and have completely different goals than you. Their training goals for that day will usually be completely different from your goals. If someone is training for an Ironman and you training for South County, you're not going to be doing the same kind of workout. Sure you can hookup with them on the first 30 miles of a century bike ride, but head home and let Mr. and Ms. Obsessive finish up the other 70 without you.

Be careful about obsessive behaviors. Yours will be different from someone else's. Make sure your obsession stays positive and productive and don't get caught up in someone else's negative obsession, which might cause you to get burned out or injured. Usually the best racers aren't the athletes who do the most and hardest training, but those who do train the smartest.
Like I always say:

Train Smart!!
Live Right
Until Next Time
Wayne
whuckshold@yahoo.com