What’s Your Kryptonite?

Superman’s weakness was the very same mineral that came from his birth planet, Krypton. Kryptonite sapped his strength and could kill him eventually. Greek premier fighter, Achilles’ weakness was his heel – thus the saying ‘Achilles Heel’. Every superhero had his weakness and an arch-villain as his nemesis.

What is your kryptonite? What weakens you? What drains you of your energy and enthusiasm? Positive psychology has included a term called ‘toxic people’ – they pollute the workplace and leech it of positive energy and goodness. Putting yourself in a place of most vulnerability increases your risk of being affected by these threats.

For me, being ill is my kryptonite for I am psychologically and physically affected by it. On the physiological level, I am victim to how my body responds to the infection. On a mental level, I am tempted to train through my condition although that is not recommended. Having conversations with positive people, achievers, survivors and the like, provides me with nourishment and medicine for my spirit. Perhaps, it is all about energy and the various physical forces in the universe.

What you do when you face your weakness is critical to your long-term success. Think and act tactically, and it is short term. Think and act strategically, and you may have to lose a few fights in order to win the war. Sometimes, less is more. It is the sum of all parts, and then some. 

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This is my third meso-cycle out of four, before Ironman New Zealand. Coach has prescribed me a tough fourth week of preparation. Since I returned from my short vacation, I have been stricken by another bout of flu. I am sore in my muscles and joints, and these aches have been indicators that I needed to rest. As uneasy and uncomfortable the thought was of resting and convalescing, I decided to give in. It was hard passing up the opportunity of doing the New Year Day’s ride-run brick this morning. It seemed like an opportunity lost. Coach has prescribed a double-session this week for riding on the same day. He hopes that I will learn to do a better back-end leg of the ride. As I resume my work schedule of teaching, I will have to be creative with my time and ensure I cover my training thoroughly. To achieve a PB for my next Ironman triathlon requires a completeness of approach and preparation.

Positive Psychology: Learn To Be Optimistic

We are who we spend time with, including our own self. Martin Seligman, PhD., wrote about ‘Learned Optimism’. Despite its usefulness about being positive, pessimists are better than optimists at evaluating conditions during a crisis. Napolean Hill wrote: ‘What your mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve.’ You can, if you want to.

The trouble is: if there’s a will, there’s a will not! If you need a kick-start in your pants to get going, here is a good piece by Inc. magazine. Work with Type A colleagues, and you may be agitated into action. You may even learn to procrastinate away your procrastination.

You have heard about the seven habits of highly effective people. So, what are the seven approaches of productive people – those who get more done in their working hours, or even get it done much earlier. Endurance athletes can accomplish a lot even if they hold full-time jobs.

I love swimming, but it is the workout I hate! Have you ever considered mixing your swim drills up? What about fun activities between? How about dry-land workouts? Changing variables help in injecting excitement and fun to an otherwise staid and static training program. Even my students in class enjoy the occasional physical activity or puzzle.

This morning, I rode for 100 minutes. It was a strategically-placed workout for an ‘easy’ week. Coach assigned this week for me as ‘easy’ for recovery. I did a 20-minute warm-up, followed by 20 sets of 1-minute low-cadence pedaling on the highest-gear I could manage; rest period was one minute between sets. I completed the menu with descending sets of 3 minutes, 2 minutes, one-minute, and 90 seconds with 2 minutes recovery between sets.

Last night I ran in the swimming pool for 30 minutes and followed up with swim drills for 40 minutes. It has been a challenging fortnight of conditioning. Come January, I will have to step up my training intensities and mileage. It will be serious business. 226K are not something to fool around with. It can be impossibly hard work at times, and obscene at other times. I would need an inordinate amount of optimism and motivation to complete each session; all lessons unto them selves.

The point to all this? To coax the body into handling more physical stress in incremental amounts. However, at times it needs to be surprised with a harder session. Triathletes adore routine; so does the body. Once the body gets bored, it stops adapting and becomes resistant. Do shock your body with variety so that it does not get too intelligent, and refuses to progress. It's all in your mind and body. Stay tough. Be bold.

Is Your Cup Half-Filled or Half-Empty?

‘Before we can fill our cup, we must first empty our cup.’ ~ Zen saying

Sunday’s long-distance road-race saw adequate aid-stations and public bathrooms along the 18K loop. Some runners cheekily remarked that although the cups were large, yet they were half-filled; many chose to drink enough before we departed from our hydration-points. We used these precious cups of fluid to cool us externally and internally. One middle-aged runner – who deserves a prize for being protective of our environment – collected his spent plastic cups into the thrash bag he was carrying. I opted to carry my pre-poured, energy gels in a hand-held container and sipped from it at regular intervals - I left my garbage at home.

In the branch known as positive psychology, optimists perceive a cup as half-empty. Pessimists view the cup as half-empty. According to Martin Seligman, PhD., optimism can be learned. However, pessimists tend to be more accurate in evaluating their conditions during a crisis.

Do you have your cup over-filled? How often do you empty your cup? The cup can be an abstraction, referring to allegories or symbolic references. Marathoners pursue personal bests to attain a spot at their holy grail – Boston Marathon. There is no actual cup, or cup-like trophy for finishers but it is a collective cup that we quench our thirst for achievement from.

The elite and experienced runners learn how to drink on the run; they squeeze the mouth of the cup into a sickle shape so as to control the exalted release of cooling content. This also ensures lesser likelihood of spillage. On a hot and humid day, every drop counts for you do not want your core temperature rising to critical levels. Heat disorders can be dangerous; I experienced my first and last one at my first aquathlon and it was not pleasant!

Casual, unofficial tea-breaks are known to sustain workplace productivity. Research has indicated that by restricting or eliminating these brief social sessions, working morale and health suffers.

Have a break – take a cuppa’!

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Within 24 hours of the release of the results of Newton 18K/30K Run, participants have been expressing their concerns about accuracy of data capture, and validity of results; rankings have been haywire and haphazardly arranged. Whenever there is a new bib design, with a transponder/RFID device integrated onto it, potential implications may arise. Some received a DNF (did not finish) or no reading after their 18K/30K personal challenge; I can empathise as I did not get an official reading last year. That is why I still rely on my own timing on my Garmin 310XT which provides me additional GPS-assisted data. I am pleased I ran my own race yesterday, and hope to recover fully from the flu I am experiencing soon. The marathon on 4 December will be my last longest run, before my assault on my 12^th Ironman triathlon attempt in March.

Photo-credit: Ng Chee Beng