Friday, March 9, 2012

The Ebb And The Flow

Doesn't the "flow" look so happy?  :)
This morning while I was swimming I was thinking about the ebb and flow of training.  I was actually feeling quite good during my workout which is quite the opposite of how I've been feeling the past couple weeks in the pool.  And I was happy to finally be "coming around" a little.  Flow makes me happy, ebb not so much.

Of course this is how it is with all training and racing and...well...life in general.  I think I see it most often in the pool.  I can almost always make my intervals or goal splits but sometimes I feel just awesome doing it, like it's a walk in the park, and sometimes...well, sometimes I feel like I'm drowning and killing myself to make the same interval that felt so easy just a week before.  The great thing about triathlon (in my opinion) is that when one sport is ebbing, another is flowing quite nicely.  So while the past couple weeks haven't been grand on the swimming end, my running has felt SUPERB!  (pretty soon it will ebb too I'm sure...  :)  The tricky part is to get all three flowing on race day! 

Anyway, despite the fact that I've been doing triathlon for 6-7 years now and am about to start my first season as a pro, I still don't feel like I have a lot of experience or that I have a lot to "teach" others.  But I will say one lesson sport has taught me is this: there WILL be ebb and flow and when the ebb comes, just wait it out, be patient and don't fret.  Don't let either the ebb get you too down or the flow get you too high.  I think it takes a lot of maturity as an athlete to really embrace this concept.  Something I'm still working on!

Kind of the same idea as the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan.  Which, in case you are wondering where that came from, check this out: 


Happy weekend everyone!  :)

7 comments:

  1. I love the video. Very interesting history. I know what you mean about ebb and flow, yesterday I could barely make an interval that was 5 seconds slow than one I easily made last week. Have a good (and sunny...so JEALOUS) weekend!

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  2. Perfect time for this subject to be discussed. Thank you.

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  3. Ha!! this screwy computer for some reason I cannot comment with firefox, and have to go over to Internet Explorer. Must need a new upgraded firefox or something. Anyway, you are right, life has ups and downs, and I have had my share.

    Thinking of doing a 5K on Thursday. I cannot even imagine how ugly that will be. :)

    Have a good weekend. Try and get at least a little training in. ;)

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  4. Great video. Thanks for sharing ;)

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  5. Good timing for this post! Today at masters was definitely an "ebb" day for me. I tend to over-emphasize the "ebb" days in my mind while downplaying the "flow" days, which isn't good. Gotta keep it all in perspective.

    In response to the first sentence of third paragraph... I think you "teach" people (like ME!) a LOT more than you realize! :)

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  6. so, I'm laughing, because I kind of wrote about the same thing today, but it's so true! I'm only in my second (third?) year of triathlon training but the deeper I get, the more I see how it has it's ups and downs. and I always seem to figure it out in the pool, too, that black line = deep thoughts.

    thanks for sharing ;)

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  7. What are you talking about Shutt? You teach me every time I come and read this blog, or I should say you are best at reminding me or giving the proper perspective on life and training. Don't doubt your abilities, and make sure you take this bit of advice into your racing this season, got it?

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