By Team ICG® Master Trainers Jim Karanas & Joan Kent
A key difference between training and exercise, as touched on briefly last week, is that training brings consciousness to the process. In so doing, it takes a more mindful approach toward work that induces physical pain.
Training is not about always working out at a comfortable level so we can enjoy exercise. That leads to stagnation. It”™s not about always kicking it into high gear. That leads to overtraining or injury. We need a balance between soft and hard. We must have challenge, both mentally and physically, but know when to recover.
Performance is the crux of the hard going. It provides the opportunity to experience our self-imposed limitations and better understand how to go beyond what our muscles can do. Doing something arduous teaches resilience, maybe the greatest lesson we can take from physical training.
Performance creates conflict and anxiety that bring the ego forward, along with ideas about what is or isn”™t possible. It can bring up self-doubt and self-defeating thoughts that lead to self-defeating emotions. It seems counterintuitive, but these are good things.
We begin to worry about how well we”™ll be able to perform in comparison: in comparison to our goal (or the coach”™s goal for us), in comparison to past performances, in comparison to other people. We can”™t get past the anxiety until we know it”™s there and look at it closely.
The objective of performance training is to put ourselves in situations in which we can learn to be nonreactive to discomfort, pain, and even defeat. This isn”™t ignoring pain or defeat. It”™s learning to feel them, but not react. (For the record, we”™re not talking about pain that can permanently injure you. The only benefit of not reacting to that kind of pain is when your life, or someone else”™s, hangs in the balance.)
A feeling of achievement or confidence is related to ego, and that becomes secondary. Even increased self-efficacy, our concept of what we”™re capable of doing, becomes secondary. The point is to go beyond reacting to the difficulty. It”™s not that it doesn”™t hurt. It”™s just that it doesn”™t matter.
Not that we should discount achievement. There”™s nothing wrong with success as such, or acknowledging it. When we bolster our egos by seeing ourselves differently through achievement, however, we”™ve lost touch with the absolute side of who we are. Achievement is fun, but carving out an identity from it is ego.
With regard to athletic potential, the ego is a limitation. No matter how big it gets or how confident we feel about our achievements, there will always be someone better. Also, whatever ability we have will diminish with time because we”™re impermanent. Ego obscures our true ability.
An amazing performance from someone who didn”™t expect to perform well and isn”™t really sure what happened is a spiritual experience. Wanting to repeat it and do well again is ego.
It”™s an interesting paradox: Continued training will generate better and better results. But, as we get away from ego and experience our being through training, we find ourselves caring more about the training and less about the results.
Ideally, performance results become secondary to the awakening process. The events enhance our transformation — through heightened senses during preparation, through aliveness, and through focus. To prevent being overwhelmed by the physical side of the experience, we go through preparation. That”™s training.
The danger with performance is that it can bring out the ego. If we do well, the ego expands. If we don”™t do well, the ego may go into self-pity — or refuse to continue because of the bad performance. That”™s also an ego response. We”™re just creating an identity for ourselves in a different way.
What happens in a performance event happens. There”™s no good or bad result, even if it”™s a DNF — just an opportunity to experience life and examine ourselves more closely.
Everything is impermanent except the aliveness of our being. Every experience, good or bad, can help us become more enlightened. Even suffering serves a purpose. It makes us more conscious and helps to awaken us. Then it”™s no longer suffering. Buddhists say, "Suffering is necessary until it is no longer necessary.”
Sure, performance can be simply a physical test of fitness, but it can also be a chance to go beyond self-imposed limitations. We may do better than we expected. If we don”™t do as well as we”™d hoped, we may have a different perspective on it and feel good about having done a great effort. We may even find that helping others get past their limitations is as gratifying as, or more gratifying than, getting past our own.
Ultimately, training is a spiritual practice. As the culmination of training, performance is, as well. Training on the bike means riding in such a way that it brings balance to life. Performance on the bike can be the culmination of that balance.
The harder the event, the truer this may be.
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Thank you for this, Jim.
I’ve read and enjoyed plenty of your contributions in the past. This one is no worse or no better but it reminded me that I oftentimes read and digest…..freqently print and file….. but don’t always acknowledge.
That’s my bad.
Best,
Vivienne
That’s a very generous comment Vivienne. Thanks. ICI-Pro is a wonderful vehicle for expressing ideas and exposing the IC community to Team ICG’s philosophy, training principles, education and products. Though articles that deal with the mechanics of teaching IC may be more useful to many of the instructors, some of us that have been in the biz for a while feel that philosophy is important too. However, not everyone feels that way. I was discussing this with Joan before submitting the article. We were concerned that people would not take the time to read it. So, thanks for reading and thanks for the acknowledgement. You’re a very active participant on this website. I hope we can meet sometime soon.
Jim
Jim –
Is there a way for me to get permission to share this with my group that is moving from indoor cycling classes to a ride around the Cabot Trail late this summer? It neatly sums up and extends a lot of the things we have been discussing. In addition, your line about “helping others get past their limitations” being gratifying will both help the group see additional potential in their efforts as well as help them understand why I am involved.
Thanks.
Chris
Chris:
Of course you can use it. You have permission. Thanks. Please LMK what else we can do to help.
Jim
That’s right, Jim……rub it in. Make me feel REALLY bad about leaving it till now to thank you.
Thing is with these online forums is that, for someone like me who’s not a slick typist, it takes a bit of work to type a simple “Thank-you” instead of saying it. I can certainly work up the enthusiasm to point out irrationalities or faulty reasoning etc. etc. so I don’t really deserve any Brownie points for what’s nothing more than basic good manners.
I guess this particular topic resonated with me right now because tomorrow is my planned “Race Day” ride for my mid-week crew. I started off the New Year by designating 2012 The Year of the Athlete (pending my 60th b-day in Sept.) and asked everyone to remember their resolutions because I’d be reminding them later. Well, tomorrow will be “later”.
I’ve done a quasi-periodization/systematic build set of classes over the past 12 weeks. For sure, enough time for anyone who hasn’t been “spinning their wheels” to be able to detect a benefit for work done…..or evidence that yet another 3 months of the “Same Ole, Same Ole” has gone by never to return (you tend to think like that when there’s a Big Birthday coming up……just sayin’!!)
I actually did a Race Day with my Sunday am crew a couple of weeks ago. Even without some of the insights I’ve gotten from this thread, the work I’d put in earned me an unexpected couple of bottles of wine this last weekend.
I expect some enhanced liver enzymes out of this thread.
Hic!
Vivienne
This is so true: we find ourselves caring more about the training and less about the results. It’s as if the event I’m training for, gets in the way of my training… which sets up a bit of a paradox as I wouldn’t be training if I hadn’t committed to the event.
We see this in simulator training for the aviation community all the time.
The training itself some how clouds over the reality of the training which is learning through self reflection.
Tying the mind/body concept of training together with the notion of exercise is my greatest challenge as an instructor. Most often I back into it by taking the class on a journey as we do the work. In this regard I find the ‘virtual rides’ to be very helpful as it engages more of the senses.
I would suggest however that seeing a new number on the bathroom scale is an ‘event’ for many in our classes.
John:
Eckhart Tolle refers to the art of “being human” as being able to balance the relative side of our lives with the absolute, always keeping a foot in both. What you describe is not a paradox. An event being chosen to be the focus of one’s training is a natural part of the process. It is important because you have to organize your “relative” life (day to day) to approach it properly. The awakening process occurs when you maintain a connection to the “absolute” side of things (things beyond our understanding). You never lose touch with that by becoming too absorbed in the goal. You are seeking more. You trained and completed an event (relative) that provided the process through which you could awaken (absolute). Events and goals serve this purpose to start but eventually lose their importance and your daily training becomes your practice and your focus. Some refer to this as the “spiritualizing of matter” or becoming more absolute rather than relative over the course of our lives.
Jim
Chuck:
Great seeing you the other day and I agree totally with your “reality of training” concept. Mind/body is the most challenging concept to bring into our classes in that it can’t really be taught. The process is unique to the individual and must be experienced on their own time in their own way. All we can do is set the stage.
I agree that the use of forward-motion video in our indoor cycling classes will help because, as you say, the more engaged we are on a sensory level, the less occupied our minds will be with unconscious chatter.
Jim