Comfort

CBA to search for anything better


I have been thinking about comfort recently, specifically getting out of my comfort zone during exercise, and how that has a knock-on effect in other aspects of my life.

This past 18 months has been one long experiment of asking my body to do things it was either previously incapable, or I didn't believe I was. It doesn't matter which.

Now lectures have finished I have more free time to ride my bike. I have also been running considerably less, though that was always the plan. This poses new challenges: getting my backside used to the discomforts of long periods/successive days in the saddle, motivation to ride in all conditions, accustoming myself to the new, and different, training stress.

I love cycling -- it's definitely type one fun -- but there's always a part of me that wants to rebel against my plan. While running 5-6 days a week I wanted to cycle more. Now I am riding lots I want to run more. Rather than suppress my inner rebel, I am trying to find a balance between the two. This past week I ran twice and cycle four times. This seems a decent amount.

Back to comfort. I've never had a problem with being uncomfortable, it's something that I have always considered within my control; there are certain things beyond my control, e.g. natural talent, but how uncomfortable I'm willing to get is down to me. I can manipulate it.

I think this is a big part of why I had some success with weightlifting even though I didn't do it for very long. Things like 20-rep squats with my bodyweight on a barbell on my shoulders took a lot of mental strength, and if I didn't have it before, I certainly had it after.

And don't forget your steroids

Even when I was playing football regularly I managed to play at a good level considering my ability. There isn't a lot I could do about my ability but the mental side, and how hard I worked, I could control. Whatever happened after that would happen.

It's for this reason that I know all I need to do is convince myself something is worth doing and I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen.

We live in such an excessively comfortable society that getting uncomfortable is necessary to remember just how lucky we are. The example of Kenyan or Ethiopian children running X miles to school and back is a bit of a tired trope these nowadays, but for them it's reality. They benefit hugely by building fantastic aerobic engines and honing their running efficiency because they have to; getting out of their comfort zone is essential -- look at what some of the athletes achieve.

It isn't necessary for me, or anybody reading this, to leave my comfort zone. I could quite easily go months, or even years without leaving my comfort zone, yet look at what can be achieved by regularly getting uncomfortable.

Next time when I am out on a long ride/run, the rain is lashing down and my motivation starts to wither I will think about how out of my comfort zone I am, and I'll smile* because I know I'll benefit from being uncomfortable.

*I definitely won't smile.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Process

Image
In my last blog , I wrote about the second part of my season culminating in the A21 Interclub TT. Long story short: I  snuck under 20 minutes  in average conditions, achieving a goal I had been chasing for a couple of years since doing 20:13 on the same course back in August 2019. Everyone has their favourite TT course, and the A21 is undoubtedly mine.  Having finally 'done a 19', I then went and  did another  on the same course two weeks later. This time, conditions were more favourable. It was great to get to the halfway point and know that I was on for a huge PB. Rather than straining every sinew to squeeze out every second on the way back, I was able to relax and attack the three slow parts whilst carrying some great speed in the interim. Incidentally, I probably went faster because  I was relaxed and enjoying it, rather than tense and fighting the effort. Sometimes easier said than done. I had intended to ride a few 25s after the A21 TT but, because of cancellations and po
Read more

Kent 50 Mile Time Trial -- Preview

Image
Sometimes when I read race blogs written after the fact, I wonder how skewed the author's memory is by the race itself. I thought I would do things a little differently than usual for this blog post. Ordinarily I would write about my training, goal and race after the event, but this time I'm going to post some information prior to the race, and write another post after. The reason for my doing this is to provide you, dear reader, with information as to how I plan and prepare for a time trial, should that be of any interest to you. If not, it might well be an eye-opening insight, for me at least, as to how my preparation affects race performance without the rose-tinted glasses confusing matters. Recovery After my 100 I took a few weeks of reduced mileage, doing a few workouts here and there, racing if I felt like it and just generally trying to get rid of the fatigue. I had probably done too much too early in the season and I could feel I had overreached, a clear war
Read more

Adulthood is a trap

Image
Being 26 makes me a fully-qualified adult. Unfortunately the transition to adulthood is a lot like evolving Pokémon in that once you evolve you can't devolve. Unlike evolving your Pokémon, adulthood is not optional and is forced upon you by miserable adults that made the fatal mistake of leaving their den. Adulthood isn't all bad though. There's marriage which is essentially always having a Player Two to help you do life. As an added bonus, yours and their parents aren't in charge of when they go home and, if you want, they can sleep over all the time. You don't even need to ask anybody's permission or anything. Like many parts of life adulthood contains grey areas. The greyest of all grey areas is food. Deciding what to eat and when is actually a lot harder than you'd think. As a child, the idea of going into a shop and buying whatever you wanted was the stuff of dreams. As an adult it's a nightmare. There are so many things you should an
Read more