The beloved running philosopher and cardiologist Dr. George Sheehan was once asked the difference between a jogger and a runner. His reply was a model of medical brevity: “A race entry form.”
Terry Laughlin, in Total Immersion book, Chapter 12
Quote
Why we race #231
Sometimes a race is a good day out – regardless of where you finish.
Belle, in ‘The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl‘
The perfect swim
In a pool there is little to see; swimming in open water tears away the blinkers, and suddenly you have a world of visual stimulus, just as you do when out on your bike or running through the countryside.
…
The perfect swim anywhere you could choose would be in a tropical sea, from beach out to an island and back, looking down as you stroke to see stingrays. Swimming there, surrounded by fish, warm salt water keeping you buoyant, you are alone with your thoughts yet entirely happy with them. There is nothing to compare with that.
— Alastair Brownlee, in Swim, Bike, Run: Our Triathlon Story by Brownlee, Alistair; Brownlee, Jonathan
After 4 days of heavenly swimming around islands in the warm Mediterranean, I’m dreading going back to swim in the pool at Surrey sports park. Couldn’t agree more with you, Al!
Run to Think
“If you can’t find the answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain’t finding them.”
What makes cycles so frightening to people?
That’s what makes bikes so frightening: we prefer the devil we know, even when it’s infinitely more bloodthirsty than the one we don’t.
Push.
One of the goodies about athletics is you get to find out if you can stretch. If you can get better.
But you’ve got to push.
- Coach Fitz (via Michael Lewis, in NYT)
One Life. Live It.
You just gotta appreciate everything. That’s one of the most important things in life… just really appreciating it. Because we only get to do this… *once*, and it’s not for long time, so… enjoy it.
On Winning.
“When I first started, winning was a bonus, you know? Now anything but a win is a loss. That’s how things have changed. I no longer win races, I lose races and that really changes not just my perception of things but the team’s perception of things”
Asked to articulate the difference in mindset between his first and one hundredth wins, Cavendish offered a moment of genuine insight into the expectations that have built up around him since his maiden win as a raw 21-year-old in at Scheldeprijs in 2007.
Dementors of cycling!
Intervals are the dementors of the cycling world. They drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them!
– @norbs, on Twitter.
Solitude.
When I’m running, I don’t have to talk to anybody and don’t have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can’t do without.