Back in the 1911 Tour de France there was a classic battle between two great French riders, Maurice Brocco and Henri Desgrange. That year the tour was a monster, 5,344kms with one stage (12) being 470kms and taking over 18hrs to complete. By the time Brocco reached that stage he had already lost significant time and he knew he would not contend for the podium so he decided to offer help to a Luxembourgian rider Francois Faber, who was also facing the possibility of elimination for missing the time limit. Allegedly, the two riders agreed on an "arrangement," and Brocco paced Faber to the finish line and the stage victory. Desgrange was absolutely furious at Brocco and was quoted in the the French paper, L'Auto "He is unworthy. He is no more than a domestique." That led to the concept of a rider sacrificing their personal ambitions of victory for someone else to be thought of as a "domestique." From an insult in 1911 to a noble title today, this is my year to become the domistique (servant) for others.
The people close to me know that I've been struggling all year with some sort of cold, flu or virus and it's been happening far too often and for far too long. Most people know how to read the subtle signals their body is giving them to back off or scale back on the intensity. Well my body has been screaming at me for 6 months now to stop racing so much. I finally get it and I'm going to listen. I was in Jasper last week and I should have been incredibly excited to go out for a ride in the mountains but I was just tired and weak and I couldn't manage to go more than 5kms. I took it easy for the next couple days but when I got back home and I was suffering again from a terrible stomach flu that had me throwing up all Canada Day I finally decided enough was enough. This was probably the 6th time I've been sick since January, time to re-evaluate my plans for the year.
Amber has been doing some research in Adrenal fatigue and I think that is probably the best explanation to what has been happening. It comes from years of pushing your body very, very hard with little to no rest that your body eventually just starts to shut down and does not allow you to push yourself like it used to. I admit I am not very good at allowing myself to take some down time and just rest but it's finding that new level within myself that keeps driving me to push harder and harder. However now I realize that my body is not a machine that continually improves year after year and eventually I need to plan years off or my body will do it for me. So I've scaled back my race plans for the year, I'm no longer doing anything over an Olympic distance this year. It was a very tough decision to make but I've realized that it's far more noble to become a "domestique" this year for other local athletes. So I'm going to do what I can to help Amber reach her goals for the year (whatever they may be) and be there for Robert, Dennis, and anyone else who needs a training partner to do a long swim-ride-or run with. I have to admit I will really miss the excitement and energy of Ironman week and the day itself but I'm going to do what I can to help others be successful and come back stronger and more focused next year.
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