Suffer More Than Anyone Else

I saw a friend and fellow triathlete, Kurt, at last weekend's Cranksgiving-Omaha event. Kurt is as fierce as any competitor in a race. But outside of that, his easy-does-it attitude spiced with humor is disarming. But while we were talking about this past year's races, he said something that has turned into a repeating scratched mental record in my head. Paraphrasing, he said, "in triathlon racing, there's a fine line between pain and pleasure - that's why I do it."

Saaay what?!

Now I've often wondered what motivates someone to do ultra distance events like an Ironman. It's one thing if you're trained and truly racing the entire thing, but it's an entirely other thing when you're out there just to suffer. But Pleasure-pain? With the thousands of Ironman entrants, maybe Kurt's onto something here. Perhaps many triathletes are in some sort of 18 hour pain n' pleasure erotica fest. (If you've ever been to a triathlon, you may agree that this accurately fits the bill.)

Regardless, in my world there's a huge gulf separating pain and pleasure. I'd guess that my Mom would be happy to know that I'd fail at being a masochist. Indeed, I think I'm quite able to differentiate between agony and joy. If you're in doubt about your ability to distinguish between the two, try this simple test. Load your iPod with Barry Manilow, set it to shuffle, then blindfold yourself and push play. If you like what you hear, then you should be competing in Ironman events.

Still, I've got to hand it to Kurt, for he caused me to stop and question my motives in racing and training.

Then today, I read Josh Horowitz' Levi Leipheimer interview. In it, Josh asked Levi how he motivates himself to race, to which Levi replied, "In order to win, you have to suffer more than anyone else and you have to believe you can win to push yourself to that point."

I carefully re-read the part about "suffer more than anyone else". He didn't say a word about pleasure. It was just simple good old pain and suffering.

Thank God! Now there's something I could relate to.

Like Levi related, pre-race knowledge of immanent suffering can be a mental barrier well before reaching the starting line. This is especially true when you've done the training and have set a very specific goal that you'd like to reach. Training, too, is prone to a loss of motivation due to the suffering factor - be it intervals, a time trial or a long workout. I mean, wouldn't it be nice to rip up the hills and destroy the competition without slaving hours on end on the trainer, the treadmill or in the pool? Even environmental factors such as rain, snow, wind and extreme temperatures can be a drag on the mental mo-jo.

So why do I do it?

I searched the depths of my soul for answer. Seconds later, I had these: 1)Being physically fit has its rewards in good health, 2) The soothing effects of beta endorphins during post-workout recovery, 3) Refueling (and a good BM after that) 4) Measuring progress, and 5) Meeting of a goal and/or achieving a victory.

In my search, I discovered something. Boiled down it comes to a word: SATISFACTION. Hmmm, I suppose there is a little pleasure in it after all. By golly, Kurt's been vindicated!

Oh crap. It's 60 minutes in Zone 4/5 on the trainer this evening...