On The Water

"The unexamined life is not worth living" ~ Socrates [The pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through questioning, logical argument, examining and thinking] Lately,  I have been observing how people, including my own self, react to criticism, disagreement and challenging expressions. There is always an embedded instinct that drives a strong defend to our beliefs as those beliefs are attached somehow to our egos, self-worth and self-existence. When these beliefs get occasionally challenged, we feel exposed and vulnerable. Being wrong is scary. And it is our reaction to vulnerability and fear that drives our forces to either accept criticism - even if that seems to us fundamentally wrong - or reject criticism - even if that seems to us fundamentally right. Learning something from scratch at a later age can be exciting but also challenging. When considering learning a new sport as a former athlete coming from a different sport, things can get more complicated. We are not talking her...

  “Is there anything in life so disenchanting as attainment?” Robert Luis Stevenson - British author Sports and modern society have made us believe that winning promises to give more than it can actually deliver. And this is because we are probably focusing on the wrong aspect of winning. We view winning as an end-result but fail to take a deeper look at the process. Does winning medals alone bring success, recognition, admiration, fame, money, and personal happiness?  How do we feel when an Olympic athlete fails to make the finals? And how does it even compare when one loses a gold medal by a few hundreds of a second?  Does falling short by a lot or by a tiny bit make some athletes losers and less worthy of our admiration?  I am not trying to take away the crowns from Olympic gold medal glory or from achieving a challenging goal. And because I believe that "winning is everything", I will never be at ease with giving away participation medals to everyone completing a...

When it comes to training and racing for a goal or some few goals for the season, things do not always go right. They go left, up or down. Shopping for "going right" this year. Anybody? I spent last year in the shadows, training and racing minimally and trying to fix a problem that killed my running. After tons of exams that only proved my body is in perfect condition and after spending a good amount of six months on the massage table in the hands of Nathan Handerson, I finally got it under control. I got optimistic, I thought that all of my patience and persistence have finally paid off. I started running some pre-season races pain-free. Yes! I thought I got it! Unfortunately, timing is not always right. I am still on the roller-coaster train. Sometimes I am racing pain free and other times with some pain. So, things are not yet right 100%. Therefore, my scheduled training periods have started getting canceled and I started going south. But only for a little while. T...

Don't you ever have these moments that hearing of a single fact makes you think of the past and dream of the future in a tenth of a second? What I love the most during my training and racing period are the little things that can boost my confidence and motivate me every day. Things like, how awesome was that race I won two years ago, how much I struggled to get that 5K PR, how good I was in everything I was focusing to give myself 100%. One of those thoughts snapped me yesterday as I found out a cool fact about my former cycling career. I was not top-notch as a cyclist but at the same time I didn't have the chance or the time to develop as an athlete. The fire was there but never got lightened up. During my only 4 years of competitive cycling, I had the unique chance to finish 12th overall at the 2003 1st International Tour of Rhodes, a Cat 2/3 4-stage road race. I just found out that the overall winner of 2001 and 2002 was the now famous Fabian Cancellara, although b...

Finding the right coach or finding the right athlete and the right program for achieving your athletic goals can be challenging. I believe that the most challenging part for both the athlete and the coach is to set up a goal. A long-term goal (some years in the future) and a short-term goal (at the end of the season) - the latter will be part of the former. A coaching plan is a plan. And a plan is made to serve a purpose, a goal. A goal that has to be precise, measurable and challenging but also achievable. Once the goal is set, then the path to get there can be decided. There are many ways one can get to their goals. I am not an expert to say definitively which way is the best. The choice is up to the athlete and the coach. As long as there is trust between the two, trust in the goal and the outlined plan, good chemistry, enthusiasm, work ethic and passion, there will always be multiple ways to accomplish that goal and succeed. I know many athletes who do not have a goal an...

Persistence is still determination to overcome adversity and keep moving forward regardless of your feelings or the environmental conditions. It is a sustained effort characterized by will power and desire. Every athlete, from amateurs to Olympians, has dealt with some sort of injury or injuries at some point. Small injuries, big injuries; injuries that take a week to heal or years to overcome. Having a clear vision of the future, removing any stubborn attachment to the past and just sticking to the original goals have helped all of us get through the rough times. Setting up a goal and working towards it, can have many ups and downs; when you are up, you can overcome challenges like a steamroller; when you are down, you have to stay put to that burning desire of succeeding your goal. You will have weak moments; maybe you will cry; maybe you will want to quit. Try to see the end of the tunnel, stay in the path, have faith and hope, and you will get out stronger, more mature and crav...