Thursday, October 30, 2008

Out Of Synch

Sarong-clad Malaysians in a workers camp in Iraq

I spent my formative years as a basketball player, a single sport guy, playing "ball" almost year around. Every year the season started for me generally in mid-October, and I normally entered the season in dismal physical shape and endured the pain of conditioning as best as I could. The result of that experience has been to imprint on my psyche a yearly physical conditioning clock.

I stopped playing basketball after college but every year from about late July through August I sub-consciously suspend or drastically curtail my physical conditioning program. By about mid-October my conditioning clock kicks in and I'm back at it again, albeit in pretty sad shape. Each year the slide is more and more dramatic.

I can't seem to adjust this imprinted pattern and the result has been that I'm in fantastic shape by January or February, about three months early for triathlon season. It drives me nuts and I can't seem to push the pattern to the right a couple of months. While the rest of the triathlon world is eating sugar cookies at Christmas I'm in the pool or on my bike, peaking way to early. Maybe I should move to the southern hemisphere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Eric,

I'm Peter from Germany and just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your blog. It's not just about your job, it's also profound.

I served for 12 years for the Legion and visited the most dangerous places on earth. But even worse was that you can't visit your family regularly. So I can feel with you.

Currently I'm thinking about returning to the Middle East to earn some extra money. Friends of mine recommended me the contractor "Spelato Security Engineering" (www.sse-security.com)
They pay good money and don't send you in risky missions.

I hope you continue yor blog,

Sincerly yours,

Peter