Triathlon, Self-improvement, and the Secret of Happiness
It’s an unusual day today in Hyde Park, London. Grey, sinking sky as normal, but with a rare, sticky heat. My legs are dragging because they’re not so keen on this particular training session. Open water swimming has always felt like a struggle. My coach is optimistic — she analyses me trudging through a few lengths before suggesting improvements: stroke rate, rotation, lower feet position. These adjustments turn out to be surprisingly do-able, and soon I’m propelling myself through the water like a powerful speedboat. I love the challenge of seeing how quickly I can throw my arms over; how slickly I can make my jet-black wetsuit rotate; how aggressively I can grab the water and shove it behind me, like a tiger prowling along the surface. The lake is beautifully cool and calm. I’m the only one here at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, just a mile away from my old office, and it’s bliss.
When people stop working, some sleep for days. Some travel the world. Some watch all the Netflix series they’ve missed out on over the last few weeks, months, or years. Me? I embarked upon an intense three-month staycation / triathlon training camp.
It’s funny to reflect on how this came about. I would never have considered myself a ‘sporty’ kid growing up, nor was I part of any university sports teams. It was only by meeting Carlos (my now husband) that I was introduced to the world of triathlon, and more generally, to the idea of sport as a healthy, life-enriching hobby. From my ‘baptism of fire’ to the world of triathlon (I cried the first time I tried running, cycling and swimming), it’s safe to say I am now an enthusiastic convert — to the point where I could think of not a single more exciting use of time, between stopping work and starting a masters course, than training. A lot. (And also writing this blog).
What could possibly be so attractive about triathlon? What is it that drives me to stumble bleary-eyed into the swimming pool before work, wake up at 4:30am on a Sunday morning for a race, and turn what any normal human would have considered vitamin D-absorption-fest holidays in Mallorca and Lanzarote into hard-core, unattractive-tan-line-building triathlon camps?
I’ll extol the virtues of triathlon in more detail in my next post, but the mini story at the start of this post gives you a bit of a sneak peek. There’s an unexpected mindfulness when you train, as your mind fully tunes in to your body and your surroundings in the present moment. There’s a sense of satisfaction as you seek to improve yourself, overcome your weaknesses, and become a stronger person both mentally and physically. And there’s a deeper fulfilment you gain from belonging to something bigger than yourself — whether that’s a particular triathlon team, your collection of Strava followers, or simply the global community of like-minded sportspeople.
But when I talk about overcoming weaknesses, I don’t only mean the day-to-day aspects of training — stroke rate, rotation, lower feet position. I’m also talking about more fundamental aspects of my character or life circumstances that held me back from being free to truly embrace the sport. I like to call these ‘unfreedoms’. (Pinched this idea from economist Amartya Sen, and his ideas about development — see, I didn’t just learn colouring-in during my geography degree). ‘Unfreedoms’ can be thought of as factors that prevent people from achieving their potential: in the context of development, things like poverty, social deprivation, and warfare. In my context, prime examples would be fear, embarrassment at being ‘bad’ at the sport, and lack of time. The reason I cried the first time I tried running, cycling and swimming wasn’t that they are inherently unpleasant activities — it was because I was terrified (more on this in a later post).
What I’d like to do in this blog series is take you on my triathlon journey with me, from reluctant 40-minute Parkrunner to actual, serious ‘triathlete’, battling with these ‘unfreedoms’ along the way. Hopefully it will be interesting for you if you are at some stage of this journey yourself, but even if you hate sport, bear with me — I think you could still identify if you’d like to achieve any goal, whether sports-related or not.
So if you’re interested in following along, check out Part 2 — Why I Reluctantly Became a Triathlon Convert, and sign up using the form below to get notified when new posts are out.
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