Ironman Training – Day 5

The 102nd episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, “Darmok” has the crew encounter a civilization whose language they can’t translate. There’s nothing wrong with the Universal Translator: they simply speak differently. An example: “Temba, his arms wide.” What in the world is that supposed to mean?

After many failed translating attempts, Picard decides to personally go down to the planet to try to understand. He eventually learns, at great cost, that it is a historical language. Each sentence refers to an entire story engrained in the culture. In the ending of the episode, because he and one of the leader Tamarians went through a great trial together, Picard is finally able to communicate with them. This becomes a new entry in their language: “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.” Even as I write this, the profound noble sacrifice portrayed in this episode brings a potent heaviness to my chest and tears to my eyes.

It is also an excellent example of chunking information. As I’ve written before about some of these topics, my comments on certain aspects of my training will get shorter, as I chunk them. Today, I got up both overpasses both ways in the big ring – much harder than I’ve ever done before. “Cynthia in big ring on overpasses.”

This morning, I was thinking of the necessity of letting go in the pursuit of excellence. You see this in Olympic athletes: the one who is 100% focused, wins the gold, isn’t “in their head.” You also see Olympians who have choked at some point – their fear of choking again, or of getting injured shows in the tiniest delay. This morning, some junk was in my head that I simply didn’t want to share my bike ride with. When thoughts would enter just before I was to climb the overpass, I had to let go, so that I could make my goal of climbing the overpass in the big ring; otherwise I could feel the weakness setting in. But: I’m making a choice. I WANT the overpass in the BIG RING. “CYNTHIA IN BIG RING ON OVERPASS!” It’s my WIN. And I want my WIN more than I want the junk in my head.

“Cynthia in big ring on overpasses.” You’ve read about the possibility of headwinds on overpasses at IMTX <- which is chunked for Ironman Texas, of course. Even if I’m not Tamarian, I chunk story-information, too. So now this phrase not only refers to the accomplishment of getting up the overpasses on the big rings. For me, it also refers to preparedness, and working hard in advance to avoid failure later. And now also the process of getting junk out of my head so that I can focus.

Which always makes me think of our good friend Stan Lee: “Excelsior!”

Finally: how to tell if your triathlon friend is a silly nerd: striped thigh highs that match my bike, and a NASA bike jersey. . A favorite gift from Adam Perdue, and my favorite jersey.

Leana Ahmed, I dedicate this post to you today.

PS for my coach – I missed seeing the post-bike run today. But my foot is almost recovered from an osseous membrane bruise, and I have a run scheduled tomorrow. So – accidental miss, but probably a good thing.