For new readers

To get an idea of what I'm trying to do and why I think it's possible, check out the following entries, they'll help get you up to speed.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Accountability

This is destined to be a short post as i'm due home in 20 minutes, but I just handed in the draft of my thesis and need a few minutes to decompress - so i thought i'd mention something i'd been thinking about lately - accountability.

One of the toughest things about hard, effective training of the type i'm promoting with this blog is figuring out where to place accountability to ensure the longevity of the training.  It's easy to let 3 hours a week drift off to nothing - alot easier than say, 20 hours a week.  20 hours a week requires such a tremendous amount of commitment in the first place - life essentially is built (at least in very significant ways) around the fitness goals of such an athlete.  But i've noticed both through the 'participants' that i've trained and self-reflection that it's there's a hidden difficulty in taking on this 'three hours to prepare for anything' agenda - it seems too easy.

People start off excited - amped up. They work hard and realize very quick gains in endurance and performance - the learning curve is steep.  It's always easier to stick with something when the results are noticeable.  But just like any diet - it's not starting thats really the tough part.  Once the first plateau is hit (of many), enthusiasm generally wanes.  The workouts are damn hard after all - not relentlessly so, but pretty close.  The upshot of all this is that i'm realizing that my 'audience' is much smaller than i had previously thought.  Sure, i still believe that the theory is sound - but the crevasse that forms the gulf between theory and reality (for most folks) is always bigger when you're standing on it's edge than it is when the view from afar enticed you to head in it's direction.

I guess what i'm trying to get at is that this works for me (sometimes better than others) because i've accepted accountability.  I'm determined to do this - to maximize my potential as the byline of the blog indicates - despite the many demands on my time.  I didn't sign up for anything.  There's not the unconscious expectations that are certainly present for those who are following training schedules i provide.  And i think that things that are dependent, even in part, on external validation (pleasing the coach, the partner, the world), are easier to 'drop' when the s**t hits the fan than things that we do only to please ourselves.

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