Racing as dessert

The most apt metaphor I've come up with for thinking about racing is that racing is dessert and training for races is a balanced, wholesome meal. The point here being that a consistent diet of training is good for you and too much racing can be bad for you (but a little is certainly okay).

I think this metaphor applies to all kinds of people. For the person frozen to the couch and who maybe has tried some exercise several times in the past but can't achieve long-term consistency, the ice cream sundae that is a 10K running race three months away may be just what's needed to develop the short-term discipline to eat one's peas and mushrooms of getting off that coach and doing some runs around the neighborhood after work every other day.

However, the way I intend this metaphor is much more self-centered; it is the outlook of a fit thirty-one year-old who holds a mildly skeptical opinion of the racing scene. What I've observed these last few years is that most of my fitness-oriented growth and development, both physically and mentally, comes as a result of all the training I do leading up to a race, and the races themselves contribute little but a treadmill's worth of non-renewable external motivation. Basing a pursuit on external motivation seems dangerous to me, and focusing on racing seems narrow.

Just as dessert does not provide any key nutrients, racing does not provide any unique aspects to fitness. I was reminded of this fact last Tuesday when the Hour of Power morning ride I regularly ride transformed into a race-like environment of attacks and impromptu strategy. The group found itself in between the winter doldrums and summer suffer fests, and with it happening that no one showed who was strong enough or willing enough to dominate, the result was a free-for-all of mayhem and red-lined heart rates. And I didn't pay anything to be a part of it; it's just an informal, group ride. From it I received a great workout, and I burned through a lot of stress chemicals and was left with a sense of satisfaction that lingers two days later. So even the competitiveness of racing is not unique; there are biking and running and swimming clubs all over, and everyone who's not anyone is bound to find others who are their match.

But again, races are not bad, just as desserts are not bad. There's more to life than simply growth and development; we ought to take some time to enjoy the geological blink-of-an-eye amount of time we're alloted. Some of us enjoy racing, and we should race. However, racing is only dessert, an enjoyment to be had after having eaten one's meat and potatoes. Have you eaten your meat and potatoes?