The Tri Town Times: 10/30/23

• Posted on 31 October 2023
• By Antonio Gonzalez
• Posted in the tri town times
• 0

This week: Tour de France 2024, Endure what others cannot.

Hi all,

Here is your weekly Tri Town Times newsletter:

Events I'm looking forward to:

The 2024 Tour de France route has been announced and is causing a stir amongst the pro peloton. The route has a variety of firsts along with risky features that guarantee to make the racing unpredictable at best, dangerous at worst. Some highlights include:

- The race starts in Italy for the first time in its history.

- The race will finish in Nice, not Paris like it always has since 1903. This is to avoid issues with the 2024 Paris Olympics which start July 26th.

- Stage 9 has 34km of gravel across 14 sections.

- Two time trials, with the second being on the last stage of the race into Nice. The last time the Tour finished with a TT was during the famous Lemond-Fignon duel in 1989 (which was also the race that launch the global acceptance of aerobars).

Thought that struck a chord:

Only when you can endure what others cannot,

can you do what others cannot.

When we sign up for a challenge, the assumption is that it will challenge our ability to endure. It's what we paid for, after all. So we shore ourselves up to take the beating, calling upon our reserves of motivation to get us through.

Yet success in sport is not about simply being able to endure. It is about building yourself up into the type of person who can endure.

To some degree the ability to endure is innate, some people naturally do it better than others. It is also highly trainable. This is the whole point of practice- to build your ability to endure what others cannot. The ability to endure a heavy dose of suffering is as trainable as the ability to run a marathon. Through training your body changes gradually, developing the ability to endure a greater amount of discomfort. More importantly, your mind changes as well, developing the ability to accept a greater amount of discomfort.

When an athlete questions whether they can or cannot finish a race, it is not just their body that is unprepared, it is also their mind. The have not done the training that builds the mind's ability to endure.

A common mistake is rushing the ability to endure. Just like a runner who pushes their volume up too quickly, an athlete must not rush the limits of what they can endure. When they do, it is often their ego that has taken control. They attempt to make up for their lack of preparation by destroying themselves in a single session- as if it is somehow a sign of toughness. It is not, it is a sign of stupidity.

When you've done the work that others have not, you will have built the ability to endure that others cannot.

Have a great week,

Antonio Gonzalez

Tri Town Bicycles

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