Soul surfer and the art of working out

So in my working life I study leisure, no not a typo, I have a PhD in Recreation and Leisure Studies and teach/research at a local university. More on that later, but one of the things I'm really interested in is why people do, and continue with certain activities. I'm really fascinated by this idea of doing things just because, true intrinsic motivation.  The whole soul surfer idea, surfers or snow boarders who don't compete but just look for challenges out there. Been watching a great video podcast on this kind of person (check out http://www.theseasontv.com/) also http://www.zentriathlon.com/ also seems to get this, plus he is entertaining as hell! This idea of pursuing excellence but not necessarily in a formal organized competitive,way is really cool. One summer i had a chance to golf early often by myself and loved the idea of not keeping score but just getting that perfect felling of hitting a great shot or even creating interesting and challenging situation on the course to try. Same with tennis for me, nothing like getting into the rhythm of hitting tons of balls just trying for the perfect sound, feel and swing.

  Being the analytic sort I've discovered a pattern that my pursuit of a leisure activities seems to be inversely related to the precision of my plan and the formality of an event! Sign up for a century ride and my bike gathers dust, develop an intricate couch to 5 k plan with ever second timed out and the couch wins. I have enough of a psychology background to know that we could talk about fear of failure or success and goal avoidance and a whole bunch of stuff but really looking at this I think the answer is pretty simple. I really hate to add external incentives to my favorite activities. In the past I loved to play tennis for hours and hours a day as a kid and teen and then I taught tennis and eventually it became my full time job, a dream job to some but it started to kill my passion for the sport. A passion I'm just getting back nearly 20 years later.

This whole idea of soul athletes is something I'm develop a research project one, so if you are one of them send me an email love to talk to you!

So this year, the up coming year of 45, I'm trying to get that athletic soul back! I'm still having goals but the plans will be much looser and the events will be viewed more like challenges (just words but we all know words can be very powerful), my plan will be to get out there and take on challenges as they come (some will be events but the training will be focus NOT the ultimate performance on the day) if I feel good I'll ride a bit more, still push through the tough days but no 1 min intervals or power monitors, sorry Chris Carmichael, just time and mileage and even not that some days.

Now if you read the last post on food good in chance in June that I'll be presenting my rational for a detailed half marathon program!!! but for now my goals are pretty straight forward. As my fitness improves more specific training may be needed but maybe I can just do the soul sport thing, constantly challenging myself to get better everyday, sounds kinda corny but also like a whole lot of fun!

FITNESS COMMITMENTS

Walk every day

Light flex/yoga in the am and pm

Breathe hard and get sweating at least a couple of times a week

Work on getting stronger a couple of times a week.