To forgive with equal abandon

Self-knowledge is a hard-won treasure, I have been told lately, and even the best of us are blind to much of what our friends see clearly.

Thats been undoubtedly the my personal epiphany of the day. Too often we blithely give complicated explanations of our actions and intentions which convince no one but ourselves. Fictions like “I was just resting my eyes during the third act,” make us feel fine, but fool no one.

The self-deception may reach far deeper. We may well end up like one of that sales rep I had dealt with  today, who clearly thought they were out of any failure and needful of no forgiveness, and therefore seemed not be in any need of advice and orientating critics of me. What he said sounded foolish and the height of arrogance, and indeed it was. But we do the same thing whenever we put ourselves outside the circle of the world’s fools and arrogant´s  by ridiculing or denouncing them.

If we were forced to depend solely on our lifetime record, unamended and uncleaned by any unearned forgiveness, we would all be doomed — without exception. We are all in trouble if left to our own devices. God gives His forgiveness freely; but there is no earning it. He asks but one thing in return, that we extend forgiveness with equal abandon to one another.

If you want to be forgiven, learn first to forgive.

Which one is you?

One of the most commonly asked questions in my daily  business , and which I do face on daily basis is

"What Exactly is High Performance?"

I love to talk about, write about, think about sports science, sports medicine, exercise physiology, talent identification, performance psychology, biomechanics, skill acquisition, elite coach development, recovery, sports physiotherapy, sports massage, performance analysis and all the elements and components of high performance sport, but what is it?

 What is this thing called *High Performance?

I can summarize it all in one word.........Change.

People around me, mostly those sales rep I do educate make High Performance seem a lot more complex, tricky and mysterious than it really needs to be. Sure there is some really cool technology and terminology involved - as there is in all industries - but the essence of High Performance and how I define it  is Change - or rather, accelerating the rate of it.*

Here's my example.

Two people pick up a book about exercise and read that jogging 30 minutes a day for six weeks will improve fitness - specifically endurance.

*Person A* - reads the book and gets up the next morning and jogs 30 minutes.

*Person B* - reads the book and gets up the next morning and jogs 30 minutes. Along the way, they start thinking, if I increased speed and covered more distance in the 30 minutes, I would improve faster. And maybe if I included a few hills, I would get stronger and that will help

me to go faster. And I wonder if I increased the time to 40 minutes, how

much more benefit would I get. And if went faster, added some hills and a few sprints, maybe I can get the same benefit from running for 25 minutes, etc etc etc.

And that's the core philosophy behind High Performance. Not so much the latest technology or the most up to date sports drinks or the greatest facilities - it is much simpler than that.

It is the attitude that things exist in sport only to be improved and enhanced. That what we know, is only the starting point for what we can know. That there are no absolutes, no "onlys", no "always" and no "nevers" in high performance sport - there are only limits to be ignored, boundaries to break and obstacles to overcome. Nothing is static - nothing is permanent - nothing is fixed.

No record is unbreakable. No title unwinnable. No contest impossible. No

opposition unbeatable.

High Performance at its core is a belief that anything is possible and that nothing is impossible.

Money helps create world class high performance environments. There is no doubt that funding helps build the best facilities, buy the best equipment, support innovative research programs and so on.

*But money alone does not make high performance programs successful. *

It is the attitude and beliefs of the people who drive the environments that makes the difference.

You are either someone who is passionate about change - or someone who is equally passionate about keeping things the way they are.

Around workplace there are hundreds of colleagues involved in business and started to think about their jobs.

A few thought, "I wonder what is least amount of effort I can put in today and still get paid?"

Most thought, "I wonder what's for dinner tonight when I get home from work?"

A few - the real High Performance people thought, "I wonder how far I can push the limits of what I do and how fast I can accelerate the rate of change in my sport?"

Which one was you?

Let me wrap up these briefly:

   1. The essence of High Performance is Change. If you are a person who

      loves the challenge of change, who looks at things in terms of how

      much they can be improved, then High Performance is for you.

   2. Decide if you are a "make the car go faster" type of person or a

      "how can we make the car safer" type of person. High performance

      people are risk takers who know no limits, no boundaries and see

      "what is" only as the starting point for "what can be".

   3. High Performance is not so much secrets and mysteries and big

      words about muscle energy and applied physics. It is a mindset - a

      mindset that actively seeks and embraces change - accelerating the

      rate of change faster than the competition.

Thanks for reading, thanks for the opportunity to share

Robert

Finale Intersport Inter Mountain Series 2012

Die 7. Auflage der Intersport Inter Mountain Series 2012 wurde mit dem letzten, abschliessenden Rennen im polnischen Istebna, im Rahmen des Powerade Marathons, zu Ende gefahren.

Die Sieger der Gesamtwertung 2012: 2. Robert Matusek, 1. Ondrej Fojtik, 3. Peter Jasenovec

Details

Detailinfos zu diesem Event

Link

www.inter-mountain-series.at

Die Serie nahm ihren Start in Prag, der Genesis Bike Prague Marathon genoss im Juni sein Debut. Anfang Juli war dann der altetablierte Duna Marathon in Ungarn an der Reihe - immer ein Erfolg. Das am meisten Ehrfurcht einflössende Rennen der Serie überhaupt - die berühmte Salzkammergut Trophy in Bad Goisern - hatte durch das ausgeklügelte Punktesystem eine gute Chance ermöglicht, mächtig Punkte zu sammeln. Die darauffolgenden Rennen, der Intersport Stupava Marathon und Horal Alto Marathon wurden in der Slowakei gefahren, der erste in den Klein-Karpaten und letzterer im Nationalpark Slowakisches Paradies. Seine Anziehungskraft ist schon allein durch die Nähe der Hohen Tatra nicht zu leugnen.

Bis vor dem allerletzen Rennen in Polen blieb die Gesamtwertung relativ offen. Denn bis zu 16 Fahrer bei den Herren hatten immerhin noch eine grosse Chance, die Podestplätze in Angriff zu nehmen. Dies und die Tatsache, dass im Rahmen einer äusserst attraktiven Tombola das Topmodell der Genesis Serie mit einem Wert von 3.500 Euro - für alle, die mindestens drei Rennen gefahren sind - zu gewinnen war, hatte die Entscheidung, in die polnische Beskydy zu fahren, leichter gemacht.

Das ohnehin schon sehr beliebte Rennen in Istebna hat seinen guten Ruf durch seine betörend schöne Umgebung und selektive Strecke bereits lange verdient. Dazu hat sich ein malerisches, und relativ warmes, Spätherbstwetter gesellt, mit Höchstwerten um die 19 Grad.

In der Damenwertung hatte Juhasova Andrea aus der Slowakei die konstanteste Leistung gezeigt und somit den ersten Platz belegt, gefolgt von der Tschechin Lida Damkova. Den Podest hatte die Slowakin Iveta Krizalkovicova abgerundet.

Bei den Herren hat, der bereits legendäre, Ondrej Fojtik, Team TOYOTA Dolak, aus Tschechien einmal mehr dominiert, und überlegen den 1. Platz in der Gesamtwertung belegt. Zweiter Platz ging an den Ungarn Robert Matusek, Team BIKEZONE.CZ, gefolgt von Jasenovec Peter, Team sportego.sk aus der Slowakei.

Die Serie hat eine sehr positive Resonanz gefunden und kann durchaus als sehr erfolgreich bezeichnet werden.

Never give up on people

Some problems have no easy solutions, but that doesn’t stop the toughest of us from continuing to try, and try, and try again. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” And more often than not, persistence pays off.

But there are few problems that can be more intractable than matters of the heart and the challenges of changing hearts. So what are we to do when hearts are frozen in place, and not a good place at that? Jesus addressed this very matter a number of times, and He gives us part of the answer.

In essence, He tells us never to give up on people, but to recognize that sometimes, no matter what we say or do, certain folks just aren’t ready yet to move forward or to hear the Good News. In that circumstance, He tells us not to badger, get angry, or condemn. Just move on. Shake the dust from your feet and move on. Hold those folks always in prayer, and hope for the future, but let them be.

It’s hard to do, but in the long run, the best gift we have for such folks is our silent, respectful caring and hoping. So when that moment comes, don’t judge, just commend them into God’s hands and let go!

Robert

Just do it

This past weekend I rode my 32. marathon in this season. It was not easy to stay consistent and it wasn’t easy to get over some of the course hurdles. I noticed my enthusiasm waned about the time I saw at the half distance on the schedule. But it was the conditioning, consistently over the course of the whole that enables me to line up virtually every weekend.

I always have a plan B just in case when worse comes to worse. If so I handle it true to the motto: simply do it.

Let me briefly cite St. Paul who liked the race imagery as well and often used it as metaphor for the Christian life. His quote goes like this

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

For me (and perhaps for you as well) Paul’s encouragement and aspiration is to run well and to run our best. This metaphor speaks of effort, consistency, and obedience. In fact this is exactly the problem with us. Using the race metaphor Paul goes on to say us

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”

You know, Nike has it right. So many things in life simply fall under the phrase, “Just do it!” Many of my greatest issues and challenges are caused not by what happens to me, but what I do to me! In regards to the spiritual life, so often I simply neglect to do that which I know I should do. When I become lazy about my spiritual life, my “race”

suffers. I’m not riding well. I’m not riding my best. When you train for a race, if you take too long a break in training your riding suffers. So it is in the spiritual life.

Authentic spirituality takes work, practice, obedience, good doses of humor and equal amounts of humility. It is a race. In many ways it is like a marathon; we’re in this for the long haul. The conditioning of our souls is what allows us to run well. Frequent Mass attendance, regular confession, reading Scripture, reading an edifying spiritual book, serving others — all of these are ways we “work out our salvation”. All of these are ways to increase our spiritual health and endurance and run the race.

Peace on earth

Robert

To get prepared for the pain

Not far ago I wrote a piece which has been themed "why do you race?" It was an exploration in motivation; as an addicted rider it's not just my duty to determine for myself what workout to do each day or when to rest, but also to find the inspiration to climb on the bike day in and day out amidst the pressures of work, social matters, and the inevitable failures that come during a season of racing. It thought these lines and thoughts might help you as an active racer (or advocate of this sport) struggling with the same issues and spend a great deal of time trying to solve these problems .

Bike racing, in its essence, is a competition to see who can suffer the most and survive. During the week in training and recovery, and in a weekend of racing, attacking, and counterattacking, we know it's not always the most talented or most prepared that wins. Often the one who manages to combine the perfect mix of timing, tactics, and the ability to suffer and persevere when the opportunity presents itself is the one that wins the race. It's the essence of suffering in bike racing that I find the most compelling as a fan and participant, and what can move me to tears when the winning attack is made in some of those big marathons, or I manage to slip away for a podium place in the smallest of local races.

There is a dream state to suffering on the bike that we're all familiar with. You're aware of the race, that it's crunch time, perhaps, and that the break is about to go. We often find ourselves in the clouds at that point, struggling to make tactical choices while we're at or above our lactate thresholds for long periods, distracted by the pain, sometimes convinced that it would be impossible to increase it voluntarily. We repeatedly put our heads on the block and pull it away, faced with crisis points of pain that are difficult to act against in order to put in the winning attack or follow the decisive move, even when we see it plainly in front of us.

The suffering we feel has physiological basis, of course. Without a formal study or even an attempt to be scientific, it seems to me to be related to our self-preservation. Your body wants to protect itself against damage of any kind, and we know the more intense your work on the bike becomes, the more damage you do to yourself on the cellular level. The higher the intensity, the more the damage, and the more your body creates a sensation of pain to encourage you to stop. Cramping muscles are still one of the great mysteries of physiology, with no conclusive explanations. It's a clear message from your body that since you didn't voluntary remove the stress you placed on yourself by riding at high intensities for long periods, your body's going to take things into it's own hands to make sure the stress is removed. Anyone who's raced or trained to the point of cramping knows that it's nearly impossible to continue to pedal through deep muscle cramps.

To suffer, then, requires courage. To override your body's instinct for self-preservation, is the core of that courage. As an athlete, there's a time to pay attention to pain, give it respect, and back off to prevent serious injury. At the same time, competition is the place we're able to battle pain, and create tests and opportunities for acts of courage. Are then race results a measurement of courage? On one level, perhaps, as it shows who was able to play the game on every level to perfection, including the surrender to suffering. But isn't it always the winner who seems to suffer the least? The one who is a level above everyone else in the race, and is within his or her limits? Perhaps it is the less prepared who are the most courageous, as they suffer the most. It's the riders who race every weekend with no hope of ever winning that amaze and puzzle me, and earn my deepest respect. They suffer the most with pain itself as their only clear reward for their effort. To line up every weekend knowing that that's what faces you; that's courage.

I enjoy training as much as I do racing. I enjoy being systematic and structural in the approach I take to my preparation, I like the meditative aspect of my daily training rides, and I like the feeling of being fit. But it's the game we play on the bike, the races we do on the weekend, that helps us play out the dynamics of the world at large on a small, personal scale with no real consequences. It lets us get closer to pain, normally without experiencing any lasting consequences. I am aware of the glaring exceptions to this rule, but they themselves are the reminders that we are, in fact, alive, and need to make the most of the authentic life we have. Without the games, without the suffering, it would be simple to forget. That's the reward we get from racing and from suffering, far above and beyond any trophies or prize money we might or might not win. It's a reminder that we are alive in this increasingly dead and uninspired world. And that's what keeps us coming back every weekend.

Robert