A diferent run

It´s 6 A.M.

One of those days that I hate everything that resembles a plan.

The idea of a compulsory activity makes me want to stop even before I start.

A perfect day for a “Follow the Green Light (FGL)” run.

The concept behind this awkward kind of training is, in fact, quite simple. You just go forward and when in a crossroad you turn wherever the green traffic light tells you to.

Where the hell this does leads you to? You ask in awe…

Well…nowhere…everywhere…who cares? The point is to face whatever the Light throws at you!

The Light can point to well paved and lightened roads, but can also send you to the darkest of places where all your senses have to be aware.

Sometimes the Light sends you uphill, or against strong front winds…you lean forward, you shorten your stride, you reduce the pace, you adapt, you suffer, but you never stop.

But the Light can also be kind and send you downhill, and you relax and enjoy the run.

As you become more experienced with the FGL run you learn that it is a mistake to get to carried away when the course is easy. When you least expect it the Light sends you to cruel and uncharted territory where you need all your strength and determination. You would be better restoring your energy when you can.

It’s 7 A.M.

The FGL run is close to the end and the Light was kind to me and brought me quite close to the place where I started.

I have to be honest. The Light seldom brings you back to where you started. Sometimes you end up in the middle of nowhere…but who cares? It’s the journey…It’s all about the journey! Always!

Feel Olympic my friends!

O espírito Wikaboo

Com o fim do grupo Facebook (por motivos que me são alheios), e enquanto não abro página nova nesta rede, aproveito para divulgar neste blog uma mensagem que me foi enviada pelo Zé Rua e que na minha opinião contém muito do espírito Wikaboo. Nesta fase em que estamos a receber muitos novos membros aqui ficam as fortes e sinceras palavras do Zé.
Muito obrigado amigo!

"Nuno,


Se as contas não me atraiçoam, acabo de completar 1000 kms como wikaboo! MARAVILHA!

1º porque 1.000 kms era o meu objectivo para este ano e estamos ainda no final de Setembro... o que quer dizer que ainda há aí muito kms para calcorrear...

2º porque neste 1.000 kms conheci imensos corredores; todos eles com um espírito fantástico sobre o que é correr e a camaradagem que isso implica;

3º porque estes 1.000 kms estão cheios de boas recordações:



- um treino muito leve e muito bem disposto em Janeiro no Campo Grande para te conhecer;

- uma prova debaixo de chuva intensa com a lebre Filipe na Costa da Caparica onde conheci imensos Wikaboos;

- uns treinos longos na zona ribeirinha (quando as minhas coxas doíam depois de 13 ou 15 kms);

- "n" e-mails cheios de dúvidas e inseguranças;

- os 20 kms de cascais onde o apoio de todos foi fundamental;

- a estreia encalorada na meia de Lisboa e a satisfação de a acabar;

- o ajudar outros a atingir as suas metas;

- o acompanhar à distância das "maluqueiras" de alguns wikaboo: os 101 kms do Vasco, a ultra do Ventura;

- o ver o Ricardo "voar" como corredor;

- a admiração e o respeito por corredores como o Cidálio, o pai da Maria, o Lemos, o Zé Mota e o Miguel Sousa;

- a prova das nossas miúdas nas novas oportunidades;

- o "regresso" ao activo no marginal à noite;

- e a corrida de ontem.



E em todos estes momentos, independentemente de ter corrido lado a lado com um wikaboo ou sozinho, senti-me sempre acompanhado! Porque sempre me senti em familia e sem constrangimentos por alguém correr mais ou menos que eu... os resultados que atingimos são consequência do que fazemos mas isso não é o mais importante... o verdadeiro segredo está, para mim, no aproveitar o momento sem pensar necessáriamente no "como será o resultado".



Corro com paixão, com emoção, com espírito de sacrifício e com um grande orgulho de ser wikaboo... ao início achava que isto dos clubes de corrida era muito competitivo e que deviam ser todos iguais... COMO ME ENGANAVA! Não me vejo, nem hoje, nem amanhã, nem nunca, a juntar-me a outro clube... ter o privilégio de usar a mesma camisola que corredores como tu, a Maria, o Lemos, o Filipe, o Zé Mota, o Ventura, o Ricardo ou Miguel Sousa usam... ena pá!!! :)



Se a velocidade nos separa, a paixão pela corrida une-nos de uma forma impar em que nada mais importa! Isso é fabuloso! ... e esta viagem, ao lado de todos os wikaboo (presencialmente ou não), é uma grande experiência!



Acredita que é um orgulho para mim vestir aquela camisola!



Parabéns pelo teu trabalho com a "tribo" e obrigado pelos momentos que me tens proporcionado (ainda que, como dizes, te limites a potenciar o que tenho dentro de mim).



Grande, grande abraço



Zé

Day one - The registration

July 22, 2011…358 days to go. The registration moment.

The act of registering for an event is always an emotional moment for me. It’s the first brick of a big house we are about to build. Yes it’s not a mistake, it’s we! Perhaps there are persons who consider possible doing this crazy thing of preparing and participating in an Ironman all by themselves…not me!

First of all I need my family, they are my main source of “fuel”, not carbohydrates and protein. I am pretty sure they will be by my side all the way. Second I need my friends…they provide motivation and joy in the long hours of training I have to face.

I am certain that I can count on all of them!

If it’s not asking too much a little bit of luck would also be greatly appreciated.

Registration is completed. It’s amazing how a sudden rush of adrenalin ran throughout my body in the very moment I clicked the submit button. I felt like going for a 5 hour ride! No can do! Long run tomorrow, there is a marathon to run in October.

I will try to post as much as I can of the forthcoming adventure. This way you can all benefit of my crazy approach to Ironman training.

This is truly day one of a long journey.

Wish me luck!

What is life without goals?

A hand full of nothing if you ask me.
Where are you going? Why left and not right? Why today not tomorrow?

Goals give us the reason for lots of things and help us to put everything in perspective.
I decided today to prepare myself for my first Ironman (3,8K swimming, 180K cycling and 42,2K running).

I have installed a countdown timer. 529 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and 59 seconds!
You think it’s too long! You have not seen me swimming!

The minute my wife reads this post she will scream CRAZY with all her lung capacity.
The fact is I am planning to do this and at the same time be a better, husband, father, brother, son, coach, friend, worker etc. etc (hey, I am not that bad nowadays … I just plan to get better).

How? You ask in awe … because your day is not going to get bigger!
Well, I believe that we tend to manage better what we have less.

It’s a fact that time is not abundant for me but I believe that I can organize myself to reach my goal. And I would like for you to be my witnesses … and who knows benefit a little bit with my trips and falls (there will be a few for sure). And of course I am counting with the incentives of all my friends and most important of all the support of my family … specially my wife that will be annoyed beyond words at the beginning … but in the end she will be there for me … like always!
LYF

Ending The End

As we grow old several events in life make us think about the end. No it’s not my middle age crisis (yet). It’s just a consequence of everything that is happening around me. The world economic crisis terminates lots of companies, animal races are considered extinct, close relatives and friends die, one could really say – everything comes to an end.
Somehow I have difficulty in dealing with the concept. I never see an end in anything.
To me the finish line of the marathon it’s just the beginning of the next one, the divorce was never the end of a relationship, instead it was the very beginning of a beautiful love story, and even the recent and sad event of my father’s death was not an end for me. It was just a stage of knowledge transmission from father to soon. There are in fact concepts, principles and attitudes that we know but we simple don’t put to practice until the right moment. It’s a moment of “download” and it’s never an end. Its just life in other form, actions on another body, living memories instead of living cells.

This inexistence of end is however a complicated issue.
If you acknowledge no end, where are you going to? What’s your purpose, your objective?
On the other end it as some advantages. Frustration its not an issue. At least the one that comes of not achieving a certain end.

Pros and cons apart I believe more in the path we choose than on the destination we arrive to. Storms and winds can make you go to a different harbour, can make you change your transportation, can even make you go back a little. All these reversal fortune can not however make you assume it’s the end because there is only an end when one refuses to continue. When one quits.


Say no to the end. See a sunrise when others admire the sunset. Consider every forced stop as a starting of another stage. With different challenges, different struggles, different joy and different suffering, but never, ever THE END.

FEEL OLYMPIC!

(in memory of Tiago Alves … an endless warrior)

Running is indeed fantastic. Energizes, destresses, provides goals and motivation, contributes to better general health … is there a downside in all of this. Unfortunately yes! Like the old saying too much of a good thing …
Running can be pretty addictive and sometimes (many times actually) achieving the proper balance between personal life and our running hobby can be somehow difficult.
Back in the old days (yeah I consider myself quite old) when I was teaching Indoor Cycling instructors we use to present an old story about a Time Management Guru that I would like all my friend to read carefully:

“One day, an old professor of the School of Public Management in France, was invited to lecture on the topic of “Efficient Time Management” in front of a group of 15 executive managers representing the largest, most successful companies in America. The lecture was one in a series of 5 lectures conducted in one day, and the old professor was given 1 hr to lecture.Standing in front of this group of elite managers, who were willing to write down every word that would come out of the famous professor’s mouth, the professor slowly met eyes with each manager, one by one, and finally said, “we are going to conduct an experiment”.

From under the table that stood between the professor and the listeners, the professor pulled out a big glass jar and gently placed it in front of him. Next, he pulled out from under the table a bag of stones, each the size of a tennis ball, and placed the stones one by one in the jar. He did so until there was no room to add another stone in the jar. Lifting his gaze to the managers, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?” The managers replied, “Yes”.The professor paused for a moment, and replied, “Really?”Once again, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag full of pebbles. Carefully, the professor poured the pebbles in and slightly rattled the jar, allowing the pebbles to slip through the larger stones, until they settled at the bottom. Again, the professor lifted his gaze to his audience and asked, “Is the jar full?”At this point, the managers began to understand his intentions. One replied, “apparently not!”“Correct”, replied the old professor, now pulling out a bag of sand from under the table. Cautiously, the professor poured the sand into the jar. The sand filled up the spaces between the stones and the pebbles.Yet again, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?”Without hesitation, the entire group of students replied in unison, “NO!”“Correct”, replied the professor. And as was expected by the students, the professor reached for the pitcher of water that was on the table, and poured water in the jar until it was absolutely full. The professor now lifted his gaze once again and asked, “What great truth can we surmise from this experiment?”With his thoughts on the lecture topic, one manager quickly replied, “We learn that as full as our schedules may appear, if we only increase our effort, it is always possible to add more meetings and tasks.”“No”, replied the professor. The great truth that we can conclude from this experiment is:

If we don’t put all the larger stones in the jar first, we will never be able to fit all of them later.

The auditorium fell silent, as every manager processed the significance of the professor’s words in their entirety.The old professor continued, “What are the large stones in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Your goals? Doing what you love? Fighting for a Cause? Taking time for yourself?”What we must remember is that it is most important to include the larger stones in our lives, because if we don’t do so, we are likely to miss out on life altogether. If we give priority to the smaller things in life (pebbles & sand), our lives will be filled up with less important things, leaving little or no time for the things in our lives that are most important to us. Because of this, never forget to ask yourself,
What are the Large Stones in your Life? And once you identify them, be sure to put them first in your “Jar of Life”.

With a warm wave of his hand, the professor bid farewell to the managers, and slowly walked out of the room.”

I hope you have enjoyed this old story. Perhaps some of you already knew it … but remembering it is never too much. Also hope that it somehow make you put everything in good perspective.

Yeah running is fantastic ... but its not a large stone!

Feel Olympic!!

42,195Km - It's a kind of magic!

Got back from Berlin recently. Was there for the marathon. I organized the travel and the participation of a Portuguese group, so I did not had the chance to run. Nevertheless I had the chance to watch.
I virtually lost count of the marathons I have been. Quite a few I may say. Nevertheless these events never cease to amaze me. The energy was absolutely overwhelming.
As I stood by the Brandenburg gates, waiting for my buddies I could not help noticing the immense heterogeneity of people crossing the finish line. Tall people, small people, fat people, skinny people, fast runners, slow runners, people laughing, people crying (yes crying), white, black, yellow people, in a small phrase, the United Nations, or at least what they should be anyway.
Despite of the fact of all these noticeable differences we could all experience a moving sense of brotherhood in the air. What miraculous happening gave all these people the power of mutual friendship? Of course, sports are by nature prone to excel these feelings of friendship, but go to a soccer game and you see clouds of rivalry on top of everybody’s head, you see anger in basketball when the lead player fails, you see frustration and disappointment in lots of other sports. Not here, not in the Marathon. It makes us wonder why people do not always relate like this between themselves. What’s the magic in the 42,195Km?
I have a theory. It may seem absurd to most of you, but if you have ever been in a marathon (running) may be this makes a little more sense.
I believe people are in essence equal. I do not mean physiologically equal because that we know. I mean emotionally equal. We love the same basic stuff and we value the same basic principles. The problem in everyday human relationship is the layers placed on top of our basic selves. These layers placed on top of us by our education, our social environment and other hexogen influences constitute what we call personality, character … whatever! The secret of the Marathon, the magic of the 42,195Km is the power it has to strip you down completely. Every piece of this gruelling effort will virtually rip off one more layer of your so called “personality”. You will end up “bare naked” of all prejudice and misconceptions, angers, bad judgements, everything that conditions your normal day by day relationships.
In the end you are just one pure, physically drained human being. And the guy next to you is just the same. No obstacle for friendship, so friends you become. Try it!
It’s a kind of magic!

It was a cold July morning at the Swiss Alps.
It was a training camp.
I was tired. We were all tired. Tired was an understatement.
Nevertheless all our faces displayed a serene smile. Yes, serenity is a good word. Happiness also is.
Jochen comes in. Jochen is a funny guy. The kind of funny you do not find often. Stay a couple of minutes with this guy and you believe you are is friend for ages.
He sits, he yawns, he stares to all of us and shouts:
“ I Feel Olympic”
General laugh.
Few seconds after and I was reflecting on his words. Feel Olympic! What a fantastic expression. What an immense amount of power and meaning.
If there is a perfect purpose for everything, this is the one; feeling Olympic. In personal life, professional life, in sports, the quest for this fantastic feeling that walks hand in hand with victories and accomplishment, is indeed the objective to pursue.
The fantastic thing about feeling Olympic is its individuality. My small victory is someone greatest achievement. Somebody’s walk in the park is someone’s lifetime goal. This is the beauty of the concept. Winning a gold medal is exclusive of a very restrict club; to experience the felling is in anybody’s reach.
From that moment on I tried to steer my life towards the “Feel Olympic” goal. From that moment on I tried to spread this word.
My blog is a way to share the small victories and the great lessons (yes lessons, not failures) of my life.
Stay tuned.
Feel Olympic!