A Letter of Opposition

This post is actually an email I just sent to a friend.  I sent him an email last night wanting to make a friendly bet and he responded that he would be happy to do it, but that he wanted to warn me.  He wanted to warn me that I wasn't going to be able to do what I wanted; achieve my goal of going to the Olympics.  I thought about putting the message he sent me, but didn't want to do it without his permission, but didn't want to ask.  Suffice it to say that he warned me that I was setting myself up for the biggest failure and disappointment of my life if I was really set and had my eyes on running fast enough to qualify for the Olympic trials and Olympics themselves.  Here's the message a accompanying picture:

"My friend,

Got your call, got your message, but I don't feel like talking on the phone for now.  Nothing personal, but I just don't feel ready.

I don't hate you or have any hard feelings towards you or your words.  I want you to know that I am very grateful for our friendship, and for your friendship towards me.  I am grateful for your frank and brave words.  I know it takes a lot to say them and I am grateful.  I consider myself warned.  I consider myself more warned, or just as warned as anyone in the history of the world who embarked on a seemingly impossible journey, was told they wouldn't be able to do, and then did it.  I've gotten it from two very reliable sources, you and Ed Eyestone.  With that said I want you to know that I factor in the chance that I may not succeed with my dream.  I realize that there are factors beyond my control that may limit my ability to achieve my dreams.  I may go on my afternoon run in an hour and get hit by a car, be paralyzed from the neck down, and not be able to provide for the needs of my family and then never be able to do what I've always wanted to do.  At the same time there are things that I take into consideration that push me every day towards my goal.

When I was 17 years old I ran two significant personal bests in Washington state.  Early in the season, before I was injured with severe IT Band tendonitis, I ran a mile/1600 meters in 4:39.  I also ran 400 meters in a relay in 53 seconds.  Now I know I've brought this up before, but what's interesting to me is that when I was 17 I ran those times.  Do you mean to tell me I peaked at age 17?  That my Senior year in high school, where I was sometimes a whole year younger than my competitors because of my summer birthday, that I was running my fastest times I would ever hope to run for the rest of my life?  I REFUSE to believe that the fastest running of my life came at age 17 in high school.  I loved my coaches, they were and are great men, but as far as their knowledge of the best training plans and methods of training, it was alright.  I trained myself during the Winters and Summers.  A lot of times I pushed myself too hard during the Cross and Track seasons, which I believe was a contributing factor to my consistent ability to injure myself successfully.  I distinctly remember one session of 400s during Track season.  It was POURING down rain, as it often did, but we were doing a hard set of repeat 400s.  I think we did around 16.  My buddy Chris and I felt so good that we decided to do more despite the quickly cooling climate and the incessant down-pour.  We tore our shirts off and did 2, 3 or maybe 4 more as fast as we could.  My coach was standing by, letting us do it.  Knowing what I know now, that was a dumb move by me.  I'm pretty sure I got sick the following day or week.  I overtrained.

Well that's what's been going on for the past 5 years.  A combination of intense circumstances mixed with a high dose of prideful overtraining and I haven't really improved the way I would have hoped. My immediate success with triathlons and marathons are pretty good indicators, I think, of my potential.  My first triathlon I ever did was an Olympic distance and my time was 2:24 and 3rd place overall.  I trained seriously for that for about 3 weeks.  I actually trained on a mountain bike, borrowed a buddy's road bike the day before the race and raced on it.  I attached a picture of my training plan that I still have, I took it with my phone, but hopefully you can zoom in and see the specific days' plans.  Anyways, my point is that I have never really known how to train.  I've blinded myself and been prideful thinking I knew what I needed to do, but until now I have been shooting in the dark, but every time it has led to overtraining and injury.  We'll see what happens, but I feel very confident that by training properly I will be able to achieve, or at least start achieving my true potential. I finally feel confident in training and by reading have realized why I need to do certain workouts a certain way, at a certain speed, at a certain intensity etc.  You should know that since I haven't been doing that, I probably/definitely wouldn't see the results I expected.  If that takes me to the Olympics, which I believe it will, but I won't be devastated if it doesn't, then so be it.  Love you."