A Taste of Training Camp

Here's an inside look at what's going on here in San Diego, CA during the first Triathlon Squad training camp of 2013.  Thanks to Coach Paulo Sousa for the camerawork/editing.  Enjoy!   

More than just a civil rights activist...

I wanted to do a little something different to celebrate my Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I decided to do some reading on MLK. I hear the "I have a dream..." line all the time, but I figured surely this man had more to talk about than one of his dreams.

I started googling old transcripts of his speeches to see what else the man had to say. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was so much more than just a civil rights activist. Our society remembers his fight for racial equality, but unfortunately we forget the framework of his argument. Civil rights were merely a starting point. MLK was a rebel. He was a free thinker with a unique ability to relate to his audience. He wasn't arguing to have the same society, but with blacks and whites being equal. He wanted something more--a higher level of society--where equality would be a foregone conclusion. This is a critical difference. Dr. King urged people of all colors to be better, more educated citizens. I challenge you to do your part.

A few of my favorite quotes from today's reading:

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. "

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

"If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."

"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

"We must use time creatively."

"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."

Be Your Own Hero

Since I'm involved with endurance sports, I've had quite a few people ask for my thoughts on the whole Lance Armstrong debacle. Here they are:

One of my favorite sources of inspiration, former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, said, "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

This perfectly sums up my feelings on the Lance Armstrong interview that aired yesterday and will air again today. I understand the facts--he cheated. I get it. But there are cheaters in every profession--from cyclist to stock trader. To argue otherwise would be naive.

Does this interview change my view of Lance? Heck...one could even throw Manti Te'o and Tiger Woods into this conversation, too. We the public put these people onto pedestals. We have an awful lot to say about them, but what does this say about us?

Why do we feel the need to label and judge? I grew up believing that sport existed to teach the participants about life. Playing sports taught me hard work pays dividends. Team sport taught me the joy of working with others towards a common goal. Working through the ups and downs of training and racing has taught me the importance of believing in myself. Racing competitors from all around the world has taught me worrying too much about the opponent and not enough about oneself--you can be certain you'll lose.

I compete today as a professional triathlete for these same reasons. I love competing. I think it makes me a better person. I get to know myself a little bit better every time I push my physical and mental limits in a race. This thirst for improvement gets me out of bed in the morning--albeit sometimes with a lot of reluctance on the "getting out of bed" part :)

I know who I am. I compete clean and I compete with integrity. This is not because I don't care about winning--there are few things I hate more than losing. In fact, the only person I know who hates losing more than I do is my brother, John :) (Sorry, bro, I had to do it.)

The ribbons fade and the trophies rust. The true value of sport is in the pursuit. It is about the chase--the challenge--the chase for glory and the challenge to improve oneself. It is this pursuit which defines the individual. Champions look in the mirror and know the work is never finished. Maybe it is time for us to start worrying less about others' reputations and to start worrying more about one's own character.

But then again... Oprah might get lonely.

An Expanding Word Bank

Do you remember taking “fill-in-the-blank” tests back in elementary school?  They were the worst, weren’t they?  I used to think it was okay when the teacher would give a word bank, but as I got older the teachers started throwing in extra words that weren’t supposed to be used.  Imagine the nerve…extra “filler” just to mess you up!  This thought came back to me the other day while I was grocery shopping, but more on that later.  My argument here is we have so much information constantly at our fingertips that it actually overwhelms one’s capacity to efficiently make decisions.  It is almost as if we’re taking another fill-in-the-blank test.  This time, when you ask for a word bank, the smug teacher hands you a Merriam-Webster dictionary and snickers, “Not all of the words will be used.”  A perfect score on your fill-in-the-blank test is sitting at your fingertips, but it worth the effort to extract it?

We are drowning in information—and most of it is worthless!  Think of your email inbox this morning--how many emails did you delete before even bothering to open them?  While you're thinking of all those unread messages, remember that your spam-filters had pre-screened all those emails you just manually deleted!  This same story is written each time you turn on the TV.  Do you remember all the hassle when the cable companies switched to digital broadcasting in 2009?  One of the main reasons for the switch was so the networks could offer you more channels!  While I was home over break, I watched the local news on channel #806.  Are there really 805 channels that need to be listed before ABC (in high definition…because regular is simply unacceptable :))? 

Both consciously and unconsciously, we make daily decisions on what to read, what to watch, and what to drink.  While this proliferation of choices means there are certainly more good options to choose, it simultaneously means those decisions are becoming harder and harder to make.  We must become better at filtering information.  Some things are worth reading, watching, or drinking—but many are not. 

That being said, the true danger lies in choosing nothing at all!  The pain of a wrong decision is relatively short-lived when compared to the anguish of indecision.  Just the other day I was at the grocery store.  [As promised earlier, here’s the story.]  All I needed was a jar of mayonnaise.  When I finally found the mayonnaise section, there were about 20 different types of mayo.  It looked something like this:

Some were in big jars, some were in small jars—some weren’t in any jars at all.  There were squeeze bottles, big bottles, and little bottles.  Some had half the fat, some had no fat, yet all of them seemed to brag “No Trans-Fat.”  I was paralyzed by the options.  My meager mental capacity was overwhelmed by an imposing wall of egg yolk, oil and vinegar!  Why did this happen?  Why couldn’t I just grab one and move on?  I couldn’t because I reasoned that all the options existed because one was a better choice than the rest.  If you know me at all—you know I'm going to get that best one!  Yet, was my search for the "perfect" mayonnaise worth two minutes of my time at the supermarket?  I'd argue that it's not.  The choices that ostensibly make my life better/easier/more enjoyable robbed me of my time--of my life itself! 

This is the exact problem psychologist Barry Schwartz explores in his 2004 book, The Paradox of Choice.  Since you probably don’t have time to read the whole book, here’s a link to Schwartz’s TED presentation on the topic.  If you can get past his ridiculously stylish outfit, it’s a thought provoking talk that is more applicable now than ever.

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

What does this post accomplish?  Am I just adding my own individual spice to this massive stew of options you have sitting at your fingertips?  Let's just say I’m adding another jar of mayonnaise to the shelf.  

Holiday Magic

I knew you were busy over the holidays, so I didn't want to overwhelm you with too much internet reading.  If I had been more diligent about posting over the past few weeks, you may have been distracted while internet shopping and forgotten someone on your list.  How terrible!  You see, I had to keep my thoughts to myself for your own good.

Okay...I hope you saw through that smokescreen.  Sooner or later, the truth usually comes out--so you might as well hear it from me.  I left San Diego on December 14 to spend the holidays with my family and friends in Wildwood Crest, NJ.  I spent my days training on all my old stomping-grounds, but when my training was finished for the day something magical would happen.  At around 7:00pm every night, I would sit down at our family dinner table.  From that moment on, I was unable to do anything else for the rest of the night!  I fell under the "Maloy Dinner Table Spell."

I'm not making this up.  You see, no matter what one might have planned on accomplishing after dinner, once he/she sits down, all those responsibilities magically disappear.  Nothing in the world becomes so important as continuing to converse at that dinner table.  This conversation continues long after the food disappears.  This also happens magically.

I know some people are reading this and thinking, "WOW, this spell explains an awful lot."  Making this generalization would be a mistake.  The "Maloy Dinner Table Spell" only explains the powerful yet unseen force which draws one to the table.  The rest is explained by my mom's home cooking and my dad's diligence in keeping one's thirst quenched.

I'm thankful for every second I spent sitting at that table over the past two weeks.  I'm even more thankful to have shared that time with the family and friends who will testify to "The Spell."  Now I'm back to San Diego--where I'm back to work*.  Until next time, this is my dinner table.

Happy 2013!  Cheers.

*- In my case, work is a good thing.  I hope you can enjoy the good in your work, too.