"Practice What You Preach"

I know that's not a Rooyakkers family trait but I'm working on it.  Of course the problem of genetics has been compounded by the fact that I grew up listening to the Catholic priests who were not always, shall we say, the best role models either?  Rather than practicing what they preached, they practiced on those that they preached to.  So if taking my own advice is not my strongest trait, you can easily see that I am a vicitm of both nature and nurture.

I also wonder if the reason I am so quick to give counsel to others on any and every topic is because deep down inside I know that I need the very same advice.  I had that epiphany today while out doing my 20 km run.

Here's how it came about.  Roo often compares her workouts to mine and I repeatedly advise her against it.  I strongly believe these comparisons are irrelevant as we are 2 very different physical specimens, with different workout strategies, and different goals.  And whether or not she makes the comparisons I know that she is exceptionally fit and quite frankly in better shape then I thought she was.  I can tell  just by the way she is running, never mind the pace she is running at.  After all I've been looking at her butt for some 25 years now and so I know when it looks right!

Anyway, a week or so ago she asked me to come up with a 20k route for her and indeed I did, and indeed she liked it.  So today I thought, what the hell, it was a nice loop and since I need to start picking it up a bit I'm gonna do the same route.  Of course I knew her time from last week but that was not relevant to me since I know better than to compare.  Or did I?  Maybe the Catholic in me is still a bit stronger than I thought because about 7 or 8 k into it I realized that I was only about 90 seconds behind her pace, and that if I hung tough that maybe I could make that up.

Why?  I really have no idea.  I am not in competition with Claudette and quite frankly I am very proud of her abilities.  I do not need to run any faster than I curently am, and there is actually a school of thought  for Ironman training that says you should do more early runs at a lower heart rate and build very gradually.

Actually that's a lie!  I do know why.  It was simply easier giving the advice when I ran faster than her!  Much harder to practice what I preached when it meant I would be the slower one.

I'm sure you would like to know how the run ended.  It was a tough day with very strong winds,  my heart rate continued to climb throughout, and I was completely bagged at the end.  And yes...in case you care....I was more than a minute slower than her!

Practice What You Preach stupid!

20 km run...1hr, 46 mins

....and this may the most brilliant freaking quote I've found yet....tell me you disagree

"Don't you know, priests, why our sermons do not touch the people's heart? Because we do not preach to the eyes, only to the ears."---Antonio Vieira
Love
Peter