National Geographic is one of my regular reads. Fun to read, and if you're too tired to read, the photography is art. Actually the writing often seems to be 'filler' for the pictures (that is, the writing usually isn't very good).
The Jan 08 issue has an article about Himalaya Winter Climbs. Apparently the Polish people have elevated winter climbing to celebrity status over the past few decades. One quote in the article resonated with me 'promote the joy of positive suffering, because if something is easy, you will not enjoy it, really'.
This principle is not universal, but certainly seems to apply to endurance sports.
"Positive" suffering is an interesting choice of words, because it implies that there is "Negative" suffering - unfortunately, the world is full of negative suffering. Without a debate with Krzysztof Wielicki, it will be difficult to fully understand how much thought he put into these words and what he really meant by these words, but I have a few thoughts...
In my view, positive suffering requires that the suffering results in improvement to the person that is suffering AND that there is a goal achieved at the end of the suffering AND the suffering is self activated.
If you think about it, positive suffering is literally built into our DNA and has evolved over millions of years. We suffer on our long runs, but we get stronger (improvement). Historically, the goal that this provided us with our basic needs - food, clothing, shelter. By self activated, I mean that we choose to take action, as opposed to torture, in which case one would have no choice - i.e. negative suffering.
We still have those instincts that tells us to positively suffer, so we train and push ourselves, which gives us part of the equation, the improvement and the self activation. But we still need a goal, and we no longer driven by our basic goals (i.e. food, water, etc.) , so we look for a replacement goal, say a 5K, or an Ironman. Perhaps Maslows hierarchy of needs comes into play her.
What about the part that says 'if it is too easy, you can't really enjoy it'. This seems to mean the enjoyment one gets from something that is easily obtained is as fleeting as the effort expended (i.e. you get out of it what you put into it).
So training 6 months for an Ironman distance event and finishing it, is that more enjoyment than say eating a bowl of ice cream?
Maybe 'enjoyment' isn't the right word, I would replace it with the word with fulfillment.
It isn't the race finish alone that creates this fulfillment - it is the character building, the moments of epiphany; the sights, the sounds; the smells encountered during 6 months of training. The neurological fluidity you build on the bike, swim, run that translates into every movement you make. The deep sleep. The perspective and context on life. The relationships built. The etched in memories (this one deserves it's own blog entry).
So, promote positive suffering, because a life that is too easy will not be fulfilling.
What do you think?
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