I am baptizing this phenomenon the ‘“Crocodile” Dundee
phenomenon.’ It comes from the film
(1986). Since the film came out we have
accepted a way of training that has given dividends except for the last 5
years. “Mileage training improves speed
for endurance athletes.” It has its bases on the way of living in
Australia which has an icon in Mr. Dundee.
Rodney William Ansell (1 October 1954 – 3 August 1999) was an Australian from "the bush" who served as the inspiration
for Paul Hogan's character in the
1986 film "Crocodile" Dundee. Ansell became famous
in 1977 after he was stranded in extremely remote country in the Northern Territory, and the story of his survival for 56 days with limited supplies became
news headlines around the world. In 1999, he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Ansell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Ansell
‘’Mr. Dundee’’ is literally the “Western” behavior going
to the extreme of the West. The further West that we had seen in the USA is the
Marlboro “dude;” the cowboy that rides his horse alone in the desert
advertising cigarette smoking. The movement of going west continued in Australia with Crocodile Dundee. I thought it was just in the film or sports
but it also happened in Science:
Marshall, after having
a baseline endoscopy done, drank a Petri dish containing cultured H. pylori, expecting to develop,
perhaps years later, an ulcer. He was surprised when, only three days later, he
developed vague nausea and halitosis, (due to the achlorhydria, there was no
acid to kill bacteria in the stomach, and their waste products manifested as
bad breath), noticed only by his mother. On days 5–8, he developed achlorydric
(no acid) vomiting. On day eight, he had a repeat endoscopy and biopsy, which
showed massive inflammation (gastritis), and H. pylori was cultured. On the fourteenth day after ingestion, a
third endoscopy was done, and Marshall began to take antibiotics. This story is
related by Barry Marshall himself in his Nobel acceptance lecture Dec. 8, 2005,
available for viewing on the Nobel website.
On the way back to America, I spoke to someone sitting
next to me from New Zealand; he mentioned about a film on Herb Elliot. It describes the way of training in those
days. In a nutshell, “running a marathon a day,” that was the way he put it. He thought that Elliot was from New
Zealand. New Zealand and Australia have
the same relationship as Canada and the USA regardless that the ocean is in the
middle; this is just to give you an idea to know how the region is (54,000 New
Zealanders live in Australia). So what I am speaking about applies to both
countries in the general sense. While in New Zealand, I saw runners on the
streets; they were mid-foot runners, 9 out of 10. I assumed that there is a relationship with
no shoes walking at a very young age like the videos on Elliot. No shoes, no service, does not apply in New
Zealand from what I saw. This way of
growing up is a good start to be a good runner.
It means, on the long run, a few injuries running and the capacity of
going fast. But since Docherty and
Carter, there are no New Zealand threads in triathlon and hardly an
Australian. There are Elliot´s
descendants who had success with his method until Athens.
What follows in this paragraph could look like another
matter but it is not. I saw on TV that a free trade between NZ and China was
signed. Reaction from friends were present immediately, the USA wants to have a
military base there to stop the spreading of China without control; otherwise
New Zealand will be punished somehow. It
is presented as the only way to survive in this new world for New Zealand,
according to the TV program. NZ is
conscious about the human rights in China, and that the USA sees this as a threat
to its way of living and thinking. New
Zealanders feel they need the trade with China to continue with their way of
living. The TV program mentioned the
slogan about New Zealand, “Many friends, no enemies.” China signed the first
free trade with the West, experimenting with the Kiwis. That is the way Crocodile Dundee would go
Kiwis; watch out, you know how he ended up.
I have always considered myself the generation of the
last American culturally, regardless of my nationality or race. Mileage is not enough for the ITU race
nowadays. We have to review technique
and Physiology. Not to the degree that Marshall did as a Crocodile Dundee trying
to prove to the world his point; and more importantly, trying to prove to the
American’s scientific circles something that the American structure was unable
to admit (Crocodile Dundee is not coherent in the American´s scientific idiom). An even then, I have to say to Marshall that
the variables nutrition, rest and amount of microbes taken by mouth make the
difference, and not just the “bug.” Medicine
has politics and doctors play it accordingly, please see 19 avr. 2012 Treatment of stress fracture, that
is why I love triathlon. In this kind of
sports who enters first is the winner.
I speak of applying Physiology and Psychology without politics to maximize potential as it is not the case with Macca below. In that sense, I look for results not Nobel prizes, maybe because I consider myself a Hebrew (I let you figure out this one). Until Athens, the Kiwis and the Aussies were the best in the sport. I would say it more accurate, in the triathlon competitions; but mileage and strong sportive culture is not enough to support winning in triathlon today. The Marlboro icon stopped being the best performer as it was in the past as well as the Crocodile Dundee way of behaving stopped getting results. WE NEED TO PRODUCE SMART RACERS AND BY THE SAME TOKEN, SMART ATHLETES IN TRAINING; being fearless and adventurous in our training is not enough.
In Mexico, we have a tribe that have the ritual of following the deer to kill it for exhaustion: The statement that, "The Tarahumara may be the finest natural distance runners in the world", made by University of Arizona archeologist Michael Jenk inson, offers some insight into just how good the indians are at running (Lutz 21). The Tarahumara routinely run distances only covered by only the most advanced ultramarathon runners today. To these indians, running is more than sport, running is literally life. The Tarahumara live in very rugged land and travel by wagon or horses is usually impractical. Because of this, foot travel is more often than not the best option for getting from one place to another and it is usually the quickest. While on foot, the Tarahumara do not stroll from one place to their destination, running is used to perform everyday tasks. It is not uncommon for a Tarahumara to travel between fifty and eighty miles everyday at a "race" like pace. http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/art.html
The Tarahumaras had to run until the deer fell for exhaustion
and it took days to run after the deer to accomplish the purpose. But they were unable to run a marathon below
2:40.
Macca says the following: On race day (Hawaii 2012) I couldn’t get my power above 250 watts,
which is embarrassingly low—it just didn’t correlate. I was tired, weak and
just lost time all day. On the swim I felt good early and then just
struggled—it was just like I felt flat. You know when you’ve been ill for a
week and you come back for that first session—that weak feeling, it was like
that from the onset. The only thing that seems to add up is when we came down
from altitude; it should have been at three weeks. I know [coach] Darren
[Smith] is taking it really hard. He’s been on Twitter apologizing.
Altitude or/and tapering do not give you this
problem. The whole training was not
adequate for the type of athletes training with Macca, none of them was able to
perform well (see results). None of the
altitude runners do well at sea level even if they take time to adapt. To go
fast requires a different training; and for that same reason Crocodile Dundee
is not effective any more.
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Sharing Pictures Of Our Apprenticeship
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| Auckland: wharf where we raced |
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| View from our six hours walk |
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| Tamaki Drive |
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| Doumain Park |
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| 60 meters pool |
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| View from the flat |
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