LA DESMEMORIA

Recordando a Eduardo Galeano que escuchamos leyendo sus textos en vivo, en la abandonada Montevideo, un julio de hace muchos años. 

LA DESMEMORIA/1   

ESTOY leyendo una novela de Louise Erdrich. A cierta altura, un bisabuelo encuentra  a su bisnieto.

El bisabuelo está completamente chocho (sus pensamientos tiene el color del agua) y sonríe con la misma beatífica sonrisa de su bisnieto recién nacido. El bisabuelo es feliz porque ha perdido la memoria que tenía. El bisnieto es feliz porque no tiene, todavía, ninguna memoria. 

He aquí pienso, la felicidad perfecta. YO NO LA QUIERO.

LA DESMEMORIA/2

EL miedo seca la boca, moja las manos y mutila. El miedo de saber nos condena  a la ignorancia; el miedo de hacer nos reduce a la impotencia. La dictadura militar, miedo de escuchar, miedo de decir, nos convirtió en sordomudos. Ahora la democracia, que tiene miedo de recordar, nos enferma de amnesia;  pero no se necesita ser Sigmund Freud para saber que no hay alfombra que pueda ocultar la basura de la memoria.

 

VO2 MAX IMPROVEMENT AND THE SECOND SIN.

My thought was: if I give you something out of the ordinary that you want, I should give you something you should know.  This is something I learned with the great Thomas Szasz.  I translated the introduction of a translated book, “El Segundo Pecado.” The introduction was done by Fernando Savater, the Spaniard.  My translation was done for Tom Szasz.  He was my teacher. He did not have disciples but I owe him most of my way viewing life.  When I gave him the translation he just said: “What do you want as compensation; I pay what I owe.”  Wikipedia writes the following about Tom:

 Thomas Stephen Szasz ( /ˈsɑːs/ sahss; born April 15, 1920) is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990[1] he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. His books The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement (1970) set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.

In the same Wikipedia you can find the following, regarding the book, and written in the preface: “We all know the first and ‘original’ sin: ‘the knowledge of the good and evil.’ But we do not know, or tend to forget, what is the second sin: ´speaking clearly! ´” My last name is Hebrew and means “wise” in English: I was born in Mexico. I am a “coconut” for Americans and a crazy Jew for the Mexicans; but let´s continue with this heresy.  If you are so far in your reading, let’s begin.  You have paid all your dues.  The difference between I and my teacher is that I use knowledge in my life to improve my way of living according to the current movement.  I am a triathlete playing with Einstein; I LEARNED NOT TO LYE TO MYSELF FROM SZASZ.  It took me training in Psychiatry and many years after to get to this point.  This is the reason why I do not ask understanding from my athletes.

I will use Wikipedia to describe my wording.  What is VO2max?  VO2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. The name is derived from V - volume, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum. Whoa!  I have read that the value of VO2max does no predict who is going to win.  Nothing new, www.pezcyclingnews.com has a good review regarding improving the tolerance to lactate as the main predictor to win in a competition as triathlon.

We had an athlete, who improved her VO2max from 60 to 67, but her technique deteriorated. As a consequence, her running time for 5k increased more than a minute.  Technique is the most important variable to improve the time running, biking or swimming, even when the VO2max improves.  It is very difficult to have more examples or a control and experimental groups for this purpose, but a single example is sufficient when the experimentation is done properly.  When we speak of having different VO2max for different sports or parts of triathlon is clearer.  Depending on the sport practicing and our specialty, the VO2max will be higher according to what we practice.  Life is very specific. That is why if we do not practice biking it is difficult to run. Lance Armstrong was second in Panama 70.3 this year (2012) for this same reason.  His VO2max is high (no more than many) and his tolerance to lactate (lactate threshold) is the highest, by far, comparing him to any ironman biking.  So, it is easy, if one improves technique and practices to improve the VO2MAX, the competition time decreases importantly.  NO SECRET.  I will speak about maximizing VO2max in triathlon next time.

ARMSTRONG, THE GREATEST PRODUCT OF OUR SCIENCE

We requested to Victor Plata some information about his training diary, the last two years before Athens where he placed 27^th.  He did not have any problems given his entire training regimen.  It is obvious “the map is not the territory.“  To do the training as it was written merits an athlete with the self-discipline he possesses, the work ethics he has. His conception about life is also necessary, because he has fun doing his best while training.  In a few words, we needed to create a human being able to follow instructions and enjoying the process.  A Russian friend told me once “why in America anybody can be a hero.”  I did not have problems to tell him that the infrastructure make things possible. They can form teams easily, comparing such behavior to other countries.  And the goals are geared to get the best performance.  Armstrong was able to make teams including his cancer treatment team to succeed in his fight against it.  Culture makes the difference as illustrated with this comment made in the webpage of Team TBB:

“a long long time ago , i was recruited to fill in for a major football club in australia as team conditioner back then the team had finnished  last  the yr  before, well the 2 trainers had taken seriously ill and one of them a good friend asked me to step in at short notice for the preseason was about to start in 6 weeks .

i said , if the coach lets me do the job , my way no drama , happy to help , well after 3 weeks , 2 fist fights  with team tuff guys , the team was doin it my way, much like you read here 12x400 for the backs , foreward 50 x 50m with sleds , well you get the picture , i was in the lets train the loser out of them mode ,

we improved dramatically , won the pre season at odds of 100 to one and won the first 3 games of the season . however , i was not liked by "the boys " and i didnt give a shit , we were now winning .

i was called in to the upstairs office , being young and dumb , i thought , they are going to upgrade me and give me a proper contract and i can give the swimming coaching away .

instead i was  flabbergasted ,   i got the sack.

doc , the team is very unhappy , the coach says " the boys " need to have more fun at training .

i said we having the most fun this club has had in  6 yrs , winning is great fun .doc , your a bit nieve about footballers , if they are not happy they dont perform ,

i said , lets do it this way , ill quit because this is a loser club and it starts from the top, not the players , and you will never win a premiership , because the culture here is to lose is ok long as its fun .that yr they finnished 3rd last ,but im sure they had fun

now let me see   that would have been between 25 and 28 yrs ago ,  i dont follow football over their since i left the country , but i know one statistic ,

they are still yet to win a premiership ,

and i know one thing the truth only hurts the fragile .”

The culture of “winning is a great fun” does not exist easily.  It has to be created.

 

But let´s go back to Armstrong.  He was born in a culture that most likely was not his own family except his mother, from where I read in his books.  There were people around him that did a great job with Armstrong   He had the infrastructure; the most difficult part. It took 10 years for us to create that culture and 10 previous years of failures.  Only one of the original team members continues with us and he is the example we needed for the others, a model that is a subject of improvements. It took us ten years to develop this model.  Armstrong had a model to follow; it was, perhaps, a mixture of many people, as generally happens when we grow up.  Nothing is written in our head, everything is an invention.  Somebody told me once that her “transitional object” at the age of 14 was blue and not pink.  Details do not matter for our concepts; the concepts behind the conception stay and are valid.  Show me “your transitional objects and I can have an accurate prognosis.” The transitional objects are our daily life heroes and are represented by objects.  Our heroes give us the limit of what we can do.

We have the culture that nurtured Lance, what about the engine?  What kind of engine is needed?  A formula one athlete, not a tractor for sure; high rpm with no much torque; just like Lance.  I hope you see the video and count his cadence www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFEd9cgGJt0&feature=related. He just played with the triathletes, 41.8 km/hr. average just to warm up for the run.  The only one that stayed with his own game was the twice Olympic medalist, another champion, Docherty.  He knew, even that his best piece of triathlon was the bike, not to push himself like the others.  He did not stay too long on his threshold.  Armstrong did not hit his threshold either. In 2007, Armstrong was interviewed by Ciclismo a fondo.  267: 46.  He said: “The reason why Johan and I were able to win was because we competed against a bunch of imbeciles.  We had a modern planning…There were a bunch of ranchers running around us…still the same situation in cycling.”  I would say that he approached triathlon the same way and thinks the same way.  Not to blame him for such thing, most likely he´s still correct.  It is for us to face reality without lying to ourselves.  Athletes focus on things like doping to explain mediocrity.  Even if that was true, how is he able to hide it?  Other said, “Cream used for treatment has something in it that help him to perform better.”  They never look at how they can improve by applying science.   There is a lot of space to improve swimming, biking and running.  Our friend Gennadi Tourestki used to say: “The majority of the triathletes are average swimmers.”  Tourestki coached world champions and developed the greatest Russian, Alexander Popov. That is what Armstrong proved; triathletes are average bikers and runners.  He won second place in Panama 70.3 running because he warmed up biking and swimming. 

But, what about Lance´s VO2max?  Oops.  Lance has the same VO2 max as our friend Victor Plata when he competed in Athens.  In four years, Victor went from high 60´s to low 80´s.  Is it that Lance will run like Victor? 31 low the 10k competing in triathlon.  No, the economy of the movement needs time to develop (Victor ran the 800 meters in college and had a PR of 1:53).  Lance took seven years to develop his cycling economy, according to the study of Edward Coyle, 2% in seven years (Joyner, MJ and EF Coyle. Endurance exercise performance: the physiology of champions. Journal of Physiology 586:35-44, 2008).  The economy of movement has to do with technique, cadence and the quality of training in general. Greg Bennett mentioned in an interview that it took him four years to improve less than a minute in the 10k of triathlon before Athens, just by improving the economy of running; his VO2 max had a limit.  Macca is another example; he is unable to run below 31 minutes in Olympic triathlons even though he surely has a very high VO2max.  The 80´s are the limit in triathletes.  I will talk about this in the future.

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE!

Etre maman c'est la profession la plus dure qui puisse exister.

Tu m'as donné avec Georges le plus difficil qui existe dans ce monde, la force et volonté du travail, la consistance dans chaque chose entreprise.

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE MAMAN!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I spent part of my childhood in this privileged place. My grand-father was the guardian of the Mont-Fort refuge. The refuge was one of the stops crossing the Alps from Chamonix to Zermatt. The only way to get to the refuge in winter was skiing. I remember getting there with my grand-father, my parents and brother finding our way. The fog was blurring all sensations and our sense of orientation. We were lost in the white world.

There are heritages that help you or not in your life. My grand-father's happiness and generosity  gave us  a strong root towards Nature. Joseph was a personage always laughing and jocking with the climbers. He gave us security and a high sense of honesty because you cannot lie to yourself when you are in the middle of nowhere with the high risk of avalanche around you. My grand-father opened our eyes to the silent world and taught us PASSION.

Joseph Michaud

Last night, my longtime partner was telling me that he will not change something in his life. He has lived everything fully at the limits of the possible. That’s passion.  It's certainly the most difficult to live with passion. From where do you get that intense sense of life? From your family and the people you get along with. There is no miracle. As the Spanish proverb says: ''dime con quien te juntas y te dije quien eres.'' Such is life. Such is our culture in Mexico. 

If you want something different, you really need to see and analyze who is around you. One of my client told me today that her three year old boy told her and her husband that he will see them latter, because he was going to do his ''exercise,'' taking his one year and half old sister with him. Such is culture. You learn from the people that are around you. If you live in the middle of mediocrity, low standards, you get those standards and live a mediocre life. It takes courage to get out and try to live differently.

Ten years was the time it takes to create a culture inside of Team Oaxaca.  Listening to Jack Daniels, Altitude and Eastern African runners you learn that social environment makes the difference. Eastern African runners' heroes are runners. And everybody wants to be a runner because everyone has been seeing village mates, friends who are successful running and making a living of it.  Back to Mexico, I always think that it is neither easy to really train, nor to change culture. And as coach Gambetta says: ''In a new situation you can change training but to no effect until you change culture. Changing training is easy, changing culture is not.´´

Our team making a difference

From Coach Gambetta, more random thoughts:

Coaches are change engineers, our mission is to change behavior and help guide, prod, cajole, and lead the athlete toward their goals. I have found that changing physically by changing workouts, putting in a new training system, and adding new exercises is the easy part, the hard part is changing mindsets and in a team environment changing culture.

Changing culture is changing attitudes and habits that are sometimes ingrained and deeply entrenched. In this situation you often here things like “we already do that” or in meetings phrases like, “let me be the devils advocate” when new ideas are discussed. In my experience there is no simple solution for changing culture. From a leadership or management perspective it requires many uncomfortable decisions. Changing culture requires everyone to share common goals, to sacrifice together to use the past to gain perspective to move forward. Certainly disagreement and debate is acceptable if the spirit is to problem solve and achieve a consensus with everyone on the same page moving forward together to achieve a common goal. Turning losers into winners does not happen overnight. I have found that losers, both individuals and teams are comfortable being where they. They have all the excuses and revel in being downtrodden. Change requires dedication, commitment and focus on the goal ahead all the while realizing that it will take time. Many are called but few choose the path toward excellence.

3k TT pace 3:02

References:

www.flotrack.org/coverage/234673-Saucony-Thirsty-Thursdays-with-Jack-Daniels/video/204257-6-Altitude-East-Africans-Thirsty-Thursday

http://www.functionalpathtrainingblog.com/2012/02/change.html

TRIATLÓN Y MARCAS MÍNIMAS

Triathlon IS DEFINITIVALLY NOT MEASURED by MINIMUM STANDARDS and NO WAY SHOULD BE a substitute for performances in specific triathlon events. (Australia documento de selección 2012)

Atridf foto

De regreso de Veracruz y a continuación del blog anterior, Viaje a Veracruz, me puse a revisar unas marcas utilizadas en la Selección 2012 del Team Australia. También, me acordé de un libro leído hace tiempo de regreso al nuevo continente, The Wave, de Todd Strasser.  El libro es parte de la curricula en el bachillerato en Francia. Todo empieza con un juego y termina en una dictadura. El libro relata una historia real que  tomó lugar en una ‘’high school’’ de California en los 70. Para hacer entender los mecanismos del nazismo a sus alumnos, Ben Ross, el profesor de historia, crea un movimiento experimental con el slogan, ‘’La Fuerza con la disciplina, la Fuerza con la Comunidad, y la Fuerza con la acción.’’ En el espacio de algunos días, la atmósfera del colegio se transforma en un microcosmo totalitario. Con una docilidad increíble los alumnos abandonan su libre albedrío  para responder a los órdenes del nuevo líder, el cual se identifica totalmente en su nuevo personaje.

En el 2008  llegaron las primeras tomas de tiempo en México y ya se vislumbraba lo que vivimos actualmente.  Las tomas de tiempo se volvieron más importantes que el triatlón mismo. Los que la implantaron se perdieron en su juego, y los que lo juegan, creen que esto es triatlón. Se ponen a pensar que la suma de sus dos tiempos los coloca en privilegio para obtener fondos, o sencillamente se perdieron en dar marcas sin saber de qué se trata al fin de cuentas el triatlón. Al igual del libro citado al principio, The Wave, me pregunto que se necesita para despertar las conciencias y poner fin a esta discriminación hacia el que entrena triatlón y a no dedicarse en un fin de semana a dar las marcas mínimas que son relativas y sin duda con ninguna progresión en el desarrollo de un atleta.

Hoy me encontré con este documento de la Selección de triatlón de Australia 2012. El documento se encuentra en la página siguiente: 

www.triathlon.org.au/Assets/Triathlon+Australia+Digital+Assets/Resources/High+Performance/2012+National+Performance+Standards+Information.pdf

Australia checa las tres disciplinas del triatlón de la forma siguiente de 16 años a elite, un 1000 metros de natación, un 20km Time Trial sin drafting en bici, y 5km a pie, donde cada grupo, junior, sub 23 y elite, tienen un tiempo mínimo o marca mínima diferente y progresiva según el desarrollo.  Sin embargo, dos veces en el documento se repite que el Triatlón definitivamente, no es medido por los estándares mínimos pero de ninguna manera debe ser sustitutos de actuaciones en eventos de triatlón específicos.

La herramienta está diseñada para dar a los atletas y entrenadores una forma de evaluar la progresión en cada disciplina, así como proporcionar una indicación de dónde se necesitan para progresar en  los próximos años.  

Cabe destacar que las actuaciones en el triatlón con drafting sigue siendo el indicador de rendimiento clave que determina el rendimiento del atleta.

   
La tabla debe ser utilizada como una herramienta de referencia, pero no debe de ser sustitutos de actuación en los eventos de triatlón específicos.

Por último, es importante tener en cuenta que las Normas de Desempeño nacionales (o estándares mínimos)  no están diseñados como una herramienta de identificación de talentos.

Una vez más, se enfatiza ... El propósito de los estándares de desempeño nacionales no es una medida definitiva para determinar la capacidad de un atleta en Triatlón. Más bien, se utiliza como una medida cuantificable de potencial y de mejoraría en cada una de las tres partes de triatlón.

Atridf foto

Al final del documento se dan RECOMENDACIONES hacia los estándares nacionales de rendimiento. Cito algunas:

• Explicar a los atletas que se trata de hacer su mejor esfuerzo en cada actuación. No se trata de compararlos con otros, porque el esfuerzo es lo más importante. No es necesariamente el atleta con los mejores tiempos en una sola disciplina, que se convierte en el mejor triatleta.

• Las normas deben usarse en conjunción con los principios de un buen entrenamiento para el desarrollo constante progresivo de la habilidad, velocidad y resistencia en cada disciplina y el Triatlón como un solo deporte. El logro de los estándares NUNCA DEBE SER al detrimento de las BASES de la técnica y la progresión gradual relacionado con el desarrollo físico, fisiológica y la edad de formación, específicos para las necesidades de cada joven triatleta individualmente.

• La conclusión es que la participación en el deporte del triatlón debería ser sobre la mejoría y el disfrutar (a cualquier edad, pero especialmente para los atletas jóvenes). Las Normas Nacionales de Desempeño deben ser una herramienta emocionante e interesante por el cual los triatletas pueden evaluar dónde están en cada una de las disciplinas. El énfasis debe estar en la búsqueda de formas para mejorar individualmente. Su uso como herramienta de comparación debe hacerse con mucha discreción y supervisión.

UNA VEZ MÁS

El propósito de los estándares de desempeño nacionales no es una medida definitiva de la capacidad de Triatlón. Más bien, se utiliza como una medida cuantificable de potencial y mejora en cada una de las tres partes del triatlón.

Por esto un joven de 17-18 años tendrá como estándar mínimo de un 5km a pie de 15 minutos 33 segundos, un joven de 19 años (sub 23) de 15:13 y elite de 14: 53. En cuanto a 1000 metros de natación, tendrán los estándares siguientes 12:35, 12:19 y 12:03. Esto se considera como estándares para estar en los 15 primeros en un campeonato del mundo.

El documento lo firma, entre otros entrenadores y ex triatleta, Graig Walton, entrenador de Emma Snowsill cuando ganó la medalla de oro en Beijing, Emma Moffat actualmente y cuando ganó la medalla de bronce en Beijing y la serie mundial de triatlón. Tambièn lo firma Jan Rehula, medalla de bronce en la Olimpiada de Sydney 2000.

Y como díría una alumna en la experiencia The Wave, ''sabemos a que punto es importante esta experiencia para Usted Sr Ross, pero esto ha ido demasiado lejos. The Wave ha tomado el control de la escuela. No podemos decir nada. La gente hasta tiene miedo de criticarla. Todos tienen miedo de lo que les pudieran pasar sino siguen al movimiento.''  Nuestros dos atletas que ganaron el evento calificatorio con el uno y dos para el Panamericano junior 2011 se vieron privados de asistir por no dar las marcas mínimas. Como dice el documento australiano, la interpretación de ellas debe de ser con mucho cuidado y discreción.  De ninguna forma debe de reemplazar el desempeño en un triatlón. Tampoco debe ser utilizado como herramiento de detección de talentos. El entrenamiento de triatlón como un solo deporte debe ser la prioridad.

TRAVELING TO VERACRUZ

I believe in the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein and above all, the concepts behind such theory: “The only justification of our concepts and systems resides in the fact that they are helpful to represent our experiences; nothing else justified those (El significado de la relatividad 52).”  Our traveling to Veracruz has no justification and does not mean anything to our athletes or their training.

The Mexican Triathlon Federation says that our athletes need to be tested running 3k, 5k for the sub-23 and elites, and 1k for the juniors to be considered for the Mexican Team.  As you can see, “the right to compete does not exist;” meaning that they are not allowed to represent the Mexican Team in international competitions because they do not meet the 1k, 3k or 5k requirement respectively.  Regardless if they win the triathlon competition that gives spots for the international event as it happened last year, when two of our juniors won the first and second place in the event where FMTRI gave spots to represent Mexico in the Panamerican Championship. The President of the Mexican Federation claims that the other competitors gave them a chance because they knew that our athletes did not meet the times on the “checking.”  So, we were convinced to assist this time. 

It is a waste of time and resources to fulfill a research protocol done without ethical committee as a gate keeper.  They do not consider when even the results of such protocol point to the lack of correlation between the ones that meet the supposedly Federation Standards and the winners in events.  This is a discriminatory protocol for athletes who practice triathlon, giving preference to the ones that train running and swimming individually.  Our junior athlete made the cut swimming 400 meters and running the 1k; but the sub-23, 19 year old triathletes, did not make the 18:00 minutes cut for the 1,500 meters  swimming for 24 seconds (50-meters pool).  Obviously, they are not training for the testing, but to compete in triathlon in a long term progression.  Like one of the athletes who has represented Mexico as a junior in the Worlds mentioned in his Facebook: “We past the testing, it is time to train triathlon.” Five months are wasted.

But let’s continue with Einstein.  The more information I give you, the better it is for you to understand me:  “Before the Theory of Relativity, Physics had the concept that time was absolute; that is, independent of the moving object taken as a reference.  But this definition is incompatible with the concept of simultaneity (22).” In a few words and applying it to our daily life, “what you see is not the same thing that I see.”  Something discuss in this blog before (The Genetic Factor).  This is essential for us to understand, and unfortunately this makes the difference between success and failure to succeed doing a task.  The comprehension of our reality makes the difference.  The better chances to succeed doing a task depend on the errors we have in our reasoning.  It is not that one way of comprehending is correct and the other wrong because both of them can be improved.  THE FACT IS THAT ONE HAS MORE CHANCES TO SUCCEED TO DO A TASK, THE ONE WITH LESS REASONING ERRORS; ON THE OTHER HAND, WE HAVE TO WATCH FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. Experience and reasoning make the difference.  But keep in mind that most of us know the answer to succeed, but our stubbornness is stronger than our reasoning; and sometimes, the quick gratification is the queen that governs our mind.