Let us run with endurance... fitness for the long haul

Age 35-40

Achieving peak fitness for an athlete becomes a balancing act.  You are often hovering between fitness and illness as the body is pushed to new limits. Overdo the training and niggles become injuries and sniffles become full-blown viral infections (voice of experience here!)  

As I recovered from the stress of managing a rapidly growing congregation and transitioned to a smaller and much less demanding church environment, I found time to engage in some other pursuits... including some more marathons and then Triathlons, buying and renovating an old State house, starting a Kids Club with over 50 local kids in attendance and all the while pastoring a local congregation.

My first race bike (above) was built from the frame up for a total cost of less than $50 using second hand parts and borrowed bits.  It was probably a little lethal, in hindsight, with home-made wheels, aero bars and a little kiwi ingenuity (Thanks Terry Newlands!).  I recall that it was very fast downhill, and we took great delight in "burning off" the dedicated cyclists with their expensive machines!!!

Achieving spiritual fitness also became a balancing act, with a growing recognition that spirituality and indeed ministry needed an holistic approach if it was to have longevity and fruitfulness.

Training for my first Ironman in 1993 taught me many lessons and I gained some insights that have held me in good stead down the track:

• Having a long term goal is a strong motivator - a full Ironman is best not attempted unless you are willing to set aside twelve months and focus on building strength, stamina and technical expertise.  You learn to treat your body as a machine that needs the right fuel and needs to operate at the optimum capacity for best results. Good rest becomes as critical as the right training load as the body learns through increasing stress loading to adapt and cope with new demands.  Oxygen transport and fuel pathways are ramped up by long training sessions (6-8 hrs)and short, hard effort runs increased the bodies capacity to recover quickly.  Mental toughness was needed to push through pain barriers and muscle memory that screams 'stop!'.  Endurance became a matter of zoning out for long periods and learning to conserve effort for when it was really needed. Life and ministry insights followed!  Spiritual fitness for the long haul requires similar 'smarts' - I had to find ways to 'feed' my soul and spirit, to learn when to conserve energy and when to expend it...  I began to understand myself more, the strengths and challenges of an introverted personality that needed 'space' and reflection time.



A lean GS on the handles - wheelbarrow race up and down Mt Wellington with Terry and some triathlon mates (2nd place!) circa 1993?

• Training alongside others taught me the motivating value of kindred spirits and of having companions along the way, but also served to raise some warning flags!   Training partners needed to be compatible in both capacity and personality - flogging yourself trying to keep up with a too competitive buddy was not helpful long term.  I also began to recognise the sometimes obsessive nature of endurance sport.  When you were in the zone and training hard, it all seems perfectly normal and necessary.  Looking back  it becomes apparent that many of the sacrifices people made were out of synch with a 'normal' life and increasingly selfish and egocentric in focus.  I am glad that I only completed two Ironmans - they were incredibly addictive and demanding events. Fortuitously for me, there were other factors about to come into play... curiously I discovered out of the blue that, not only was I mortal, but that unbeknownst to me I had a life-threatening issue with my 'engine.'

• Heart murmurs.....

  Leaves of joy fluttering in the wind of your love
  Are dying day by day with silent sighs
  Pearls of hope sprouted by the grace of your smile
  Started dropping one by one into the pool of tears
  
  Forgetfulness can wait a long while
  To come and wash these pricking wounds, 
  With a smiling mask made of dead determination
  To cover up the innocent anxiety in this pale face.
  
  Let me sing with the pinch of the past
  And laugh like a senseless child
  Let me bathe in the perfume of the very moment
  And wait for the next to unfold without delay   Rajeswari A V