Thursday 15 August 2013

Endurance Events and the mid-life crisis

As I head further into my forties now I find myself more and more drawn to endurance sports. It seems to be a common theme amongst us middle aged men, as the 21st century is becoming the age of the MAMIL (middle aged men in Lycra). I'm hugely impressed by my fellow odd balls who drag themselves through pain barriers to complete 10km, half marathon, marathon and ultra- marathon events, sometimes I even get jealous when someone completes a novel new challenge that I hadn't had the imagination to have already considered for myself. It doesn't bode well for aging gracefully!

Attended an interesting talk last night though by Mark Cooper who had a slightly different, almost non-competitive, perspective on life, happiness and endurance eventing. He's set me thinking! He got into endurance events as a way of getting focus and shaking off his mental & physical flabbiness. I liked the term, mental flabbiness - I wonder if I don't suffer a fair bit of that at times. Running replaced smoking as an addiction for Mark, but finding a job that he loves has meant that he doesn't depend on having a running event to aim for... which is just as well really, as each time his events get bigger and having run from Amsterdam to Barcelona already, that could get out of control quite quickly I imagine.
 

1 comment:

  1. Mental flabbiness is a condition where one fails to strengthen his or her mind to grow their own thoughts and opinion upon an issue. Perhaps, most people suffered from it at some point in our lives. It can be dangerous to one's mental health, as it means a person have stopped the quest developing their thoughts and broadening their horizons. That being said, the cure for mental flabbiness is give yourself some time to 'think'. Give yourself some time during the day to reflect on things as an exercise, to keep your mental faculty in good shape.

    Brandi Kennedy @ Restoration Counseling

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