Excerpted from “The Perfect Game”, by G.K. Chesterton
It probably would have been more charitable to point out the fact that the pro is probably motivated by continuing to pursue his livelihood instead of feeling “good and strong,” or even that feeling good and strong is required for his day job.
I also bristled a bit at the contrast of running as a professional sport versus an extreme test of body and mind. It seems to me that pro athletes are definitely engaged in an extreme test of body and mind, and likely moreso than the weekend warrior looking to suffer occasionally to escape the doldrums of modern work or whatever.
Really depends what biking, Downhill biking needs more Core muscles the anything i know, with one exception witch is Motocross.
Sprinting Street-bike training also needs loots of Arm-muscles.
I hate to reduce your post to tech talk. But, what bike are your riding? I try and build a lot I'd bikes and the experience differs wildly. For starters, <40 mm tires sucks for zen riding.
I have an old steel cross bike transformed into a grocery getter that’s outfitted with wide slick tires, a rear rack, and pannier bags that I use when I need to haul stuff around. I have a gravel bike with disc brakes, wide knobby tires, and a slightly more relaxed geometry for riding/exploring on gravel/dirt or rougher paved roads. I have a carbon “race” bike with deep section wheels and a pretty aggressive geometry for going fast on paved roads.
I sometimes get close to the “zen” feeling that I got when running ultra distances but it goes away pretty quickly when I’m doing anything but going in a straight line on flat roads with no traffic. As you can imagine this doesn’t happen often. Contrast that with trail running (most of what I did for ultras) where I was just rambling along in nature. It was much easier to look inward when running on the trails.
I sometimes ride a bike with fatter tyres in the city and I never get in that zen state. Probably because I have to stay very alert, even when riding on bike paths separate from the street.
I don't know about zen but it sure can get my mind off work and troubles. I used to do long, somewhat urban commutes on my bike. I didn't have time to think about whatever because in that environment I needed to be fully in the moment.
The pulsing flow of the other skaters; the groups, like schools of fish, expanding and contracting, creating gaps to squeeze through on only one foot which then immediately close hard behind you, blocking anyone who may have been following, meaning that any path through congestion is necessarily unique to the individual. The requirement of an almost full 360-degree awareness of a varying number of parts all moving at different speeds. And yet family-friendly at the same time in the same space.
There’s a reason pro athletes consider eating and resting adequately a significant part of their full-time job.
https://africacheck.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Economic-...
This NYT article outlines some of the earnings for top Kenyan runners, which run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The article also focuses on some of the issues that come with the increased earnings, which seems to parallel the “lottery winner” effect where riches don’t necessarily lead to health and happiness.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/sports/kenyan-runners.htm...
I’m sure there are opportunities outside of running, and some of them are probably even better. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that running is a better than average opportunity based on the data.
I’m still chasing that feeling on the bike. I don’t get quite as zen on the bike. I think it’s because there is more speed involved (going into my mind at 20+ mph isn’t a good idea) and because I’m not getting the proprioception feedback (there’s just something about ambulating through space that’s hypnotic). I still get the post-exercise benefits and I’m hoping to chase down more of the zen as I go farther and farther on the bike.
I think the article has some dubious reasoning when coming up for justifications for why ultramarathons tend to attract rich white guys. I think the biggest elements in any endurance sport are time and overall nutrition. If you don’t have the time to train and the resources to fuel yourself consistently with high quality food you’re probably not going to enjoy training and participating in ultra endurance events, no matter how much you “yearn for a rawer form of human experience” or want to exercise your “control-and-conquer mentality.” Societal inequality means that the people who have an excess of time and money can participate, hence the rich white guys.
I’m grateful to be one of the lucky ones who can participate, even though I probably only qualify for one half of the “rich white guy” descriptor. I’m fortunate to be self employed, which gives me a lot of control over my schedule.
Final thought: The anecdote about the Kenyan professional is ridiculous. The “motivated” amateur calls out the professional for quitting the race when he injured his toe and says it’s because “he wasn’t there to suffer,” then goes on to insinuate that the professional only wanted to feel good. In reality the Kenyan professional relies on running as his profession (one which likely gives him a better standard of living than almost any other opportunity in his country) and rightly wants to protect his body as it needs to be in good working order to do his job. What kind of person puts down a professional for looking after himself so he can feel better about running a long distance?