I AM THE GREATEST
What does it take to perform as one of the best in the world?
I’m sure we have all had dreams of being the best in our given sport, but I’m sure when we really look at what it takes to reach these dizzy heights, we might be happy with our lot.
As we come to the end of the autumn marathon season, we have seen some fantastic performances cumulating in two world records from
Tigst Assefa with a time of 2.11.53 (3.08min km/5.02min mile)
Kelvin Kiptum 2.00.35 (2.52min km/4.36min mile)
The pace at which they run these times is mind-boggling.
Picking your parents
Sometimes its out of your hands if your parents don’t bless you with some world-class genes. your going to struggle to compete with the lucky few that have world-class genes.
Take this young lad
Farther was a professional cyclist, a classic winner and a world champ (Adri van der Poel), and Grandfather was also a professional cyclist, a classic winner, multiple grand tour stage winner, a Vuelta Espana overall winner, and eight times on the podium of the Tour de France.(Raymond Poulidor)
So he picked his parents very well and is already a six-time senior world champion. (Mathieu van der Poel)
The Environment
The environment will play a significant role in becoming one of the best in the world. Australia has around 1300 public swimming pools, with around 100 being Olympic size (50 metres). With a population of around 26 million, it has the most swimming pools per capita in the world, and it produces some of the best swimmers in the world; they gained 21 medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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The grind to get to the top.
Take a look at Kelvin kiptum training he has had to do to reach the 2.00.35 marathon time. This is not a one-off; this is week-in-week out for months and years.
Add all these factors together, and you have a chance to be at the elite end of the pack. As an elite athlete performing at the highest level, diet plays a major part of any athlete’s day, Whether its constantly watching your caloric intake, most elite cyclists will spend many months feeling hungry, No sneaky donuts after training.
Or the opposite: if you are on the strength end of the spectrum, you will have to consume copious amounts of food
Reading
this was a big read back in August 2023
Art of the week
Street art in Sant Cruz, Madeira
Quote
Words: Doppelgänger
A double of a person; having a keen resemblance between two otherwise unrelated persons.
A minute of Philosophy
Task for you this week:
To sit in silence for 5 to 10 minutes a day with no distractions.
(If you have kids, sit them in front of the TV for 10 minutes; it will not do them any harm.)