Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender

You all know by now what I'm up to.

I'm in the middle of a series spawned, somewhat accidentally, by my belief that an ideal endurance rider is one who does his or her best to achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength. Only by being committed athletes ourselves can we be worthy partners for our horses. Endurance is a team sport. Play it lean and strong.

While strength is primarily the result of exercise, leanness is about 80% diet. In Part Three, I introduced "eating clean" as a major factor in a rider's ability to attain and maintain a low body fat ratio. Eating clean means fueling your body with the substances it was designed to ingest -- a lifestyle so simple that maintaining it requires only that you follow a few, simple rules. Eating Clean Rule #1, you'll recall from Part Three, is: Don't eat anything with a barcode. Today, we move on to Rule #2.

Eating Clean Rule #2: Sugar is the devil.

Uh-oh. You knew I was going there, didn't you? Congratulations -- you guessed it. I'm going there, and I'm going all the way. Sugar is the devil. It is poison. You shouldn't eat it. Despite what those ludicrous HFCS promotions say to the contrary, sugar is not acceptable, even in moderation. Except in its natural combination with fiber and multitudinous nutrients, such as in fruit, sugar is nothing but bad for you. Period.

I could end this post here. You've already read the critical information. But, I suspect a number of you, like me, aren't satisfied with what when you could have why. So, I'll carry on a bit and give you some resources with which to follow up on your own.

First of all, since we're discussing leanness, you need to understand that sugars are simple carbohydrates. The body converts all carbohydrates to glucose, which is a useful fuel. Unfortunately, most people eat far too much carbohydrate and wind up with an overabundance of glucose in their cells. Because glucose is toxic in large amounts, and because your body is designed to store energy in case of later starvation, you come equipped with a means of dealing with unburned glucose: you turn it to fat.

"It's not fat that gets stored in your fat cells," explains one of my favorite nutrition blogs, Mark's Daily Apple, in this post, "-- it's sugar." The post goes on to explain how too much carbohydrate (sugar) in the diet eventually leads to insulin resistance, which everyone knows is half a click away from diabetes (read: obesity, cardiac disease, nerve damage, blindness, and early death). High price to pay for that afternoon Pepsi.

Prefer an alternative method of payment? How about cancer? As Dr. Patrick Quillin explains in his inexpertly-written, but highly informative, book Beating Cancer with Nutrition, "sugar feeds cancer." It's the perfect meal for mutant cells. Considering that cancer cells form regularly in all our bodies throughout our lifetimes (and are usually conquered by our immune systems) I am disinclined to offer them a welcoming buffet.

I should clarify here that sugar, like processed food, is found in more than the obvious sources. As far as your body is concerned, simple starches are virtually indistinguishable from those white granules you put on your (barcoded) Wheaties. White flour and its many children (pasta, breads, crackers, etc.) are all, essentially, sugars. You've heard that "muffins are for people who don't have the balls to order cake for breakfast?" I'm afraid it's necessary to extend that statement to encompass your morning bagel, English muffin, and toast as well.

Then, there are the hidden sugars. Variously labeled as high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, dextose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, and everything else gross, an astonishing quantity of sugar hides in supposed "health foods" such as yogurt, fruit juices, salad dressings, smoothies, energy bars and beverages, frozen entrees, soy milk, peanut butter (of the Jiffy and Skippy variety), and just about everything else with a barcode. Even whole grains impact the body as sugar, though in a less dramatic fashion than do the dreaded "simple carbs." Low-fat and fat-free products are almost always packed with sugar, not to mention a horrifying array of additives that don't come from anything so natural as sex or seeds.

By the way, you don't still think you're getting away with anything by choosing diet drinks and other products featuring artificial sweeteners, do you? Good. Because saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, and their evil cousins are well-documented carcinogens, allergens, and wreakers of general havoc on organs from skin to kidney to brain. As a special bonus, many of them enhance your appetite. Just what you need when trying to get lean! (For an excellent discussion artificial sweeteners and other food additives, check out a book called Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills by Russell Blaylock.)

Note that your friends at the FDA, who are well aware of the complications associated with artificial sweeteners...and the USDA, who are acquainted with the damaging effects of over consumption of carbohydrates...still merrily approve and recommend their use. Just another reason I don't take Big Brother's advice.

Here's the good news: While sugar and its man made relatives are addictive substances, addictions can be broken. All it takes is a healthy dose of willpower applied without exception for a sufficient period of time. For most people, 14-28 days' effort will break the strongest bonds, leaving you free, over time, to transform into one of those annoying people who is genuinely un-tempted by the office chocolate bowl, Friday donuts, and the Coke machine down the hall.

Incidentally, much of these health nuts' seemingly-ironclad commitment is based in their bodies' heightened insulin sensitivity due to low sugar consumption over the long term. That's a fancy way of saying that they know a small slice of birthday cake will leave them feeling like crap for the rest of the afternoon. (It'll make everyone else feel like crap, too, for different reasons...but most of them won't realize they feel like crap because, sadly, they always feel like crap. And to make themselves feel better, they 'll buy another soda. Which will make them feel like crap. Recognize yourself? Check out Dr. Neal Barnard's book Breaking the Food Seduction to better understand -- and conquer -- food cravings.)

Of course, if you're following Eating Clean Rule #1, you don't need to worry about any of this. Nature doesn't overload you with sugar any more than it prints barcodes on itself. Some would argue that fruit is an exception. While it's true that sedentary people should not overindulge, as the carbohydrates in fruit do need to be burned lest they be stored as fat, fruit offers myriad nutritional benefits and is, by far, the best source of sweetness in a clean diet.

Right, then. Many of you have made the clever observation that these two Eating Clean Rules eliminate almost all the products that fill most westerners' grocery carts and kitchen cupboards. Some of you are staring at your screens in horror, wondering what in the name of Kellogg's Frosted Pop Tarts is left to eat. Surely, you say, if she really lives by these rules, she'll drop dead before finishing this post!

Not so. I assure you, eating clean (and getting lean) has nothing whatsoever to do with starvation. "Eating clean," you'll recall, means fueling your body with the substances it was designed to ingest. Here they are:

Vegetables. Fruits. Legumes. Meats. Eggs. Nuts. Seeds. Plant oils. Grains. Milk. Period.

Science and human nature being what they are, there's plenty of room for debate even within the above categories. I'll address a couple of the most prominent issues in upcoming posts, and then we'll move on to the strength part of the equation. For now, suffice it to say that most honest nutritionists and researchers would agree that following Eating Clean Rules #1 and #2 would eliminate the vast majority of our collective roadblocks on the path to leanness and longevity...and as endurance riders, isn't longevity what we're all about?

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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green

Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders
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Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

All right. We've talked about why I believe an ideal endurance rider is lean and strong. We've established that my goal is to to achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition. We've concluded that the only people whose advice is worth taking are those who can prove their theories with indisputable results.

Now, it's about time we got down to business, beginning with nutrition. What, exactly, does a lean, strong rider eat?

Good question. I can't answer it for you, but over the past several years, I've come a long way in answering it for myself. What follows is my own set of conclusions, based on extensive self-study of books, websites, and the experience of people who are making these theories work in real bodies, in the real world. These conclusions represent the best way I know (so far) to achieve not only leanness, but such lifelong wellness as is increasingly rare in developed countries today.

I'm pleased to report that good nutrition can be summed up quite simply in a concept I call "eating clean." Eating clean means nothing more or less than choosing, on a consistent basis, to fuel your body with the substances it was designed to ingest -- that is, with actual food.

What was that? Did somebody just say, "Well, duh?"

You'd think, wouldn't you, that I shouldn't need to take up cyberspace advising you to eat food. Think again. Have you read an ingredient label lately? Go ahead, pick a few items from your pantry and study the labels. I'll wait...

Finished? Good. How many of those ingredients do you fail to recognize as products of nature? I don't know about you, but I can't think of anyone who has a sodium benzoate tree in their backyard.

So, in the interest of identifying what qualifies as "food"-- the necessity of which activity is appalling enough to take my breath away -- I've come up with a few rules on the subject of eating clean. Conveniently, if you apply Rule #1, you'll find that most of the subsequent rules take care of themselves. Drumroll, please...

Eating Clean Rule #1: Don't eat anything with a barcode.

With few exceptions, "food" items that come in barcoded packages are the processed remains of formerly nutritious substances. That is, they are foods altered from their natural state, often to such an extent that the human body cannot recognize them as fuel. The implications of consuming such products are enormous.

In the short term, processed foods fill your stomach but fail to signal your body that its nutritional requirements have been met -- because they haven't. Before long, these unmet requirements make themselves known in the form of hunger, even if you've already consumed enough calories for someone twice your size. Naturally, this starts you along the road to becoming twice your size.

The long-term implications of processed food consumption are so numerous as to stretch beyond the scope of this post. One of the most alarming, however, is also related to the nutrient-depleted state of these products. In the absence of sufficient vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and phytonutrients, your body becomes increasingly unable to manage its own maintenance. Damaged cells go unrepaired and mutations unrecognized, resulting in accelerated aging and malignant cancers.

Twinkie, anyone?

Incidentally, processed food manufacturers are well aware of the nutritional wasteland they've created. A glance at their packaging makes clear that they've spent huge sums on marketing designed to convince us not to worry about it. "It's fortified!" they announce, without mentioning that "fortification" means they've added artificially high doses of certain vitamins they know we'll associate with Mom's good advice. I suppose they think we won't notice that the phytonutrients necessary for our bodies to actually process those (often-synthetic) nutrients remain absent. And they aren't about to tell us...because if they did, we might stop to wonder if it isn't better to spend our cash and calories on actual food instead.

Back to Rule #1. Permit me to make myself clear. In warning against processed foods, I'm not just talking about the obvious culprits like cheese puffs, Twizzlers, soda, and German chocolate cake mix. Anyone with half a brain and a modicum of willpower is already avoiding those. (You are, aren't you?)

In case you haven't noticed, my friends, an awful lot of perceived "health foods" also have barcodes. Breakfast cereals. Granola bars. "Diet" snacks. Frozen entrees. Crackers cleverly labeled "all natural" or "whole grain." Canned vegetables, soups, and fish. Soy milk. Tofu. Sports drinks. Pasta. Need I go on?

Yes, yes. I know. Some actual food is sold in barcoded packages for the sake of convenience. Apply Rule #1 with a dose of common sense. Consider whether the item has ingredients (if it does, it's questionable) or is an ingredient (in which case, it's probably okay...subject to other Eating Clean Rules, of course). If you can't identify a product's natural source by simply looking at it, you probably ought to wonder whether it's really edible.

I believe it was Dr. Mitra Ray, author of From Here to Longevity*, who wrote, "If you can't pick it, hunt it, fish it, or milk it, don't eat it." CNC Kelly Hayford puts it even more simply in the title of her high-level book, If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It.

In other words, don't eat anything with a barcode.

Part Four of this series will take us on to Eating Clean Rule #2, which plugs a few loopholes left by Rule #1. In the meantime, I'll leave you to ponder what's left once you've eliminated barcodes from your diet. Those are the foods I'll discuss further in Parts Five and Six.

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By the way, many thanks to all who have participated in this discussion through comments and in the wider blogosphere. Frankly, I'm surprised and delighted by the apparent resonance of this topic. If you have specific questions you'd like answered or experiences to share -- or if you'd prefer I shut up and went back to training and riding! -- please feel free to make your thoughts known.
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* I can't leave this post without mentioning the fact that you won't find Dr. Mitra Ray's best-selling book From Here to Longevity for sale on her website. Why? Because her recent research has led her to the conclusion that she gave some harmful advice (particularly with regard to recommendations for the consumption of meat and dairy) in the original text. In what I consider to be an eminently honorable move, Dr. Ray has ordered her staff to cease publication of the profitable title until she can complete a revised edition containing what she now believes to be accurate, scientifically-grounded information. That, my friends, is a woman worth listening to.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

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Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice

In Part One of this series, I defined the following goal for myself as an endurance rider: To achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition. I believe that continual striving toward this goal is a critical component of being a partner worthy of my horse. (For more on my reasoning in that regard, see this post.)

In brief, an endurance rider should be both lean and strong. Despite popular assumption to the contrary, the two do not necessarily go hand in hand. A lean person is not necessarily strong, nor is a strong person necessarily lean. Furthermore, leanness and strength are primarily influenced by different components of the fitness equation with which we are all familiar; that is, the combination of diet and exercise.

Strength is primarily the product of exercise, while leanness is influenced most heavily by diet. Any rider who wants to be both lean and strong must commit to excellence in both areas. Let's start with diet, shall we?

You don't need me to tell you that the world wide web is already rife with dietary suggestions. Some nerds, like me, actually enjoy sifting through this material in search of answers; however, there's no question that the plethora of contrasting views can be overwhelming to the point of frustration and, all too often, defeat.

The good news is that a significant portion of the confusion swirling around dietary recommendations (or anything else, for that matter) can be eliminated simply by examination of their sources. Whenever I look at a proposed dietary plan, supplement, or other product, I first consider by what its creation was motivated. More often than not, I discover reasons to be highly skeptical of the proffered information.

Here are a few of the most prominent information sources I have come to regard with deep mistrust:

1. Big Brother

You know that USDA Food Guide Pyramid you had to color in 1st grade? You know the revised MyPyramid the USDA released in 2005? You know how hard entities such as the National Cattlemen's Association, the Sugar Association, the National Milk Producer's Federation, and other trade associations lobbied to prevent those guidelines from including any reference to overwhelming scientific evidence that we all ought to replace a huge percentage of our meat, dairy, grain (yes, grain!), and sugar intake with fresh produce? You know that agribusiness and "food" manufacturers make massive contributions to political campaigns and expect favors in return?

If you don't know these things, I suggest you do some homework. Because the USDA, FDA, DHHS, and similar are a lot more interested in politics than in your well being. I can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

2. Anyone Who is Selling Something

...especially if it's a product offering rapid weight loss or other, miraculous health benefits. Because products making such claims occupy such a large share of the "health and fitness" marketplace, I think the topic merits further discussion:

First, rapid weight loss. Believe it or not, a lot of those miracle products really can help you drop 7 pounds in 7 days. What they fail to mention, however, is that you won't lose 7 pounds of fat in 7 days.

How do I know? Because that is, quite simply, impossible. The human body is capable of metabolizing up to 3 pounds of fat per week -- and 3 pounds is very, very good (1-2 pounds is far more typical and a perfectly respectable rate of fat loss).

If you're losing more than 3 pounds a week, ladies and gentlemen, you're losing things you ought to keep. What are you losing? Water and protein. Protein? Yes. You know, lean muscle mass such as organ tissue and muscle. Great. So much for being strong.

As an aside, permit me to discuss cellulite for a moment. You'll be happy to know, ladies, that it doesn't exist. The fat that makes your thighs look lumpy is structurally identical to all the rest of the fat on your body. What should this tell you? How about this, for starters: If someone tries to sell you a product to eliminate something that doesn't exist, they're taking you for a ride. Go saddle up your pony instead.

On to miraculous health benefits. You've seen them, haven't you, those pills and potions that claim to do everything from increasing energy to decreasing blood pressure to reversing aging? Here's my advice: Anytime you're tempted by one of these products, ask for proof of their claims in the form of independent, published, peer-reviewed research. (Be warned -- almost nobody will be prepared to provide it. I've found a grand total of one company that can do so.)

Usually, they'll send you a few papers extolling the benefits of the key ingredients in their product and expect you to make an illogical leap. For example: Blueberries are good for you. Our product includes blueberries. Therefore, our product is good for you. Right? Wrong. If they don't have research demonstrating the effectiveness and bioavailability of the actual product, don't buy it. Your local grocery has fresh blueberries. Spend your money there.

You know, I still can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

3. Most Doctors

Few people realize how little training most physicians, from general practitioners to neurosurgeons, receive in nutrition. (Think 1-2 credit hours in the course of 8 or more years of study.) Modern medical education focuses almost exclusively on the use of surgical and pharmaceutical intervention to cure disease, rather than on the use of nutrition to prevent disease in the first place.

Frankly, this baffles me. Does nobody think anymore?

Ahhh, wait a moment. The pharmaceutical companies do. In fact, they came up with one of the most brilliant business ideas of the past thirty years: CME sponsorship. It seems that at least 50% (statistics vary) of continuing medical education courses for our physicians are put on by pharmaceutical companies. I'll leave you to ponder what the common side effects include.

Funny thing, I still can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

I could go on to discuss unsustainable weight loss programs, those neat little medical PSA's they run on the news (I'll give you two guesses who produces those beauties), and all manner of other, unreliable sources of dietary advice. But, perhaps it would be most useful to stop ranting and move on to the subject of who you can trust.

If you were in the market for an individual to start your coming four-year-old endurance prospect under saddle, who would you choose: The trainer whose personal mounts are unmanageable at the start, fail to settle at vet checks, and whose tails are bedecked with red ribbons...or the one whose energetic but compliant partners regularly complete races in good form and are greeted with a smile by vets and volunteers alike?

Here's the point: Go with the guy who's getting the job done. If you want to be lean and strong, listen to people who are lean and strong. Heed experience (which is not the same as anecdote) and imitate those whose results prove positive over the long term. Believe only those who can prove their claims.

Part Three of this series will beging to cover the dietary guidelines I've gleaned from such people and applied to my own lifestyle to demonstrable, positive effect. Stay tuned.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders
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Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal

Eleven years ago, I thought I had fitness all figured out.

At 5'3" and 115 pounds of camp-counselor-suntan, I looked pretty fair in my wedding dress. I knew how to put four food groups on the table in the form of a tuna casserole with white pasta and cheddar, plus a side of canned green beans dressed up in vinegar and minced onion. Every weekday, I attended at least one aerobics class at the local gym. People at the office, to which I ran or biked in almost any weather, considered me a "health nut." All I can say is, Good heavens! What would they call me now?

I've learned a lot since then, you see...including that I was neither well-nourished nor fit during that time. I was merely young and genetically blessed with a mesomorphic body type. In those days, I believed fitness was about burning enough calories to make a pair of jeans look good. I hadn't a clue about the impact of micronutrients on long-term health, the nutritional nightmare that is processed foods, the benefits of high intensity interval training -- or, for that matter, just how sexy a little muscle can be.

And it showed. This embarrassing photo was taken in the spring of 2005, when I was 27. Was I appallingly overweight? No. But I was a far cry from the leanness and strength to which I now aspire.

Between then and now, I've put hundreds of self-study hours into an attempt to understand nutrition and fitness. Though my formal qualifications on the subjects amount to approximately zero, I have at least managed to identify my goal -- always a good first step.

It's a simple goal, and one that's critically linked to my beliefs about fitness for endurance riders. Here it is: To achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition.

Why this goal? I believe that an ideal endurance athlete -- the human half -- must be both lean, that is, have a low body fat ratio, and strong, which I could casually define as having the muscular and cardiovascular capacity to exert maximum power during productive work. (Note that, as discussed in the comments precipitated by this post, "lean and strong" looks different on different people. I'm not talking about preparing for a beauty contest here. This is about contributing my fair share in a team event.)

So, how does a person become lean and strong? As you can see by the above photo, the answer is not to be found in a "healthful" diet of barbequed pork chops, roasted potatoes, and asparagus with lemon butter, plus an hour of step aerobics or a jog at dusk. That level of effort may hold you around average -- but in case you haven't noticed, "average" these days comes equipped with devastating rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and myriad other degenerative, disruptive, deadly, and largely preventable diseases.

Pharmaceutical companies love "average."

I, on the other hand, am not a fan of mediocrity. My horse can't be "average" and strive for a 20,000-mile endurance career (like the equine half of this admirable pair. Note especially the rider's fitness program -- Hint: it ain't step aerobics)...and neither should I.

It has taken me a few years to figure out how to leave mediocrity in the dust. I'm still learning, of course, but over the next week or so I'll attempt to codify my most important lessons in a series of posts about workouts and nutritional concepts that may strike some readers as extreme. For those who are interested, however, I hope to offer a jumping-off point for your own pursuit of ideal fitness -- for your horse's sake.

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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice

Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender

Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green

Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?

Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

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Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

I'm about to offend some people. I find that I don't care as much as I used to. You don't have to agree with me. You don't even have to read this post. If you choose to do so, pull up your big girl panties and get on with it. All I ask is that you listen to my opinion and form your own.

I've been thinking about rider fitness. No, not the flame-singed, popcorn-strewn "how fat is too fat to ride" debate that refuses to die on equine forums across the net, but fitness specifically for endurance riders. It seems to me that those of us who ask our horses to haul us fifty miles or more over sunbeaten mountains and through mudslicked valleys ought to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the average equestrian.

How high a standard?

Let me put it this way: If I were training for a relay marathon with a human partner, I'd sure as hell expect him to work as hard I did to prepare. If I found out he was spending his afternoons kicked back on the couch with a diet soda while I logged set after set of agonizing miles, I'd be downright irritated. In fact, I'd probably pull my race entry -- or else find myself a better partner.

How many endurance horses would do the same? Judging by my own observations at rides in my area, I'd have to guess at quite a few. Too bad the ponies don't get a choice. Their riders choose for them -- and some of those choices are less than honorable.

A good friend of mine, who is considering getting into endurance, summed up my feelings on the subject nicely: "I wouldn't even attempt it if I weren't in top condition. I believe I have to earn the privilege of having a good partner by being a good partner."

But what, exactly, is a "partner?"

I looked up Webster's definition and found it largely unsurprising:

Partner (n): 1. One that shares; 2. One associated with another, especially in an action; 3. a member of a partnership, especially in a business.

But the final entry that caught my attention.

4. One of the heavy timbers that strengthen a ship's deck to support a mast.

Being that my maritime experience is exceedingly limited, I had to read up on mast partners. It's a simple concept. Basically, the opposing forces of wind and water upon a ship's mast create pressure that is too much for the ship's deck alone to bear. Without partners -- stout timbers fixed between the deck beams around the opening in the deck through which the mast passes, distributing loads across the deck and into the hull -- both mast and deck would suffer damage sufficient to endanger both craft and crew.

Take a look at this image of the mast partners installed while rebuilding the raised vessel Irene. The partners are the cross-pieces between the longer deck beams. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out what would happen if you used a substantial joist on one side and a toothpick on the other.

And yet, many endurance teams attempt to sail through the sport with exactly that handicap. The horses are beautifully, admirably fit, and the riders are...not.

Now wait a minute, you say. I care about my horse. I work hard to keep her fed and watered, floated and ice-booted, vaccinated and massaged and trimmed and clipped and supplemented and stretched.

I'm sure you do. I'm glad you do. That's important. But when was the last time you busted your butt as hard as she does? You know, the butt with those fifteen extra pounds attached. Aren't you supposed to be an athlete, too?

Listen up. I'm not talking about mediocrity here. I'm not talking about lacing up your tennies for a 20-minute walk during your lunch break, maybe throwing in a couple of those tricep kickbacks you read about in the latest issue of Cooking Light.

I'm talking about pure, focused, physical and mental effort. Huffing and puffing, nauseating, self-disciplined, self-denying, self-fulfilling, barrier-breaking workouts that sculpt you into the kind of fit that makes strangers on the street turn around for another look.

You know -- the kind of effort your endurance horse makes for you.

All right. Raise your hand if your hackles are up. Anybody preparing to hammer out a scathing comment about how I'm trying to turn endurance racing into an elitist sport? Take your finger off the trigger, folks; that's not my point.

In fact, one of my favorite things about endurance is that it's a rare sport in which kids can compete alongside their grandparents, and some of its top riders excel despite physical ailments that make them look like everybody's last idea of a champion athlete.

What I am saying is that if you're settling for mediocrity, you're failing your horse. Even if your fitness level is "not that bad." Even if it's "above average." If it's not your personal best -- and that's a moving target, ladies and gentlemen, so keep striving -- it's not good enough.

You don't have to be an elite athlete to compete in endurance. It's a welcoming sport. Care for your horse and give her the credit she deserves, and you'll find friends in ridecamps everywhere. But hear this: Unless you're making a real, concerted, consistent effort to remodel yourself to the best of your ability, you aren't bearing your share of the burden. You aren't the partner you ought to be.

Your horse didn't sign up for this sport. You did. You wanted the fun, the challenge, the adventure and glory. Good for you. Now earn it.
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I don't claim to be a nutrition and fitness expert, but for those who are interested, I'll share in subsequent posts a few things I've learned about diet and exercise that have recently honed my personal fitness to an unprecedented level. If I can do it, you can, too.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?

Cross Training -- for you, not your horse by Liz at Equine Ink
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Shot in the Dark: Commitment

If a task is once begun, never leave it 'til it's done.
Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.

~ Anonymous

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