Alternative title: How to take absurdity and dreaming so you are inspired to reach beyond your ability.
Greetings fellow endurance warriors!
I sit down to write this blog in the final few hours of 2023. And, as with every other year, I am ignoring the spluttering death throes of this current year’s unachieved goals to ponder what my New Year's resolutions will be for the coming year. Will it be to relaunching my masters swimming career or break an hour for a 40k ride? Qualifying for the Boston Marathon or will I finally find a very steep downhill parkrun to break my elusive 20 minutes 5K barrier? No doubt I am not alone in my mission to set New Years resolutions that are mentally stimulating, but are most likely, physical impossible for a 54-year-old man with delusions of ability and a small genetic pool to draw my talent.
As an endurance athlete, setting resolutions can feel like drafting a plan to buy a Coke from the 7/11 on Mars - it requires strategy, resilience, and occasionally, the ability to laugh off the absurdity of it all. So, in this brave new world of the mid 2020’s, I am going to ditch my own meticulously misguided plans to reinvent my aging athletic career and ask someone/thing, who, according to everyone under 30, knows everything about everything and is getting smarter by the nanosecond. Let’s bring on AI!!!!
For those living under a rock let me briefly show you how amazingly good it is! Let’s take a 10-year-old who have can’t even spell astrophysics. Let’s now ask them to rewrite ‘A brief history in time’ as a rap song. Student creates a prompt; Write a rap song based on Stephen Hawkins book “A brief history of time”. And the rap song that it produces in 5 seconds is actually very good (I have attached the song to end of this blog). So with that degree of intelligence let’s give AI a prompt and see what my goals are for 2024.
AI prompt:
My name is Sean Riley I am a male born in 1969. I have a long history of endurance events. 6 ironman's, 2 Ultraman's and a 100km ultra endurance trail run. I can run a 5km park run around 21 minutes and am able to swim at a 1:15minute per 100-meter pace. I can also ride my bike around the 30km/h pace for 100km. I do very little strength work in the gym, although I can now do 100 pushups, sit ups and body weight squats in four sets of 25. I also have poor flexibility and a recurring ankle injury to my left ankle. Based on my existing history and the five elements of fitness set me some new year's resolutions to test and improve my fitness.
AI response:
It's great to hear about your impressive history of endurance events, Sean! Based on your current fitness level and areas you'd like to improve, here are some New Year's resolutions that can help you test and enhance your overall fitness:
1. Strength Training Focus:
- Resolution: Incorporate structured strength training into your routine at least 2-3 times a week.
- Goal: Increase overall strength, especially in areas that support your endurance activities, such as core strength and ankle stability.
2. Flexibility Improvement:
- Resolution: Dedicate time to daily stretching and flexibility exercises.
- Goal: Enhance your flexibility to reduce the risk of injuries and improve overall mobility.
3. Ankle Rehabilitation:
- Resolution: Prioritize ankle rehabilitation exercises to address your recurring ankle injury.
- Goal: Strengthen the muscles around your left ankle, improve stability, and reduce the risk of future injuries.
4. Speed Training:
- Resolution: Integrate speed training sessions into your running routine.
- Goal: Improve your 5km park run time, aiming for a sub-20 minute finish.
5. Swimming Technique Refinement:
- Resolution: Work on refining your swimming technique with a focus on efficiency.
- Goal: Decrease your 100-meter swim pace to 1:10 minutes or below.
6. Biking Endurance Challenge:
- Resolution: Plan and participate in a challenging 150km bike ride.
- Goal: Complete the ride at an average pace of 28km/h or higher.
7. Diversify Endurance Training:
- Resolution: Try a new form of endurance training, such as trail running or cycling in a different environment.
- Goal: Expand your endurance capabilities and keep your training routine fresh.
8. Nutrition Optimization:
- Resolution: Consult with a nutritionist to optimize your diet for better performance and recovery.
- Goal: Improve overall energy levels, recovery, and nutrient intake to support your training.
Remember to start gradually with any new activities or increased intensity to prevent overtraining and injuries. Additionally, consider consulting with a fitness professional or healthcare provider to ensure your resolutions align with your personal health and fitness needs. Good luck on your fitness journey in the coming year, Sean!
Final thoughts:
I’m impressed but at the same time disappointed. My AI (he/she/they) are 100% correct in everything they have told me to do. All the goals are sensible for my age and my ability levels. They are also incredibly achievable. They are also linked together so they all complement each other. As I improve in one area I can see all other areas benefiting. If I follow the skeleton plan that my little buddy/AI coach has given me I will be a much better athlete at the end of 2024. As I look into the future, 12 months ahead I can see that there will not be spluttering death throes of unachieved goals. I can see positive steps forward. A stronger, fitter and faster Sean! A 55 year old man that I would look at and aspire to be like. But there is no way in the world I am going to follow that plan.
Wait…..what!!!!
Even I am question the words that are queuing in my brain ready to get out onto the paper. I sincerely hope you and my prefrontal cortex understand the following reasoning for my rejection of the best set of resolutions I have ever seen. These intelligent goals will, quite simply, rescue my floundering athletic career. But the reason I reject themis simple, and that is the bolded word in the second paragraph of the introduction to this blog. That word is absurdity! The reason I do what I do is the absurdity of it all. Running 100km is, quite frankly, stupid. Doing an ironman or Ultraman or even a 5km park run is stupid. It is all absurdity! Thankfully there is a word that complements absurdity, and that is dreaming. Dreams take the absurd and makes them possible. So, in order to create mentally stimulating resolutions for the year ahead you need to be dreaming so that the resolution inspires and motivates you to attempt the impossible. To quote my mother and possibly every other mother in the world who tried to inspire us to reach higher than our ability.
‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.’
And another from JFK,
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
New Years resolutions need to be anchored in absurdity and made achievable through our dreams. They need to be hard, so we have the opportunity to fail. It is actually in the possibility of failing that makes the goal inspiring. JFK didn’t encourage the American people to go to the corner store to get sausage roll. He challenged them to lift their eyes to the impossible. And our mothers kindly said the same thing to lovingly nurse us towards a better version of ourselves.
As a final note I will read over the plan that my AI friend has given me but I will ignore and add my own two ingredients of absurdity and dreaming so that I am inspired to reach beyond my ability. I will likely fail but in failing I will land amongst the stars as a dreamer with a smile on my face.
A brief history of time – summarized in rap.
Author: Could have been written by a 10 year old.
(Verse 1)
Yo, let's dive into the cosmos, where time takes flight,
Stephen Hawking droppin' knowledge, in the dark of the night.
"A Brief History of Time," yeah, that's the tale,
From the big bang to black holes, where theories set sail.
In the quantum realm, where the particles dance,
Hawking breaks it down, giving theories a chance.
Black holes ain't just a void, they got a story to tell,
Warping time and space, like a cosmic carousel.
(Chorus)
"A Brief History of Time," in the pages we climb,
Through the mysteries of the cosmos, unlocking the rhyme.
From the stars to the quarks, in this lyrical climb,
Hawking's words groove, in the beats of time.
(Verse 2)
Einstein's relativity, meets quantum's embrace,
Hawking breaks it down, in the scientific chase.
Wormholes and strings, in a cosmic ballet,
In the symphony of time, let the intellect sway.
From singularities to Hawking radiation,
In the cosmic arena, it's a revelation.
Through black hole thermals, where the paradox lies,
In the language of the universe, Hawking applies.
(Chorus)
"A Brief History of Time," in the pages we climb,
Through the mysteries of the cosmos, unlocking the rhyme.
From the stars to the quarks, in this lyrical climb,
Hawking's words groove, in the beats of time.
(Bridge)
Wheels of time turning, as we ride the cosmic wave,
Hawking's intellect shining bright, like a stardust rave.
Through the fabric of space, where the dimensions entwine,
In the quantum groove, where the verses align.
(Verse 3)
From Hawking's wheelchair to the edge of the abyss,
His words echo through time, in the cosmic bliss.
A universe in a nutshell, Hawking's grand design,
In the quantum rap, where the stars align.
So here's to Stephen Hawking, in rhyme and in reason,
His "Brief History of Time," a cosmic season.
In the rap of the universe, where the verses chime,
Hawking's legacy grooves, in the beats of time.
(Chorus)
"A Brief History of Time," in the pages we climb,
Through the mysteries of the cosmos, unlocking the rhyme.
From the stars to the quarks, in this lyrical climb,
Hawking's words groove, in the beats of time.