Hi folks,
A while ago I wrote a post about good pain versus bad pain. Well, there is good crazy and bad crazy, too. Tim Ferris is definitely good crazy. As I approach the end of another year of training, and my income is about to drop dramatically (on September 24th, in fact), I am considering self-coaching for my next season. Generally this is a bad idea, and I may live to regret it, but the experience will be fodder for my blog. The flow (flux) of money into and out of your life can be represented by a flux equation, but you have to both define and solve this equation if you want to enjoy a happy life.
If you want to understand the dynamics of flux, mathematics provides an excellent approach. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux
I have a plan, and blogging is but a tiny piece of that puzzle. Once I was fully apprised of the impending non-linear nature of my future income stream (which is always potentially true, anyway), I naturally went back to reading about money. One book I really liked, though it is very odd in a showmanship kind of way, was Multiple Streams of Income, by Robert G. Allen. The approach recommended in this book is very logical, starting with reducing the ‘out portion’ of your money flux equation. This is a good thing to do anyway, and coaching is one thing I can test as potentially dispensable, for now at least.
I plan to take a Jeet Kune Do approach. To quote Bruce Lee, “A martial artist [read “Older Athlete”] has to take responsibility for himself and accept the consequences of his own doing.” You could say that I am going to be my own coach, or that I am taking a Zen approach; ‘coaching through no coaching?’ Either way, my expenditure will drop and I’ll learn a great deal as I build my training program for the 2012 Lake Placid Ironman race. Which brings me to The Four Hour Body (4HB), by Tim Ferriss.
If you can handle the above video, I think that you might conclude, “Yep! Crazy Guy. Good Crazy Guy?” Having been impressed by his first book, The Four Hour Work Week, I worked through the 4HB and came across a very interesting statement, which might provide me with the means to improve my training and reduce the time spent doing so. Great dream? Here is what Tim said on page 47 of my e-copy of his book:
“To the surprise of researchers who conducted muscle biopsies on Kenyan runners, there was a high proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, the type you’d expect to find in shot-putters and sprinters. Why? Because, as it turns out, they often train using low mileage and high intensity.”
This statement holds the promise of a life outside of training. Seeing family, reading, and maintaining balance. That is not easy when you’re training 20-25 hours per week. Eric incorporates these principles into his training, but I want to take it a step further. I plan to explore this idea, by taking the wealth of coaching data that I received from Chris Hauth and Eric Bean, and build a season that also incorporates Tim’s ideas.
New bike (Guru Custom from Victor http://bicyclelab.com/), different saddle, same lovely lady in my life!
That said, endurance workouts will still be necessary. For instance, take my new bike. I have had this remarkable machine for a couple of months, completed the Eagleman Half Ironman Bike leg in just over three hours, going easy to save my legs for the run (that is another story), and all was fine. But this course is only 56 miles. Last week I covered 90 miles on a training ride, and at 70 miles I started to experience chafing where my new Cobb saddle is slightly wider than my old Koobi, which is also a great saddle, by the way. This ‘disaster waiting to happen’ in a 112-mile ride can only be discovered on a long ride. That is the deal. So, I have to combine short and intense with selected long endurance workouts, with the same issues applying to my swimming and running gear. This will be interesting, and good for me, as doing new and interesting things is how Chez Ollie.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Keep thinking out of the box, and boy do we love to build boxes.
Happy training!
Applying the approach of physical sciences to money, that is to economics contains problems. Sciences measure things. Money, especially current “fiat money” is an illusion that we all seem to agree upon but is none the less illusion. ( I have got some silver as a hedge against currency collapse)
If you have weeks to spare try JM Keynes, “The Pure Theory of Money” and “The Applied theory of Money”. The monetary or Chicago School of Economics have a view that money is not an illusion but they are potty.
As a glass half empty, I see the USDollar (and £ and Euro, etc.) as having the potential of the German Marc of the 1920’s. The Fed has created far too much money with its quantitative easing. This could lead to galloping and possibly hyperinflation.
I would , as an economist not even bother with your equation as it is seeking to measure a riddle wrapped in an enigma and come up with an answer. (Economics has more queetions than answers and remember one fact about economists: lay all the economists in the world end to end and they would not reach a conclusion)
You may find muddling through somehow is a good a way as any in dealing with unknowables and with future household budgets. Locally newspapers are delivered by pensioners as well as teens. Some pensioners will work at anything to pay the bills rather than seek welfare.
As for training you seem to have that covered.
I suppose you have read the Brain book. Have you read Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves?
Hi Trevor,
Your comments always make me smile, in a positive way as they challenge my thinking. I understand the illusory nature of money, though it does function somewhat like blood, allowing things to be carried from place to place without our actually having to move them. Let me cogitate a little more, and then I’ll send a detailed comment or post. I really love exploring such thoughts.
What, I wonder, do you think of the diatribe on money by d’Anconia in Atlas Shrugged?
Much appreciated.
Kevin (@FitOldDog)
do not know the diatribe
Money:- means of exchange, store of value, unit of account…
Oh, and if money is like blood then Wall Street and Banks are vampires.