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In my experience Colorado has been a great place to practice mediocrity. I hit a major plateau in climbing about four years ago after hitting 5.12d in the gym

In my experience Colorado has been a great place to practice mediocrity. I hit a major plateau in climbing about four years ago after hitting 5.12d in the gym and 5.11 lead outside. No matter what I did, I could never seem to push past it and I quickly recognized that without a serious climbing-focused training program it just wasn't going to happen. Slowly but surely this lack of progress drained the fun out of the sport for me, and after a minor injury I stopped completely. Fast forward a few years, I get into mountain biking. The same thing starts to happen. I become focused on speed, distance, difficulty, and anything else quantifiable. Thankfully after my experience with climbing I was able to put the breaks on that type of thinking. Now when I go out I purposefully do not record my time, my distance, my heart rate, or anything else. No Strava. No Runkeeper. Nothing. The only measure of progress I allow myself is how much sustain I have over the course of a ride. And even that I will sometimes purposefully ruin by taking breaks I do not need. And surprise -- I am having an absolute blast, my skills and endurance have skyrocketed, I'm riding trails I never imagined I would, and it's all because I go out with the intention of having fun and not setting a new PR.

saiya-jin 8y ago
I can relate to this very much - all gizmos measuring various attributes seem to effectively remove the most important aspect of these sports/activities - fun, and hence in long term much of the motivation. Suddenly you have some metrics, you see that last week you improved, this week you perform like cr_p, and that guy is so much better than you. It's some sort of obscure facebook effect when sport becomes very competitive. Its all great if you're a pro and you have to improve, you have to track progress etc. But for mere mortals, it's worse than useless. I just can't imagine the mindset I would have to have to really benefit anyhow from these devices. I use some old crappy Suunto watches that barely measure altitude (for hikes/aki alpinism), compass stopped working and I used them mainly for time only. If they die I definitely won't be buying any other. On my bike, simple computer died 2 years ago, so I have no clue about speed, distance etc. Again, its great, just road and me and the bike. Being very competitive in my book is a quite negative personality trait - never happy, always comparing themselves to others. On the outside it might look great, but inside it's not. I have no need to support this behavior.
- hesdeadjim 8y ago
  Yea I had to ask myself what is my actual goal. Why do I need to progress as quickly as possible? I mean it’s fun to do harder trails and be able to go longer, but if I’m having fun does it matter if that takes three years versus one? At 38 I have no delusions of competing so there isn’t really a strong motivation to be the best. I’m naturally very competitive, but as you point out it is a very negative trait when applied to all aspects of one’s existence.
jdhzzz 8y ago
I like the "goals versus systems" philosophy that Scott Adams espouses: http://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/ http://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/. I find it more enjoyable and less stressful to use systems rather than establish goals: exercise aerobically a few times a week rather than run 5k in MM:SS time.

saiya-jin 8y ago

I can relate to this very much - all gizmos measuring various attributes seem to effectively remove the most important aspect of these sports/activities - fun, and hence in long term much of the motivation. Suddenly you have some metrics, you see that last week you improved, this week you perform like cr_p, and that guy is so much better than you. It's some sort of obscure facebook effect when sport becomes very competitive. Its all great if you're a pro and you have to improve, you have to track progress etc. But for mere mortals, it's worse than useless. I just can't imagine the mindset I would have to have to really benefit anyhow from these devices. I use some old crappy Suunto watches that barely measure altitude (for hikes/aki alpinism), compass stopped working and I used them mainly for time only. If they die I definitely won't be buying any other. On my bike, simple computer died 2 years ago, so I have no clue about speed, distance etc. Again, its great, just road and me and the bike. Being very competitive in my book is a quite negative personality trait - never happy, always comparing themselves to others. On the outside it might look great, but inside it's not. I have no need to support this behavior.

hesdeadjim 8y ago
Yea I had to ask myself what is my actual goal. Why do I need to progress as quickly as possible? I mean it’s fun to do harder trails and be able to go longer, but if I’m having fun does it matter if that takes three years versus one? At 38 I have no delusions of competing so there isn’t really a strong motivation to be the best. I’m naturally very competitive, but as you point out it is a very negative trait when applied to all aspects of one’s existence.

jdhzzz 8y ago

I like the "goals versus systems" philosophy that Scott Adams espouses: http://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/ http://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/. I find it more enjoyable and less stressful to use systems rather than establish goals: exercise aerobically a few times a week rather than run 5k in MM:SS time.