I have been thinking a lot about dialogue during February, and not just because of Brexit.
To me the constant barrage of abuse and dogmatic belief from both sides
regarding the UK's potential exit from the European Union, has
highlighted the importance of continued listening and constructive
debate between two sides with opposing views. I have also been thinking
more about this with my running.
I
tend to find February a tough month to adjust to in my marathon
training; it's when the intensity of my speed and tempo session goes up a
level, whilst the mileage increases as well. The combination usually
leads to me becoming fatigued- whilst I adjust to my training getting
harder- and being susceptible to man-flu. It was whilst I had my head
covered with a towel over a boiling bowl of Vicks enhanced water,
suffering with the aforementioned man-flu, that I listened to Joe Rogan's podcast with Lance Armstrong.
I had heard about this episode through the Marathon Talk podcast and it
intrigued me. First of all because a lot of the running podcasts tend
to focus on the positives of the sport they talk about, and secondly
because I haven't really listened to a podcast interview yet where there
is a disagreement between the two people talking. The interview with
Lance did both of those things: it was about someone who had done
something seriously wrong within an endurance sport and Joe wanted to
understand why he had cheated, whilst not entirely agreeing with the
reasons for why Lance did it. I thought it was a fairly balanced
interview, though at some points I thought Joe was being too sympathetic
to Lance's stance.I did come away, however, from the interview with a
better grasp of how the cheating had occurred and what I genuinely think
is a more nuanced view of the systemic problems that cycling/ running
faces. An even better example is the Western States 100 Synchroblog Project.
I think it is something that should be done more often in running and
would allow for a more constructive debate, rather than people getting
angry across social media or when an incident happens at a race.
