Reasons to stop scoffing chocs

Reasons to stop scoffing chocs

Year 13 student Phoebe Harrop discovers that
becoming an elite athlete involves disciplines
that unfortunately do not include the intake of
chocolate. For the lazy among us at actv8, Phoebe
does her best to discover what the upside might be.

It's ten o'clock on a typical Dunedin
morning. The sky hangs over Matthew
Harrop, threatening to leak on him like a
poorly plastered ceiling in one of our notorious
leaky homes. But he is unconcerned. He's
concentrating on the rhythmic pumping of his
legs, has eyes only for the road in front of him
and ears only for the traffic that passes by.
It's a Sunday morning and Matthew is taking
advantage of the weather - well, it's better
than torrential rain - to get in another hour of
cycling. It's his 14th since Monday, he reckons.
Average week
It's just an average week for this Otago
University fourth-year, who has also spent
about 10 hours in the pool and another five
running. Is he crazy? I'd say yes; but then I'm
his sister, so I'm not really allowed to.
Matthew's physique and exercise routine
nowadays is a far cry from what it was at
high school. I can proudly say that, five                                                                                                                                                                                   years his junior, I used to be able to beat
him in a breaststroke race. In those days I
was the fit child.
With a heavy heart I still remember Matt's
first uni holidays back in New Plymouth
after he started training for triathlons less
than a year ago. Alas, the tables had turned.
Comparatively, I was now the fat one, with his
weight barely 10kg more than mine. It was a
depressing time.
You see, Matthew seems to have
developed an infatuation with exercise - a
problem I've never had to deal with. He's not
happy until he's had his daily fix. However,
his seemingly excessive training regime is
nothing unusual for an elite athlete, especially
a triathlete. The pros do anything up to 35
hours of training a week. You have to wonder
what that does to their social lives.
As well as trying to balance uni,
maintaining social normality and training, Matt
has to find time to eat. You might think you
could eat as many Big Macs as you wanted if you were expending that much energy, but
Matthew's diet is strict: high protein, high
carb, low fat, low sugar. Surely there must be
a point when such an absence of chocolate
starts to affect your personality. And you can
forget about nights out in town. A beer after a
race is one of the luxuries Matt allows himself.
Na tural high
So why does he do it? Apart from the possibility
of a mental imbalance, Matthew says he
loves it. The hours of training, the healthy
food, the huge cost of gear and travelling, the
racing, the pain, the highs that logically must
outweigh the lows. Luckily, all of this apparent
sacrifice is starting to pay off: on 9 March
Matthew competed in the National Triathlon
Championships and came third in his age
group. This was the culmination of a season of
gruelling training, events all over the country,
thousands of dollars spent, not to mention
blood, sweat and tears. With that pleasant
picture in your mind, imagine Matthew's
absolute satisfaction when he was announced
in the team to represent New Zealand in
Vancouver, Canada, at the 2008 World
Triathlon Championships in June. Makes it all
seem worth it, doesn't it?
Personally, I'm quite content to watch and
photograph, hoping that in a couple of years I
too will experience this exercise-emphasised
epiphany that my brother has. Maybe I'll beat
him in breaststroke again yet. For now, all
I can do is sit back, admire, be proud, and
subtly try and feed him chocolate.

What do you think?
Are there any sports you excel in?
What does your own training regime
involve? What are you allowed to eat
and drink while you're in training? Drop
us an email and give us your thoughts
about actv8's coverage of sports:
heyyouguys@actv8.co.nz.