What people say

IRENE:

Nothing in particular really, apart from just working hard. I don’t think people should need to do all this worrying about it and dieting and... because if they eat a lot they’ve got to work hard. If they don’t work so hard they shouldn’t eat so much - it’s basically I think, lazy habits.

MIKE:

Nothing. Nothing really. I don’t do any exercises of any kind - just don’t do nothing.

VERA:

A balanced diet of meat, vegetables, not too many carbohydrates. I also, we all take vitamin tablets so that we get a good intake of vitamins that we need every day, because it is lacking in a lot of the modern day foods. Um, fresh food we eat. We don’t eat tinned food or frozen food very - very much. We cook all our own meat and vegetables.

JOHN:

Mainly, what I do to keep fit is go swimming as often as possible. I go in the sea all the year round, weather permitting.

ELISE:

I deny myself things. I love sweets and desserts and I like to drink, and lots of wine, and I like rich food. I deny myself those things as much as possible. On the other hand I love to sleep, and so I think sleeping is good for you and I like to get seven or eight hours’ sleep if I can. I try not to smoke, and I try to exercise and I walk. But I don’t do anything in the way of extra exercises and swimming and - I wish I did - I think I’m lazy - but I think it’s a very good thing. I just don’t do enough of it.

Mike says “just don’t do nothing”. He means “I don’t do anything.” This use of double negatives is not unusual in less educated speakers of English.”

(from Kernel Two, by R.O’Neill. Unit 12)

UNIT 3

Lesson A

Triathlon

Sarah My name’s Sarah Springman. I’m an international triathlete and I’ve been taking part in my sport now since … er … middle of 1983.

Presenter What exactly is a triathlon?

Sarah Well, a triathlon is a … an event that includes swimming, first of all, then bicycling and then running. All one after the other, without stopping, and they can take perhaps half an hour for a short distance novice event, which is enormous fun and not terribly difficult to do at all, right up to the really rather longer and more gruelling events that take maybe twelve to fifteen hours to finish, but those are a bit crazy.

Presenter What are the satisfactions of the sport?

Sarah Well, I think the satisfactions really begin with the training and with the change in your outlook on life. Simply … simply put, if you’re somebody who doesn’t exercise at all and suddenly you indulge in a very sensible programme of swimming, bicycling and running, you actually are training all parts of the body really - and the swimming trains the upper part of the body and of course the cycling and the running covers the lower part. So you ‘re really developing a well-toned... uhm... all-round body, you’re developing your heart and your lungs, your blood pressure drops, your resting heart rate drops - I think my resting heart rate has, at the very lowest level, gone down to 28 beats a minute, which again is... is... is unusual. But for people who have an average resting heart rate of 72 beats a minute, for example, if you can drop that to in the fifties, then clearly when you’re resting, your heart isn’t working quite so hard. So there are all these wonderful benefits, which... which come. Er... you lose a little weight, and more... than people who are more sedentary, so you have a positive self-image and you feel that much more confident about life.

So I think that is the core satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are doing something that you enjoy and that comes from actually feeling good about it. And I think the races are on top, I think they’re fun, I think they’re a way of pitting yourself against other people, and it’s very nice to be the winner but you’re a... you’re only the winner, as it were, if you’re the first across the line, and there’s always somebody around who’s better than you, so that’s not really a very valid marker in my mind. It’s to know you’re doing the best you canand achieving your best potential. And I think that is what most people who take part in triathlon have to be satisfied with: the fact that they’re there, they’re on the start line, and more than anything they finish the race. Everybody who takes part in it is a winner, and it’s not necessarily just the fastest woman or... or a man. And I think that’s an important ethic to have and it’s one we try and put across in... in our sport.

Presenter What is her attitude to sponsorship?

Sarah I think, I’m afraid, that money makes the world go round and if you have sponsorship then you can put on a wonderful event and many, many more people benefit. So I think that as long the sponsorship is... is a valid sponsorship, i.e. it is not tobacco sponsorship for sport - I feel very strongly about this, I would never ever allow myself or I would strongly discourage... uhm... any of the national governing bodies or the International Triathlon Union if they every dreamt of allowing tobacco to sponsor... um... a triathlon - and fortunately I think everybody is pretty much of the same opinion a... as I am.

Presenter How does she find enough time to do her job and take part in her sport?

Sarah You know, life is always a balancing act, nothing is ever perfect and the athlete or the individual who assumes that life is perfect is living in a dream world, I’m afraid. And so we’ve just got to get up and get on with it and dothe best that we can. And as long, my feeling now is, as long as I’m making a contribution somewhere along the line then I feel that I’m not wasting my time. And if I’m teaching undergraduates to enjoy and understand... uhm... engineering principles then that... that’s exciting. If I’m encouraging other women to come into the sport that’s wonderful. But, uhm... you know, life is... life is there for variety and you have to remember what your main goals are and bear those in mind at all times, but allow a little freedom to have some fun and do some other things on the way. You’re a long time dead, as they say!

Presenter How much time does she spend training each week?

Sarah It depends on the distances you’re training for. At the moment I’m training for the Olympic distance, which is a 1.500-metre swim, a 40-kilometre bicycle ride and a 10-kilometre run, and so that event will take me around two hours. So in contrast to the event that takes me ten hours I clearly don’t need to train quite so long. So perhaps, maybe fifteen to twenty hours at the moment, and I would swim maybe three or four times a week, and get up at six o’clock in the morning and go swimming at 6.30, swim maybe 3.500- 4.000 kilometres (she really means metres) Um...then I might bicycle perhaps five times a week... er... I might do one long ride which is about anything, say anything between... uhm... 50 to 60 kilometres, something like that, and I might do a 16-kilometre time trial one evening, I might do a set of interval sessions, and a couple of steady rides. And then on the running I might do a very hard interval session, I might do a tempo run when I’m running quite hard so I’m a bit breathless but not absolutely flat out, maybe a long run, a couple of steady runs as well, maybe some circuit training, a few sit-ups and press-ups, you know keep the middle part of the body well looked after. And try and do some stretching as well, that’s very important, a little yoga, a little relaxation. Of course, inevitably time is always short and that’s the one thing that goes and then you get a little nagging injury and you have to pay attention to it again. So it’s really an all-round thing, but there’s nutrition as well which is very important, what you eat... ‘You are what you eat,’ they say. Your body’s 70 % water so you have to make sure you drink lots and lots of water and... er... eat all the right foods, fresh foods, nothing too processed. And you know, I... it’s all right, it’s fun, it’s a nice way to live.

(from Progress to Proficiency, by L.Jones. Unit 1)

UNIT 3

Lesson B

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