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Confession: There was once a time in my life when I was Office Bike Guy. I was the chatty guy in the office who could not stop talking about bikes. I'd be at someone's desk or in the hallway or in a meeting and I had a mortifying habit of turning any conversation to my new and thrilling passion. I'd talk about the long bike rides I'd gone on, the fancy-pants new equipment I'd bought, the amazing fitness I'd achieved. How my poor co-workers humored this! They would politely compliment my riding endeavors, ask questions and sometimes even solicit advice about what bike they should buy. Wow, would I give them the most long-winded answers. I was utterly the worst. When I walked away, I am sure they rolled their eyes.
告白：有段时间我是办公室里的自行车男。我在办公室里总是滔滔不绝地聊自行车。无论是在某个同事的办公桌旁，或是走廊里，还是开会中，我都有个令人痛心疾首的习惯，那就是能把任何谈话都转到这个令我兴奋的新爱好上。我会聊我的长途骑行经历，新买的炫酷新装备，还有超棒的健身效果。我那些可怜的同事们配合得也真是太好了！他们会礼貌地称赞我的骑行经历，问些问题，有时甚至会咨询我他们应该买什么样的自行车。我肯定会给他们最?嗦的答案。我绝对是表现最差劲的。我走开的时候，他们肯定在翻白眼。
Over time, I began to ride my bike less, I got jaded about the Tour de France, and Office Bike Guy began to slowly vanish from the office. I'm sure my co-workers appreciated the break. It was probably best for everyone. I still cringe when I think about talking everyone's ear off about the Giro d'Italia. They just wanted to get back to their email.
后来，我骑车开始不那么频繁了，对环法自行车赛(Tour de France)开始感到厌倦，办公室自行车男开始慢慢从办公室里消失。我的同事们肯定对此很是欣慰。这对所有人可能都是最好的。想起自己聊环意自行车赛(Giro d'Italia)聊到所有人都耳朵起茧子的时候，我还是会觉得后怕。他们那时候肯定只想回去查邮件。
But you know what? Sometimes I miss Office Bike Guy.
不过你可能想不到，有时我会想念办公室自行车男。
Lately in the Journal there's been some provocative and very entertaining discussion about personal fitness and the idea that it should be experienced and not shared, that marathoners and triathletes and cyclists should feel free to do their races and workouts, but all of the broadcasting of accomplishments has gotten to be a bit much. Last week the writer Chad Stafko wrote an amusing essay in the Journal called 'OK, You're a Runner. Get Over It,' and the title really said it all, that fitness narcissism was reaching record heights, with the endless parade of bumper stickers and T-shirts and self-promotion. Didn't anyone just run for the sake of running anymore?
最近在《华尔街日报》掀起了对个人健身的讨论，讨论很激烈，也非常有趣。大家认为健身应该是自己体验就好，不应该分享给别人，马拉松选手、铁人三项运动员和自行车手随便怎么比赛和训练都行，但是对他们成就的大肆宣扬有点过头了。前不久，作家查德?斯塔福柯(Chad Stafko)在《华尔街日报》发表了一篇题为《好，你喜欢跑步。没什么大不了的。》(OK, You're a Runner. Get Over It)的趣味文章，标题确实说明了一切，即健身的自我陶醉正达到前所未有的高潮，保险杠贴纸、T恤衫和自我推销的炫耀似乎永无止境。难道现在没人只是为了跑步而跑步了吗？
And as a former Office Bike Guy, I hear this complaint, I really do. As Stafko noted, this oversharing is not limited to athletics; it also extends to every banality of modern life, from taking selfies at a piano recital to the Instagrammer who really, really wants you to look at the organic artichoke he or she just bought. Artichokes! That is what life is coming to. Praise my artichoke. Please.
作为曾经的办公室自行车男，这种抱怨的意思我懂，我确实懂。就像斯塔福柯指出的，这种过度分享并不仅限于竞技运动，它还延伸到了现代平凡生活中的点点滴滴，从在钢琴独奏会上自拍，到那个很想让你看他／她刚买的有机洋蓟的玩Instagram的人。洋蓟！这就是生活！赞美我的洋蓟吧！拜托了！
But I am OK with this. Let's be clear about what we're saying when we ask people to curb their enthusiasm for their athletic achievements. We are saying that it bothers us. But what about it is irritating? Public displays of enthusiasm are everywhere. There is a guy in my neighborhood who wears a Star Wars hat all the time. This does not trouble me. I do not ask him to stop wearing the Star Wars hat (though I wonder if he has other hats.) Same goes for pets: I don't see the 'I Love My Corgi' sticker on the back of a car and think, Wow, the Corgi people are really getting to be annoying. Whatever happened to someone just owning a Corgi and shutting up about it? I just think that someone in that car loves Corgis. And that the interior of that car probably smells like Corgis.
不过这些我能接受。我们要弄清楚，我们在让别人克制对自己运动成就的热情时是什么意思。我们的意思是这样会让我们觉得烦。但到底是什么让我们觉得烦呢？公开表达热情随处可见。我所在的社区有一个人总是戴着《星球大战》(Star Wars)的帽子。我不会觉得不爽。我不会要求他不要戴这顶帽子（不过我好奇他是不是还有其他帽子）。宠物也一样：我不会看到某辆车后面贴着“我爱我的柯基犬”就想，啊，养柯基犬的人真的很讨人厌。有人刚养了一只柯基犬并且绝口不提又怎么样呢？我只会想那辆车里的人很爱柯基犬，或许车里也有柯基犬的味道。
If you are bothered by a 26.2 sticker on the back of a car, it probably says more about you than it does the occupant of the car. Drivers have been crowing about their honor students, their vacation destinations, their favorite members of the Grateful Dead (LET PHIL SING) as long as bumpers have existed. My colleague (and athlete) Kevin Helliker had a fascinating column the other day in which he theorized that fitness is the new rich, that runners and other athletes are regarded (and even targeted) as smug elitists. I fear he is right, and this is scary: The idea that fitness is elitist is not so far from the idea that higher education is elitist, a bizarro worldview that has actually arrived in modern politics without voters bursting out laughing.
如果一辆车后面贴着26.2的贴纸让你觉得不爽，或许说明有问题的是你而不是车主。从保险杠贴纸问世以来，车主们就总是在炫耀家里的优秀学生、度假目的地，还有感恩而死乐队(Grateful Dead)里他们最喜欢的成员。我的同事（同时也是运动员）凯文?赫里克(Kevin Helliker)写过一篇很棒的专栏文章，他指出健身是新富，而跑步者及其他运动员被认为是（甚至被攻击为）自命不凡的精英。我担心他是对的，这很可怕：认为健身是精英化的无异于认为高等教育是精英化的，这种怪异的世界观出现在现代政治中的时候，选民们没有不哈哈大笑的。
It's true that fitness has a way of transforming a life in such a way that the newly fit have a habit of becoming shameless and talkative, but this shamelessness is essentially benign, and I haven't even gotten to the part where we talk about the obesity rate in this country and how we should be encouraging anybody who breaks a sweat more than twice a month. Want to toot your own horn about it? I say knock yourself out. To share is human, and reasonable sharing has its place. We're talking about exercising! We're not asking you to watch a three-hour slide show of a trip to the Galapagos Islands.
健身确实能够以某种方式改变一个人的生活，刚健身的人会有“恬不知耻”和话多的习惯，但这种“恬不知耻”在本质上是好的，我还没提到这个国家的肥胖率以及我们该如何鼓励每个月运动出汗超过两次的人。你也想炫耀？那就行动吧。分享是人的天性，适度的分享无可厚非。我们说的可是锻炼！我们不是让你看三个小时的去加拉帕戈斯群岛(Galapagos Islands)旅游的幻灯片。
To be passionate is to be alive. I am no longer Office Bike Guy. Office Bike Guy has given way to Crazy New Father. If you're interested -- and even if you're not interested -- I can show you dozens of photos of an 8-month-old crawling, sitting up in his crib, eating breakfast, reading Chekhov (what can I say, my baby is brilliant). It is the most lovely thing in the world. . .to me. And in the end, that's the thing to remember about Office Runner and Office Triathlete and Office CrossFitter and everyone else who can't stop talking about their workouts: These are people who have fallen in love. And this love is making them healthier and happier people. So what if we have to listen to a few boring stories. OK, you're a runner? I love you. Tell me more.
拥有激情就是拥有活力。我不再是办公室自行车男了。办公室自行车男已经让位给了疯狂新爸爸(Crazy New Father)。如果你有兴趣――就算没有兴趣――我会给你看几十张八个月大的婴儿爬行、坐在婴儿床里、吃早饭、看契科夫文章（没办法，我的孩子就是聪明）的照片。这是世界上最美好的事情……对我来说。归根结底，这是办公室里喜欢跑步、喜欢铁人三项和喜欢综合交叉训练、以及其他滔滔不绝谈论健身的人让人记住的一点：这是一群陷入爱河的人。这种爱让他们成为更健康和更快乐的人。所以如果我们不得不听些无聊的故事该怎么应答呢？噢，你喜欢跑步？我喜欢你。再多说一些吧。
