Outer Body Experiences

Some say that pain is weakness leaving the body.  But what does weakness of mind feel like?

This morning on the course we did bear crawls under the bleachers as our last exercise.  We were wet, tired, and beat up.  The excuses started flying.  But for every excuse, the team let loose with positive encouragement.  I love that.  But it does very little for my excuse.

I am one month away from my first race of the season.  I could run one today but for one small detail.  There's this excuse, this weakness of mind that has to be eradicated.  I am complacent.  I can train at a complacent pace all day long.  My endurance capability and tolerance for physical pain is high.  And that can be a bad thing too.

Bruce Lee was asked how he trains.  "I train like I fight," he said.  There is certainly a camp of athletes who train at lower levels, then stoke it up for race time.  That's me.  But I'm not satisfied with that.  Because deep down I believe what Bruce said.  My mind creates a lot of excuses why I don't train like that.

I train alone.  There's nobody to motivate me.  The positive voices in my head only go so far.  Here's what works for me.

Get in the zone.  Immediately.  It's easy on race day.  It has to become easy on training days too.  When nobody is watching.  When nothing is on the line.  With one month to go, it's not too late to start to train like I race.

The last guy to get through the bear crawl under the bleachers was really struggling.  Not even a quarter of the way through, he stood up and told me he had had enough.  I had been watching him all day and many times before during training.  He was no where near beat and we both knew it.  He just needed to get that weakness out of his mind.  I don't know what it felt like for him, but I saw the results.  Suddenly he was supercharged.  Not only did he finish, but the rest of the team, long finished, came up behind him and finished the rest with him, shouting encouragement all the way.  That's what he needed.

What does it take for you to get into the void when nobody is watching?  What does it feel like?  For me, the void feels exactly like a void should feel.  It's a vacuum.  Nothingness.  My senses shut down completely and I just go in high gear.

Our coach shared an awesome video with the team yesterday.  It was all about athletes going to failure.  Way past excuses.  Into the zone right to shutdown over and over again.  No giving up.  Like Apollo Creed said in Rocky III, "There is no tomorrow."

Enjoy the feeling.