GZ

I felt pretty good last night and had thoughts that I'd come back and go "hard-ish" again today. But despite the great weather again today, once I got moving a bit out there, I knew I'd not be able to hold a workout that I'd feel good about. I still feel a bit off - Tracy thinks I am fighting some illness.

So, I have done what all of us do when things don't go our way - I have rationalized this. I was not supposed to go hard today, I was supposed to easy today and absolutely kill myself tomorrow as part of this lower mileage, higher intensity experiment I am running through (that does not seem to be going so great thus far). This experiment might be jacked altogether if I am fighting some sort of illness I guess. We'll see tomorrow.

I did an easy seven on the Davidson Mesa, and did some stretching and then jumped rope for about 15 minutes. I have come a pretty long way from when I got the rope at the end of the year (a gift from my daughter at Christmas). I could barely get ten jumps at a ridiculously slow cadence then. I still look like a moron out there but I look like a moron that can jump a little bit of rope. I struggle still to get the one legged jump stuff done - particularly on the left lawnmower foot.

I have heard some interesting podcasts on the mind body connection as of late. This past week's This American Life and Fitness Rocks both hit on the connection, although in different ways. I find

some of the findings in the Fitness Rocks 'cast to be particularly interesting. In short, when they told people that they were indeed exercising when they performed routine work activities (routine for them), their measurable health factors improved (BMI, blood pressure, etc). In other words, the verbal on what they were doing either made them change their behavior and become healthier - or their mind somehow changed thier physical health factors. Given that placebos (a substance introduced that will have NO expected physical reaction) have caused people to have rash reactions (demonstrating that when you suggest something - you will get the result), you have to consider the power of your mindset when applied to training and expected race outcomes. Have

you ever met a winner of a truly competitive event who thought "there is no way I can win?" Think (pun intended) about it. I heard another show where Derek Jeter of the Yankees refused to even consider when he was in a slump after he went 0-32 in batting. Now why would he do that?

One of my favorite stories on this though has to be when Viren won the 72 10000m in WR time He and Frank Shorter tangled up, Viren fell to the in-field and lost about 100m on the lead pack. Virén caught up with the leading pack. With 600 meters to go, Virén dropped the hammer and started an unprecedented lap-and-a-half kick. Another athlete, Ghammoudi who had fallen in the race in the same tangle up dropped out after trying to catch the lead pack for about half a lap. In retrospect, Shorter said (loosely), "For Ghammoudi to win the race, it was going to have to go perfectly for him. Regardless of what happened in the race though, Viren was going to win."Mindset is not just mumbo jumbo - it can dictate how you perform and set your limits. Or unlock them.

GZ

May 16, 2024