Silence Is Golden

At least when it come to my head!

For the last week, my head has been completely quiet through ALL of my training sessions.  If that's not a record, it's darn close.

Why is that so important?  Because it means that my training can just be training and not a character judgement... either good or bad.

And why is that important?  Because then I can have a good session without glorifying it and I can have a bad session without throwing myself to the wolves.

Translated, that all means I get to work as hard as my body can tolerate (by perception) without my brain sabotaging the effort.

How has all this played out last week?

Well, in CrossFit, it means I thrived in every class and performed respectably.  That's good enough for the time being considering it's not my primary emphasis.

The real showing happened out on the field, which is where my head predominantly tends to explode.  For the last five weeks, I've been doing the exact same runs.  Here are the stats from the first week and this last week.

Tuesdays - three repeats from the Qualifier start line to the turn around Gate. - Goal: 19:30
8/13/13 - 22:05, 25:06, 26:56- I walked EIGHT times that first evening
9/18/13 - 22:30, 24:28, 25:27 - ZERO Walks

Thursdays - Horse Trail Loops - Goal: 40:00
Up the Horse trail, down the fire road, past the bridge, back to the start line... repeat second time, in reverse:
8/15/13 - 14:30 top of horse trail, 27:18 1st loop, 10:00 REST, 31:10 = 58:28 total
9/20/13 - 12:27, 23:32, 27:19 = 50:51 (ZERO Rest)

Saturdays/Sundays - Qualifuer Time Trials - Goal: 32:45
8/17/13 - 22:18 split, 38:28 - TWO Walks
9/22/13 - 20:31 split, 34:44 - ZERO Walks

These may not seem like big differences to you, but eliminating all walking is HUGE because it finally opens the door to speed development.

Why did it take so long to eliminate the walks?  Because my head kept telling me that I was faster power walking than I was jogging.  I was so intent on the finish time, I would drop into a walk just to rush.  The problem was that I plateaued within weeks and wasn't able to drop the time any farther.

Last weekend when I sent Coach yet another crummy result from the Qualifier time trial. I got back a text yelling at me to STOP walking.  So I did... finally.

This week will be a good opportunity to see how quickly the gains come. Will it happen fast enough to get me back on the team on Oct 12th?  We'll see, there is enormous power in a group and it's been a long time seen I ran with my peers...

Oh, for those curious... why is my head quiet finally quieting down?  Three weeks of a minimum of 30 minute daily meditation, non-negotiable.