...Progress....
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..if you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat.
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Life, like the indoor tour, is a place of discovery, experience, connection, and wisdom. It's no accident you're on earth, it's no accident you're reading this, it's no accident you're in the tour. Your challenges and what you've suffered along the way, were and are in your life for that purpose; without discovering that vital piece of information, your life will have been like driving 1000 miles to the grand canyon then spending your entire stay in a hotel room. If you believe that life is only
a struggle, that the world is against you, your life will lack the magic that makes it vital, wondrous, and transcendent.
Know that we are never really off the path to our highest best self. Our best self is like an oceanand our paths are like rivers, each river different, but all eventually leading to the ocean. Even when we are not sure, or we've done wrong, or are misguided, we're still on our path to our highest, best self.
The progress you make on your path, like an athlete, will be quick or slow, according to your awareness. If you're consuming too much alcohol, over-full of pizza, chocolate-ooodeed, maintain too much fat-weight or "slacking off-unfocused-just showing up", chances are that your progress will be slow. If you're, however, intentionally seeking your best, which creates a desire to discover yourself,
you'll use your so-called challenges, or mountains as an opportunity to learn, clean up, get in alignment and you'll progress quickly.
An athlete, like anyone in life, will have many challenges, many opponents in a lifetime, but the ultimate opponent is the athlete's own self. To talk about overpowering others is inconsequential; yet one's fear, non-specific goals, ignorance, selfishness, egoic tendencies, insomnia, lack of self-love, and a wide array of blocks or demons are the ones to be conquered. To actually overcome one's own issues is the true nature of victory.
As they say on the tour de france after week number one:
"..i now remember what it is like to manage physical tiredness AND psychological strength in the course
of a three week grand tour: we must adapt one stage at a time."
...when we time trial, they time trial. when they climb, we climb.
see you in session.
gary.
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Rest Days:
"...it's not about the energy you have, it's about the energy you have left...."
All endurance athletes know this, only some execute it. It's not about going out hard, but more about what you have left for the finish, for getting home afterwards, and about getting TO the starting line the next day, day after day. No different than a ceo, a high level manager, or a muti-tasking stay at home parent that needs to execute and understand:
"...spend it all in the morning, or in the first few days of the week, and you'll have nothing left for the other important parts of your week and/or for your personal life as well."
Yet, many seem to forget this, think it's some high level rocket science that's too hard to comprehend and end up burning out: in class, or by week's end; Do it multiple times, and the inner strength of your organs won't dig you, help you, or believe in you for a long time, and when that happens, life's no fun: relegated to bed one or two days a month.
So on the outset of the next two weeks, raise your level of standards on the tour we call the indoor tour: raising your level of standards means, sleeping, eating, thinking, training, racing, chilling, recovering, and... KNOWING:
"...it's not about what you have, it's about what you have left.... day after day, stage after stage.... because when you get this.... you let yourself become everything you've ever wanted."
You don't get fit when you train: you get fit when you recover from when you train !
THE most important, THE most nutritional, THE most impactful part of your training program is REST.
That's right... REST is nutrition. REST IS TRAINING.
Your objective is to BUILD, not always tear down. REST is the cement, the brick, the mortar that builds you back up.
Completed training stages and phases means rest; rest means renewal; renewal means new beginnings. With rest comes renewal, and with renewal we build the force of our character and thereby stand stronger for our future.
In coaching, the concept of rest is easy to share with an athlete, but the most challenging for them to comprehend...
Ask any coach, we can see it a mile away - it's crystal clear ...rest to most athletes means weakness, backing off or to respect their heart rate zones or recovery sessions means weakness to them...
When we, as coaches, bring up the concept of rest the athlete's look at us like we are talking to them in a language from mars. It is so sad, these athletes are so far from the truth and bettering themselves. Athlete's need to understand: no don't do a double: "DO" a DAY OFF ! WHEN they comprehend this... their body and mind blend together, their body serves their visions and supports them all the way to the podium of life; but when they dis-RESPECT this concept, that's right.. a show of disregard and disrespect for themselves, they start to overly breakdown and burn out... get there, to that burnout point, pure burnout, and it could take weeks, months, even years to recover...
Coach's know: those who recover fastest, become the strongest, end of story. ..but that takes wisdom, not just knowledge.
Coach's know that there are alot of smart or knowledgeable athlete's out there, but knowledge is just information, where as wisdom is the execution of the knowledge: so what a coach loves to develop is the wisdom in an athlete; a maturity about being, "doing" one's highest self; and the best know, coach and podium athlete alike, that it all starts with resting and recovering.
