Getting Romantic About Training
How to catch 'that feeling' in exercise
Some runs just hit harder
Good morning my beautiful people!
I’m still buzzing a bit over a run I took yesterday afternoon. I didn’t set any PR’s. There wasn’t a big group. In fact it was a pretty ordinary kind of run, nothing truly special, or set apart, but that’s kind of the point too.
Too often in life, and certainly in fitness, we’re too busy trying to get to the finish line we forget the steps to make us appreciate the importance of the starting line. And that ‘finish line’ orientation takes us out the present moment once we are inside the lines. This is where the romance lives and why most people completely miss it.
The meaning doesn’t come from the completion but in the progression and ‘doing.’ I want to share a bit from my own process to help illustrate how I infuse exercise with deep meaning simply by opening my heart, changing my perspective, and becoming intentional about how I want to experience exercise.
The Right Frame Opens It All Up
I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to get out of the run, but I knew I wanted it to be framed by a passage in the latest Tribal Book Club selection, “The Game'“ by legendary Montreal Canadiens Goaltender Ken Dryden. It’s a feeling of flow in excellence that only physical exertion can produce in these fleeting moments of athletic perfection. Because I was intentional in what I wanted to focus on during the run, the activity itself opened up for me and provided me the exact type of moment I was hoping to experience.
Notice how this isn’t just a preplanned structure that I go out and execute. It’s more a way of being that let’s me flow naturally. It’s me just inside my own process, recognizing what I enjoy, what I want to focus on, where I bring my intention and my attention, how to become enthusiastic about training in the day to day, and being able to execute in mind, body, and spirit at a moment’s notice.
Below is a writing submission I shared in our Team Tribal writing community last night because I wanted to share that feeling with the people who resonate with it most. Running, reading, writing.
That is the way!
“Holding that FEELING”
I love the opening of "The Game" where Dryden describes 'that feeling' which envelopes him upon waking the morning after a big win. It's not the winning that gives this 'feeling' but the way in which the winning takes place. In a word, excellence. His teammates, along with himself, rediscovered a form of excellence that inspires belief, confidence, assuredness, and knowing. This 'feeling' lingers and each member of the team keeps it going by all attending an optional practice that very morning. An athlete knows this feeling, the particular satisfaction that comes with an excellence of style matched with excellent results (sidenote: this is like the team races and the afterglow of all hanging together to keep the momentum alive).
I often think it's these moments of excellence that define the athletic pursuit, the overwhelming amount of monotonous or arduous struggle of training, distilled out and experienced in brilliant snapshots and shorts. Picking these out of training sessions is one of my favorite types of reflections and I was hoping for something to come through on my run this afternoon. Of course, running delivers the goods.
The initial plan was to hit the 4.5 mile trail loop on the inside island of a lagoon park on the way from my house to pick up my kids from school. Pulled up to the narrow bridge connecting the island and was met by a massive gang of geese with lots of ganders. No chance, I hate those things haha!
Pulled a quick audible and decided to run around the park on the bike path instead, a bit more than 4 miles. I started just thinking it would be nice to run at a leisurely pace. This initial decision led to my moment of excellence.
As I started slow I wanted to make a conscious effort to pick up my cadence, the number of steps per minute I take, in order to speed up without necessarily raising the effort level much higher. Immediately, I didn't feel like I was trying any harder but I was moving so much quicker and noticeably faster. I knew the stats would show it, 7:23 first mile with a 128bpm, but I only looked after it was done. It's awesome to see how a quick form adjustment with the right intention and execution can produce effortless grace. It was cool to think about the idea of 'that moment' as I started this run and it just all emerged right out of nowhere (but not really).
Your Turn TO GO
Infusing your exercise with romance and meaning isn’t complicated. It’s difficult, but simple.
You must let enjoyment lead you. In the overall process, in the mundane moments. Joy must be a prime value of why you push yourself harder and harder.
That joy in turn leads to attention and discipline. The way in which I feel my steps on this run only comes about through a sheer enjoyment of running and feeling fast.
You attention and discipline then create even more enjoyment, you become enthusiastic about the movement and begin to find more freedom and purpose by consistently showing up.
It’s a positive feedback loop.
So the advice today is strikingly similar to what I’ve been saying for the past few months consistently: EXERCISE IN A WAY YOU ENJOY AS A FIRST PRINCIPLE
Everything flows out from there when you are conscious about this intention.
It’s not just for fun, because you end up pushing yourself harder and get into some really ‘unfun’ situations.
But that’s exactly where you need to go, to find the depth of experience, and live in the present romance of the effort, big or small.
Play with your heart. Let it lead your mind. And the body surely follows.
Happy Training Team!