Exercise

Exercise

Enjoy Yourself

Content & Motion

My swim today brought something interesting, and a bit new. I’ve been struggling these last few days with listlessness in the body. So, slipping into the lake, caressed by a wetsuit, I wasn’t sure how long the session would last. On schedule was a 3500 metre steady distance build, but the system would dictate whether it would be a 15 minute splash, or a longer cruise. For me, relaxation while swimming usually only lasts for the first 50-100 metres. It’s not that I get uptight about being in the water; quite the contrary, I’m comfortable in that environment (equally as

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Flow vs Resistance

Resistance

The hardest part of working out is overcoming resistance–more so in the mind than the body. Even when the body is protesting for legitimate reasons, I still find that it’s in the mind that most of the combat is waged. Sometimes–actually, fairly often–in the morning there’s reluctance to doing yoga. My approach is to key into the fact that I know I’ll feel better in body, mind, and spirit afterwards. That’s not always enough of an impetus to get me on the mat, so I invite myself to just sit down, start breathing, and begin simple seated movements. I know

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Data & Spirit

Data & Spirit

During the last three months of spring training I’ve focused on building resiliency and durability in body and mind, while maintaining balance in spirit. I’ll discuss some data first, then dive into spirit. Data 96% of my workout time has been in zone 1 & zone 2. 4% of the workload was in intensity zones. * NOTE: This will actually be more like 2% when I eventually increase the total duration of Aerobic Capacity/Basic Endurance work. In other words, total volume does not directly correlate to a definitive percentage of intensity volume. We all know this from daily life: you

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Sunrise

Today’s workouts followed yesterday’s Sacred Rest Day. Time for spirit is a regular part of everything I do because it instills energy into mind and body. Simply, it allows me to get more out of the easy, endurance, and intensity work with the body, while maintaining a strong mind in order to support the consistent work. Being at peace and connected to spirit helps me explore aspects of mind and body that would otherwise go unnoticed or undiscovered. Today: * Run: endurance + intensity. * Strength conditioning. * Bike: endurance watts on the flats & climbing. Yesterday: * A sunrise

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Process

Unfolding

Ten trail runners were recently asked about the best advice they’d been given. What I find interesting is the common thread among their answers–to allow for process. Progression, unfolding, development, growth. These are characteristics of movement. Even rest–a type of stillness–is part of shifting that happens within the whole. An underlying message in each of the quotes below is integrity. We need downtime in which to allow energy to strengthen our mind and body. Creating space in my life for rest and reflection allows me to move more fluidly and with more intention and energy in the rest of my

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Slow Burn

The Journey

People ask me, or more specifically wonder, how I can do an Ironman. They find the idea of swimming 3.86 km (2.4 miles), cycling 180.2 km (112 miles) and running 42.2 km (26.2 miles) to be outrageous, or even preposterous, let alone complete it in one day. My answer is always the same, “it’s just one step then another step.” In the book “Slow Burn“, Stu Mittleman & Katherine Callan break it down nicely. Although they are describing how to be metabolically efficient and burn fat as the primary fuel source, the metaphor is transferable. “There is a way to

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Keystones to Health

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