We are already IN the battle

I listened to a talk today that inspired me to be better. Better at being ... well, a HUMAN. 

Unlike David (to the R) who PR'd his half marathon last weekend and took 3rd in his age group (out of 216 - congrats, man!), I sometimes let fear hold me back.

Fear of what?

It'd be easier to list all of things I'm NOT afraid of (Ha!). Not really. Actually, it's a pretty short list. Here it is: 

1. Pain. I fear the pain of failure, rejection & ridicule. I fear the pain of loss (love & liberty). I fear the pain of inaction as much as I fear acting and then screwing up. I fear the pain of ill health (You knew this one would be in there!). I fear the pain of death.

 I Guess that about sums it up. I fear pain.

The talk I heard today gave me clarity that I haven't had in a while. The main thing I learned was this: 

We are already IN the battle. 

Fear, or no fear. Pain, or no pain. We are neck deep in it, man. Maybe chin deep already. No one is getting out of this life unscathed.   

Pain is one of life's certainties. It's right up there with "death and taxes." When it comes to dealing with pain, we have only 2 choices:

1. We can turn our backs on the pain, and hope we can blindly "flinch" at all the right times as life stabs us in the back, or ...
2. We can turn and face our fear and FRICKIN PUNCH IT BACK.

Both of these choices hurt, but one is more noble than the other. It's more bold, more courageous, more trancendent than the other. Either way, anyone hoping to secure a more healthy and meaningful life will have to choose one. 

For me, I've never been all that lucky. I doubt I'll ever figure out when exactly to flinch.  

Trail Etiquette Amendments

Since we (those of us using trails) have more in common than not, I propose the following amendments to the common trail etiquette rules so that we may all live in kinship and harmony ...

Listening to Your Body?

by Neil Anderson

It is always baffling to me when a rookie who is only several days/weeks/months new to this exercising process tell us she is "listening to her body" and taking a few days off. 

"What?!"

So let me get this straight. You and your body haven't been communicating effectively for years and years and NOW - all of the sudden - you are listening to it again? And you think you understand it?

Let me explain something. When it comes to health and fitness, you two speak different languages now. You two can't possibly understand each other.

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Kevin Didn't (listen)

It doesn't even understand BASIC commands anymore like: RUN now, LIFT something, or EAT a vegetable. Those basic vocabulary words have been replaced by things like: SIT a lot, PUSH buttons and EAT Twinkies.  

You are a long way from being able to communicate with your body again.  How can you possibly think you know what your body is saying to you? 

"Taking a couple of days off," because you are ...,"listening to your body."  Haha! That's cute.

Listen, after you teach it the basics, you two still won't be communicating very effectively. You still have to teach it how to form sentences with all of these new words (run, lift, vegetables). Then you have to teach it to add and subtract in this new language (calories in vs calories out). Then you have to put some miles on this new language. Real miles, right? Taking a semester of Spanish in college doesn't truly prepare someone for the streets of Merida (shout out to our friend Antonio)! 

It takes months, maybe years before it is reasonable to expect that you two can communicate the basics of training and eating right, let alone the nuances.

Taking a couple of days off because you are listening to your body is a very nuanced experience. Its results will be very subtle. Only the most skillful and adept exercisers will gain anything by doing it. The rest of us are best served by showing up and throwing down. Go easier if you need to. Slow down if necessary, but don't skip.

It is SHOWING UP that produces results. 

Teach your body what it needs to know before trying to interpret the garbled language of what it doesn't.