St Albert 10 miler

Where to start. Hmm I'm going to categorize some things blah dee blah:

1. Self

Thursday I attended MRJC's (non-profit I work for) AGM and had a visit with my best friend and her baby, Liam. Stayed up until 12 am (yikes) buttttt fit into a perfectly beautiful size 10 dress bought at an old lady store in Kingsway. I discovered it was an old lady store when I looked online and saw that they cater to 35 - 50 year old women *DAMN*. But what was shocking and wonderful was grabbing my regular size off the rack and having it hang off me in weird and funny ways and having to go down a couple sizes to find something that was flattering? Odd but I'm taking it as a good sign.

2. NVC workshop

I attended (Friday and Saturday) a workshop on Non-Violent Communication. The instructors were Jim and Jori Manske. The workshop was eye opening and surprisingly related to my personal life and training more than professional development.

The premise is that behind every conflict are unmet needs on both sides. Basic Human needs like: Love, Food, Shelter, Spirituality, Ease, Peace, Autonomy, Understanding, Community... the list goes on. Getting to the needs behind the conflict in an empathic way allows for a more complete resolution. Resolution is not always achieved and they do illustrate how empathy supersedes resolution in their model of mediation.

How on earth could a mediation model relate more to personal (ok that's not a big leap - we all want to be better communicators with the people we love, spouse, children, friends) ... but training?

If you sit with yourself and ask in honesty and with an open heart what you are trying to achieve in sport; what needs are being met; what is your purpose in your training in every moment (being PRESENT with your NEEDS, the true essence of your SELF is a HUGE gift no one else can give you) you will find a calmness and a deeper connection to your goals.

Should you not reach your goals or have an unmet need your ability to remain present with any disappointment or any negative feelings also allows you to move forward in grace and with empathy for yourself.

Staying with our emotions until they leave us and being present allows them to not take control of our lives. What we resist persists. Reflect on it :)

Also an underlying lesson was that being empathic and communicating in a different style does not come naturally and that we have ingrained a way of thinking/being that is difficult to undo. How does it get undone? Practice. Repetition.

Not unlike laying down neuro-muscular patterns is it? So on race day (moments of STRESS) what do we resort to? The good repetitive training we've conditioned into our bodies! Ah yes! And this is the training philosophy I am embracing! Love it!

3. Fitness

After leaving behind the 32 km's of torture last week I have been feeling very fit and excited about every workout that comes. I'm liking the following things:

1. I'm not feeling burned out, I'm feeling capacity and growth as a triathlete.
2. I'm getting faster (seriously! yay!).

I know this new way of training is what's keeping me mentally and physically fresh. Ironguides is pretty kick ass :)

4. the 10 miler

I'll just copy and paste what I've written to Naomi this morning about this race as I find it captures what I felt about it and how I approached it. I have to repeat I am very happy with the lessons and the joy I took in racing yesterday:

I had a good time yesterday at the race. I learned this small meditation from the NVC workshop where you go into yourself and reflect and answer (internally) some questions - examples "what am I feeling in this moment" "what are my needs?" "what is my purpose right now?" . After doing the meditation some things became clear. I was here to have fun. I have a need to play and to be challenged and my purpose was to do my very best.

My challenges were going to be: 1. Run straight through only walk at aid stations to take fuel and 2. Run without water (except at aid stations). I then grabbed on to a mantra I have heard my friend Jill say "two feet and a heartbeat" and off I went.

The pace I was setting was definetly hard for me so I also found I was trying to accept the pain and not back away from it. That's hard and maybe a process I have to continue to learn about.

They ran out of cups!! so it was really a challenge now that I didn't have a water bottle but I totally made my goals. I had to walk about around the hills at the end and my legs feel smashed up today! I was really pleased with the outcome for myself :)


Happy Training Everyone and Congrats to Greg on his awesome time at the 10 Miler on some Saturday-cooked-legs! :)