Ratchet up the pain on yourself, turn the screws on others.
The truth is, if you want to hurt the competition, you have to hurt yourself and have the internal resources to absorb it.
Read that one again: internal resource. You have to understand that you are safe to bring pain and feel it.
When we can’t resource ourselves, we go up in our heads unconsciously looking for thoughts that take us away from the pain. The problem with that is, the further you get from the pain, the further you get from the presence in your performance.
Trust your plan, not your pain!
This doesn’t mean we ignore pain. It means we are present with pain. Willing to feel it, and allow it to move through our bodies without making a tragic inner story of it.
Much of our thinking around pain is extremely limited. The idea that it shouldn’t be here and that it’s something to avoid makes it near impossible to turn the screws on your competitors because you keep moving away from it in your head.
I can’t take this, I can’t keep this up. Because we spend so much of our time counting down the time left on efforts, we are unconsciously counting down the pain in races and assessing if you can take much more.
Its all up in the head…That is not presence in the body, it’s an exhaustive mental battle that you can’t think your way out of. If hurts, right?
What are you going to do then?
Take it into the body, trust its intelligence, be there for your own pain, don’t abandon it, don’t abandon yourself.
Now you are sending a message to your nervous system that you are not going to hide under the bed again and that pain is safe to be felt.
If you don’t train this, the mind starts looking for exits, escape routes and outs. It will use any bullshit to disengage.
How many races have you gone home with your tail between your legs and pissed off because in your heart you knew you believed your thoughts?
Take it into the body, watch it, feel it, allow it.
Stay present.
Turn the screws.
Gilesy
