Notes on
the mind.

Passing traffic.

I want to say a few words about flow. That state where you feel free and powerful, where it feels like there's another version of you inside, one with total clarity and your best physical self switched on.

The question I keep coming back to is where it comes from. Is it the body, or is it the mind? Because the mind seems to tell the body what's going on. If your head is confused, busy, or stuck in fight or flight, what state is your body going to be in?

Over the years, the hardest part of any event has been the lead-in. There's an imposter syndrome that creeps in: I'm not fit enough, I'm not good enough, I can't do this. After all the years training the body and the mind, I've found that so much of it comes down to clarity, and two simple beliefs. One, that you're good enough. Two, that you've prepared enough.

When a thought comes in that doesn't serve me, I see it as passing traffic. I let it move along, and I come back to quiet.

In endurance events, whether it's a marathon, an ultra or a long day on the bike, my mind and my body have rarely felt in sync. So I use mantras. I break things into smaller steps. I try to understand how my mind works when I'm asking a lot of it.

Across 29 or 30 marathons and ultras, the biggest difference has been the outside noise. When work is busy, home is stressful, or I'm carrying a niggle, that busyness gets into my head and pulls me out of flow. When it's calm, I find the quiet. And a quieter mind has always meant a better body on the day.

Race day is unpredictable, especially if you're chasing a time. You can replicate everything in training: the nutrition, the breathing, the kit, the trainers. Then the morning comes and the rush of thoughts arrives. What if my body lets me down? How will I get everything done before the start? That noise is what blocks the flow.

We can train the legs fairly easily. Sit down with a plan, follow it, and the body adapts. The mind is the harder part, and it's far more important. Give it one, two or three things to focus on, not eighty.

I don't believe stressing all day, then pushing hard in training to de-stress, is a sustainable future for our bodies or our minds.

Push in the session, then push at work, then push at home. It all leads back to the hurry sickness: always rushing, never enough time. If we're always doing, always at a pace, are we even connecting with ourselves? Are we listening to the simple beat of our heart, and to who we really are, physically, mentally and spiritually?

Try it: find the quiet →

This isn't a war on you or your body.

Many of us go through that phase. I spent ten years there, with plenty of joint casualties and war stories to prove it.

The boot camps, the Marine workouts, the ridiculously intense bodybuilding routines, the general glorification of pain. We've been sold the idea that fitness is a battle you have to win.

Are you willing to take a deeper look? To explore the "less is more" philosophy, let go of your "no pain, no gain" warrior programming, and let your health, strength and goals evolve in a natural way?

No matter what your health, lifestyle and fitness goals are, they need sustained motivation, care, attention and, lastly, enjoyment.

Do you believe any of these are true?

• No pain, no gain. You have to suffer to get in shape.
• More is always more.
• Working out isn't fun, it's an obligation.
• If I don't throw up, I'm holding back too much.
• You're only as good as your last workout.
• I feel like a loser when I miss a workout.

If you answered yes, you're at the "exercise is war" understanding of fitness. And that's fine. If you want to wage war on your body, please do.

But there's another way to train, and it doesn't leave you broken.

Recognise anyone?

Exhaustion in our culture is a problem. We're working and training ourselves to death. From a young age we're bombarded with the message that to be successful we must work overtime, and sacrifice our health, our friends, even our happiness and sanity to get what we want.

Being chronically exhausted in your workout isn't the key to success. It's a race towards dis-ease and dysfunction.

And in most cases, it's suffering that is completely preventable.

A lifelong process, and a privilege.

To learn about the body, and to do what it takes to nourish and strengthen it. To realise it's a lifelong process and a privilege.

We're built to move. Not to punish ourselves, and not to tick a box, but because movement is how a body and a mind stay well. The goal was never to win a war. It's to keep going, and to enjoy the going.