{"id":2086,"date":"2018-05-11T16:24:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T10:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/?p=2086"},"modified":"2018-05-11T16:39:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T11:09:43","slug":"the-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/2018\/05\/the-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coach tells me to swim a lap (normal) and by the time I huff and puff my way back (only 60m!) he is waiting for me (after zooming through his lap), with a pool buoy and sends me off immediately on a lap of pulling. No touching your feet to the floor- just push the wall and go! Fine, okay, I sort of like pulling (I feel I can do it well!) and so with a little grumbling I was off. When I returned, waiting for me with a smirk, he hands me a board and says, one lap kicking. Yuck, how I hate kicking, (I can\u2019t kick to save my life!). I mutter, grumble, curse, my fate and him. I feel the burn in my legs as I return all ready for a breather, when he snatches the board from my hand and says, \u201cC\u2019mon, one fast normal swim lap.\u201d There was no way I had the energy, but sure enough after a few strokes I found my rhythm. I managed it! Wow.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Feeling victorious, I high fived him and took a few deep breaths.<\/p>\n

I imagined that I was done.<\/p>\n

And then The Coach boomed into my ear, \u201cC\u2019mon, one more set.<\/p>\n

I squeak in disbelief, \u201cOf the same?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want me to double it?\u201d he countered.<\/p>\n

Quietly, I put my head down and followed instructions. In my head, I knew the hardest lap of this set was the kicking. So I made it through the swim and the pull, and braced myself for the kicking. He knew that I would struggle in that one, so he swam next to me, encouraged me and pulled me to the finish in the last 8-10m. I was relieved, and with that positivity I swam the last lap.<\/p>\n

Whew! Done!!<\/p>\n

He counted my breaths- 30 breaths done, rest is over, GO. I just couldn\u2019t believe it. NO! The voices in my head were shrieking. You can\u2019t do a third set! But I had no choice. So, I calmed myself and did the best I could. And did not put my feet on the floor during the entire set. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it well. The same pattern followed, easy swim, smooth pulling, laboured kicking, and a victory lap!! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

And this time I was really done. 3 sets of a comprehensive drill. I couldn\u2019t believe what I had just accomplished! How much more I had left in me, when I thought I was done. And that was the beauty of the workout. He kept pushing me, and I kept moving ahead. Had he told me at the start that there were three sets of this, I am sure that my mind would have given up somewhere in the middle of the second set (my mind has its own mind!!). Of course, I would have battled the mind, thrown my arms and legs around, and come back to finish it, but with this strategy, I gave each set, everything, as I thought it was the last.<\/p>\n

What strategy!<\/p>\n

And I smiled at The Coach.<\/p>\n

Thank you for making me realise that I could do this.<\/p>\n

And yes, I have experienced this when I run the Marathon. But the mind is so smart that it always finds new ways to outsmart us. Like the Odomos resistant mosquitoes!<\/p>\n

This is what it is to dig deep.<\/p>\n

Digging deep not only means working hard but working your hardest.<\/p>\n

When you think that you have nothing left, look within and you will<\/em> find some more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s the tough workouts, which really challenge you. Workouts that create anxiety. Workouts that require you to prepare, are the ones which are making us race ready.<\/p>\n

Yes, faith and strength takes us through them, but it is the mind that benefits the most when we stand in the other side.<\/p>\n

The mind learns who is the Boss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Coach tells me to swim a lap (normal) and by the time I huff and puff my way back (only 60m!) he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-running-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5lWKK-xE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2093,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions\/2093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therunningsoul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}