My little sis and I got into an interesting conversation last night over dinner. I was telling her about the intensity required out at the track and the training efforts that require 100% presence of the mind, body and soul to do one simple thing - go faster. Sure you can condition the body day in and day out, but the mind is often one of the overlooked aspects that needs conditioning too. Some people, um, like a certain Olympian I know, have this mental trait naturally. They are able to tap into a complete harmony of the mind and body - and demonstrate their ability through amazing accomplishments. Besides being physically strong, they also go into that pain cave regularly, without a second thought and push harder. This sets them apart from 99.9% of the population. I feel very fortunate to have such a mentor and coach who can demonstrate this and count my blessings everyday.

I had to sort of laugh at myself as my kitchen table was covered with books with self-help titles such, "Embracing Your Potential," and "In the Pursuit of Excellence," among others. Yet if these books, if read in the right frame of mind, at the right time, can be applied to competition and training, and help me push harder - why not? If opening your eyes to different tools on how to mentally tackle an obstacle, such as pushing harder and ignoring your body when it's screaming to stop, can help me reach my potential, what have I got to lose?

Marcy relayed her own recent discovery - hopefully she won't mind if I share it. She came across some book titled, "The Power of No." Through it she discovered that even if you don't want to do something and want to respond no to something, maybe it's a better idea to say, yes, no, yes. It can be applied to all aspects of life. Someone asks you to do something at work that you know can't be done. Instead of starting out with a no, respond with something like, "I really like your idea on the approach to that problem. Unfortunately it won't work with the way we're doing it now, but let's figure out how to make it work."

Yes, no, yes.

Yes I can do 18,000,000 intervals. But I can't do them all in one day. How about we spread them out over a lifetime? I think you get the idea...



Ramble, ramble, ramble.