9/21/11

Wed
The Critical Zone
Racing and running hard demand a certain set of thoughts. A certain conscious course of action and neural firing happens in our mind when it demands our body to move fast and hard. It is loudest in what is known as the critical zone. The critical zone is the last 25% of the race. In the cacophony that hammers away at our minds, like a child of eight free on a piano with a bagful of Halloween candy, there comes an almost eerie trail of thoughts. The world screaming at you and the funniest thoughts pop up. Snippits of bizarre songs, punch lines to jokes and frail memories hardly held are just a few I have experienced. It’s funny, when our bodies are doing something so graceful, and for even a “novice” runner there is grace in the all out effort of racing, we have a sort of auto tune of humor. Maybe that is microcosm of life, try your best so grace will come from what you do and there will always be humor in your life.