September Thoughts - 2026
Training flows like a river. It winds and cuts back on itself the longer it flows. The current accelerates in choke points and slows where space widens and the waters grow deep and still. As we develop our body, if we can follow the current, we can work with our systems, rather than against them.
Hear me out.
From the perspective of age, which I speak on often, because it holds true to my current life experience, the river flows down hill. If we are holding on to what we did in the past, trying to swim up the river, this is a losing battle. I could expand on this with more analogies, but if you really need more explanation, just go try to swim against the current in your local waterway and you’ll feel it.
This means we need to take what our training gives us and move forward to new, or different, or more fitting training. What that is for everyone will be different. The strength athlete eventually needs to soften, the lifetime yogi eventually needs to build strength, the zombie runner eventually needs to become present and focused in their training. It’s important to recognize that we don’t HAVE to do both sides in a supposed ‘balanced’ training system all the time. We must simply recognize that time will demand the opposing forces eventually become more involved, or we will pay a price.
As we make our way through our training journey these choke points will feel incredible. Major progress, competitions, highly motivated training, will all happen in these periods. And they will happen fast. The acceleration here is intense and it feels good, but it is important to recognize as also fleeting. Enjoy it, revel in it, and push yourself when you are here, because it will not last. And that’s ok.
Where the river expands and the current slows can feel like doldrums. Almost like there is no more momentum at all and we are simply treading water in space. However, this is where the water grows deep and the expanse grows wide. This is the opportunity, that some will always fail to recognize, to grow your connection with your physical self. Learning new skills, returning to old movements in a more intellectual setting, finding parallels between previously unrelated experiences. This is also where we confront real learning and develop our steering system.
With new perspectives, new skills, a bigger base, we eventually leave these slowly flowing lakes and return back to the narrow and fast flowing river. Now we have tools, awareness, and the ability to steer. We look back and wish we knew what we knew now when we were in the thick of our hardest training years ago, but it’s important to only look and not try to go back.
Take this self-awareness with you and realize what you are learning today is just as partial and fractured as what you thought you were an expert at years ago. It is an ever growing process where we flow through fast and slower waters and develop the ability to manage ourselves as we grow.
When the flow is slow, let yourself drift. Go in circles, stay in place, see what’s there and soak it all in. The accelerating current will force you to apply these elements, so it’s important you build them well. The journey is this ever repeating cycle between the doldrums and the accelerations. Respect the slow and you will maximize the fast. Fall in love with the fast, waste the slow, and you will always be looking back wishing you could swim back up the river and start again.