Be SHOCKED by your own fitness!

I will never forget the Monday after the Beth Coltman Memorial tournament last year.  Going into the tournament I was kind of nervous.  I hadn't done any long distance running for several months.  In fact, I hadn't run any distance longer than about 100 meters!  I wondered, Was I really in shape?

With the Beth Coltman Memorial tournament coming up this weekend I thought I'd share this blast from the past.  Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to my friend CJ last year on the Monday after:

Seriously. after a two day tournament in which I ran HARD, I cannot believe how good my legs feel today. Like I literally cannot believe it. This evening I was moving them around looking for some soreness, stiffness, loss of flexiblility, or any sign at all of what I did yesterday. ...I feel nothing whatsoever. Today I did a dynamic warmup with the LCDS kids and that got rid of the minute stiffness I felt this morning. The real test will be with tomorrow's workout. Even so, I am completely SHOCKED by how good I feel today.

I was worried that how I was training was just "book learning" but, oh my, it works!!! I cannot wait for tomorrow's workout :)

Remarkably, the training I was doing was no more difficult or time consuming than what I had been doing in college.  If anything, I was actually doing less. My increased ability to handle a tournament wasn't a product of training harder, it was because I was finally training smarter.

The Backstory

Unfortunately I wasn't willing or able to learn how to train smarter until I had let myself get completely out of shape. Only at that point was I willing to learn as if I knew nothing and start building my athleticism from the ground up. I had to put aside my ego, step away from the squat rack, pick up the small dumbells, (sometimes no dumbells) and begin from the beginning.

When I was out of shape in November 2009, I was willing to admit where my limits were.  It's much harder for me now that I think of myself as an athlete again.  It takes a lot of discipline to stick to the plan.  It takes trust and experience to believe that less difficult but more focused training can give better results.  I'm still learning!

Hopefully you can learn to train smarter without having to allow yourself to get totally out of shape like I did.

Coming up!

Next week I'll tell you the five major changes I made to my training that helped me become a better athlete.  Don't miss it!

Good luck to those of you going to tournaments this weekend.  Check in Monday and let me know how you feel afterward in the comments below!

Related Posts

• A Trial Run for Permanent Change
• Five Changes to Revolutionize Your Training (at Skyd Magazine)
• Lateral Movement Workouts:  the secret to my success