Flow Practice

1. The nature of the situation is a task, controllable and structured with well defined parameters.

2. The situation facilitates concentration. The primary task is the only thing happening, so there is nothing else to prevent you from immersing yourself in it.

3. There is a specific goal.

4. There is a balance of challenge and skills.

5. Feedback is offered.

6. The task absorbs your complete attention.

7. You feel in control of your actions.

8. The situation is likely to to yield an improvement in the skills being tested during the session.

Finding flow. Borrowed heavily from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, from Matt Fitzgerald's flow-filled running Bible, "Brain Training for Runners".

The similarities are readily apparent with cycling. Runners seek the flow, and cyclists search for the sweet spot. In either activity or sport, be it a high intensity HoM session, a five day ride, or an all out 12K, sustainable flow in the moment is our goal.

Yesterday was an example of "no-flow". I was still a touch fatigued (alright I was no where near recovered from Wednesday's trio of sessions, and my body knew it), still we met for a trail run and, somewhat begrudgingly, headed out. My fearless running partner was dealing with some issues as well. The going was slow, the conversation "out there". I knew by mile 2, that it was going to be a test. And I lost focus. I ran scattered, myopic & mindless, a million miles away. I made two situational awareness navigational errors, choose road routes poorly, and even said some pretty stupid stuff. The flow was elsewhere. Looking back to analyze the session and instantly seeing the culprit as the lack of focus, I have to say, I am better than that.

One can argue that we still slugged out a 1:24 trail run when it would have been a whole lot easier to stay home and read. And that is a good argument. But we did run, and the rewards will manifest a week from Sunday. The take away is this:

Stay focused on the chore at hand.

Work at it, improve it, perfect it.

Feel it, understand it, anticipate it.

When the "anti-flow" appears,

Acknowledge its presence,

and then,

KICK IT THE HECK OUT OF YOUR HEAD.

And simply resume your practice.

Pix: Time Trialing above the Columbia River and about to tri in Boise. Run fluid, ride sweet.