White Horse

During, or immediately after, a particularly challenging hill segment this morning, with my heart and lungs co-conspiring to declare an unconditional mutiny, I encoded the message. As best I could translate under heavy fire, I yelled to the troops to fall back and take cover. This message needed to be received in unmistakable and unspinable form. Black and white. No gray areas for adding ego, spin, bias or cowardice. Come in Black Horse, we copy. 

When the truth speaks you had better listen. Or, more contemporarily, when the General issues a direct command  to jump, you ask how high, sir?

Here was the message: It is not the sole responsibility of the big muscle groups (the heavy artillery on the front lines) to always control the surge. Nor is it always the power of the heart or the volume of the lungs. You know this, you can feel this play out under varying circumstances, on changing battlefields, sometimes without food or water. WE WILL TAKE THAT HILL! As a good soldier of cycling you know there to be something else at play. Something keeping it all together, binding our efforts like super glue, bailing wire and duct tape. 

The transmission, filled with static and noise, continued: There are two elements that we can practice here, indoors, and now, today. 

The signal was suddenly clear. Oxygen flowed again. 

One: Your breathing. It was even suggested that we can turn to this skill under moments of chaos and panic. Deep breathing. Relaxing, restorative and rejuvenating. Heck, even fire cannot survey without it. It turns to smoke and then fades to charred coal. Breath is life. If you are going to dial up your living rate, as we do on a regular basis in the HoM, you need to practice this vital skill. 

Two: Your ability to focus. To hold a fixed and relaxed state of awareness. To work towards keeping your mind tied to your body and avoiding distraction as if it were evil. Because it is. It is another one of America's dirty little secrets. The more distracted you are the easier it is to rob you (legally) blind. Yes I am outraged when I sit in a greasy spoon cutting pancakes with my fork and paying two bucks for coffee as Howard Schultz gets a 80% raise. I can't fathom the PR nightmare Boeing is going through as a result of their oversights. I care little about Beyonce, the Sacramento Kings or anything to do with Downton Abbey. I do not have the time. Sorry. Further, I am NOT going to allow them into my consciousness while training. That time is too valuable to mindlessly waste simply by turning pedals as our minds vacation in Bali. 

The message is complex. It is not easy. I can't just say it and make it so. You, and I  have to practice, practice and practice again. 

Breathe right.

Distract not. 

The rest will take care of itself. 

Come in White Horse, do you read me?