Nothing

As we have discussed, sometimes nothing is the best thing. Lowering high cortisol levels as a result of high intensity workouts, or long steady distances, or even the garden variety environmental stressors relentlessly in attack mode, is a skill we need to perfect. To do this we take a page from our friends, the Yogis, and move into a savasana-like (the Dead pose) state of nothingness. Total (forced) relaxation. Your cortisol drops like a bad habit. You are refreshed and your body can go about the business of repair and rejuvenation without unnecessary, or unfair, hormonal competition.

Try it. Next time you finish with a particularly rocking set (like this morning: Blues Power>Row Jimmy>Walking on a Thin Line>Aqualung>R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.>Oh Atlanta.) slow your cadence, take a series of deep relaxing breaths and sink into recovery mode. Lightly feel the deepness of the nothingness, let everything go. Float. Close your eyes. Loose the stress in your shoulders. Surrender. Hold this pose for five minutes if you can. It puts you in a state of post-effort grace, where the rebuilding process can unfold on its own. This is bigger than you. Drink some water, have a bite of clean protein and monitor the process. Keep rowing, gonna get there.

I think you'll like it dear yoginis. And please enjoy the time spent here because, you knew this was coning, you will recover faster, with a more powerful motor and the mental ability to push your next session to even higher levels. Yes, more pain.

Let's accentuate the extremes. The higher the highs-the greater the need for the lows. To be the best cyclist you can be-you have to ramp it up slowly. Maximum power needs adequate recovery. That's something, and...

...nothing. No thing. It can get scary in there, I know, but we need to face those shadows and emerge stronger in the light on the other side.

Or you can stay in the middle. Be average. Safe. Risk little. Watch TV.

THAT, to me, is nothing.