PATIENT

I was never patient until I had to be. I always got away with pushing barriers out of my way. Or I climbed over them. I bent what resisted me with sheer force of will. Sometimes I turned it to advantage. It was easy. I was alone, with no one to count on and no one counting on me. When all I knew was intensity I “made” it work for me. And then one day - or one year - it didn’t work anymore. I had to take a different path.

Training hard produces results when you have never done it before. & of course, it strokes the ego to gut through something you never believed possible. It’s a great feeling that fades just as quickly as you can make it happen. What then? The prescription is, “Again, faster.” …Or whatever.  

Just keep repeating yourself harder, faster, heavier, longer & over time, I'll tell you-
Intensity repeated mindlessly loses its shine.

Because (like a drug) intensity- what you once did doesn’t get you high anymore - it doesn’t get you more fit & often-fails to maintain.

I found my solution was what my intensity-enslaved friends called “easy” days. The type of training that left a little gas in the tank every day, so that I could show up again tomorrow, which [obviously] paid off better in the long term. 

The physical and psychological characteristics trained by consistent sub-maximal-effort can be developed infinitely.
These characteristics support high intensity effort, speed recovery and can be considered regenerative while at the same time allowing one to push the top end higher.
It doesn’t seem so in the moment of doing it though.

In fact, it’s damn hard to force oneself to look ahead patiently when the instant payoff of an absolute soul-sucking high-intensity effort feels so good RIGHT NOW.
I love getting high as much as anyone but I am far more interested in a productive, sustained & sustainable trip - something that produces long term benefits.

I don’t care about now. I’ve had what can be had right now and it does not last—I assure you. If you want it to be good…or better yet-great, a year from now, well … getting high every day with minimal downtime won’t take you all the way there.

So look ahead. Further than three months. Beyond one year. What do you want and where do you wish to be in two years? Or three? Or even five. And does that goal or vision affect what you are doing right now?
…Because you can’t have anything good right now unless you have already been working towards it for years.

What we value requires investment. It demands constant self-interrogation and reassessment. The first goal is NEVER the final one because there is a great difference between who you are when you began & who you are when you get where you’re goin.’
both you and the goal have changed.
-Like what that dude Heraclitus said about the man steppin into the river n stuff--Point is...

-We all get stuck on the outcome to the extent that we ignore the process.
We confuse the desire to become this or that with the ability to do so—on exactly the timeline we choose. But how much of your life, your schedule, your wishes and circumstances can you control? Certainly not all of it.
So be cool & get patient.
Be confident with the work you're putting in day after day.
If you could have it all tomorrow it wouldn’t have any value…
If it did you couldn’t afford it.
If the shortcut took you where you wanted to go, well id reckon you’d arrive to find it isn’t what you thought you wanted ater’all.

There simply is no arrival in this journey. You can NEVER achieve a particular physical condition & then be done with it. Such impermanence is what makes fitness elusive to the general public. 

But if you have seen something else- a shiny artificial fish bait glinting in the sun-
if you believe in the shortcut…the quick fix;
…Well, I hope you take it & get exactly what you want,
because at least you will have gotten out of everyone else’s way.
I don't care about appearance, I want to know where this vehicle can take us.

Patience is what makes fitness a practice.