Week #15 Ironman Training

Week #15 Ironman Training
April 16, 2014 Jess

As a massage therapist and yoga instructor I spend the better part of my week guiding people towards surrender. A place where they can find full acceptance of what they are experiencing in any given moment.  It’s a practice of catching yourself in resistance and noticing there is an option to make another choice.  This is a practice I have worked with for more than a decade, I can’t quite remember when it all started but I know for sure that in June 2010 things ramped up to a new level.  My pursuit to free myself from myself was officially on.  Freedom from being ruled by my thinking mind and my ego by utilizing simple practices of awareness and presence accessed through my breath.  Catching myself indulging in my ego and pausing, realizing I had a choice to move in the opposite direction despite how unnatural it all felt at first.  Changing my default settings from judgement, worry, fear, material wants, separation and comparison of others to a simple setting based on love.  From this love, my acceptance of what is has bloomed and I no longer feel enslaved to resistance, my ego or the incessant stream of what if thoughts.

Every once in a while I’m met with I call a life practical.  A test to see just where I’m at with these practices and last week presented me with what felt more like a mid-term exam. Out of the blue, I mean nowhere, I was hit with a major bug on Wednesday morning right after coming home from yoga.  I had a cough that felt like shards of glass in my chest, chills and full body aches.  My skin was so sensitive the clothes felt painful on my body.  My big plans for 2 days of unencumbered writing, training, catching up on life took a quick nosedive as it was clear I only had one painless choice, surrender.  Although my ego came in with meager attempts to worry me about more lost training and lost money due to cancelling clients I noticed that my wiring had changed.  I didn’t add to my suffering by resisting my experience, I spent 3 full days in bed as the sun rose and set.  I allowed my body to heal and was able to get back to a little training towards the end of the week. I’m feeling much better now, just ridding myself of the lingering symptoms.

In the past I would have fallen into those worries but this time I noticed my ego’s lame attempt to enslave me and I simply let those thoughts pass.  I found that my mindset to accept was easy this time around, I was no longer wired to resist and create more suffering.  This was a huge change!  YES! My practice, all these years…my default settings are changing.  I don’t have to be enslaved by me anymore. In fact, no one has to be shackled to their worries, fears, ego or thinking mind.  You can be free of those burdens and open to life experience as it comes, without resistance and with complete surrender.  All it takes is a little noticing on your part, simple awareness of reality and your inclination to resist.  When you feel a resistance coming on, a wish that things were different, simply stop, pause, take one conscious breath and make another choice.  I’m telling you it works, life can be easier and can have more flow even on your most challenging days.

Week #15 Recap

Monday
1700 yd swim
Tuesday
1hr 48 min z2 ride
20 min recovery run
Wednesday
60 min heated power vinyasa
SURRENDER
Thursday
SURRENDER

 

Friday
SURRENDER
Saturday
75 min heated power vinyasa
60 min recovery spin
Sunday
60 min recovery spin
30 min recovery run

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