A Rock on the Path

I picked this little rock up in Snowdonia last year and thought it was really cool, then forgot about it. Looking for a phone charger cable in a side pocket in my rucksack it suddenly reappeared.....the rock, not the phone cable.

In the world in which this rock was formed, most things have always followed the path of least resistance. The glaciers in Snowdonia, the lava flows spewing from the volcanoes, the steams forming high in the mountains. Most living creatures do the same.....taking the low hanging apples first. Humans have the cognitive powers to be different. Many of us realise the juiciest fruit is at the top of the tree. Does it simply taste better because of the effort it takes to harvest it or has the sunlight produced more sweet sugars?

I love endurance sport. Initially, my bike gave me the freedom to escape from a world that I had started to become sceptical of. The parents were primarily loving, but drank way too much and life became sad as a result. We often hear of elite athletes who try to push the boundaries of human performance, continually motivated by past success or fear of future failure. Winning was never a motivation for me.....I would get dropped from the group more often than not! When I got faster, I always found a group that was faster than the one before.

I moved to triathlon, after a long diversionary path....Pure....the best techno club in the history of man! Ironman appealed to me as it was seen as the ultimate challenge at the time. It suited my mentality.....if you're a tortoise, go far enough and you'll eventually catch the hare. Work hard and never quit! I all too often went over the boundaries though, becoming overtrained as a result.

But it gave me a new found confidence and I packed in work to go to uni'. After some initial hurdles, I started to podium for the 1st time in my life, but academically rather than in sport. The aim was to get the highest mark in my year....my mate Rob was brighter but I worked far harder, and I ended up with a 1st Class degree.

I followed the toughest path possible during my Ph.D, exploring far too many side trails. I challenged conventional wisdom and tried to make my own path. Sometimes a dead end was hit, there were many nettle bushes along the way and some deep ravines of despair, Hope and excitement on seeing the end in sight only to discover it was a delirium induced mirage. I became self-absorbed and thought I had many enemies. The newly found confidence was soon booted out of me in this almost infinite game of snakes and ladders. With failure a distinct possibility, somehow I extricated myself by learning the rules at the last possible moment.

After a break of over 10 years from triathlon, I'm back training but with a new mindset. It's never about going further now...a dodgy knee prevents me from getting silly. It's about going deep, accepting that the only way to beat dukkha is to forget ego and focus on the present. Success is measured in doing one's best.

Trying your hardest is not good enough; such effort is driven by ego. Rather, it's about pausing, taking time to think and not being afraid to change; being mindful of the here-and-now! Many sports physiologists believe that the limits of endurance performance are primarily determined by the delivery to and/or utilisation of O2 within the mitochondria. There is some truth in this but accepting it as the whole truth is misguided. Lots of coaches and athletes make the mistake of training the body whilst neglecting the mind. At one's limit, the easiest thing in the world is to slow down or quit. It's the mind that stops this from happening and it takes a strong mind to do so.

That's why one of my favourite but overused sayings is "the path of least resistance is the easiest one, but it is rarely the most satisfactory". I still like the rock.