Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Posted: 11 Aug 2008 12:45 AM CDT

I am enjoying the summer lull and getting in some fairly serious cycling. For the first time in a while I am feeling quite fit.

My baseline route takes about an hour and includes a couple of climbs. My riding on this route tends to be like a time trial, the time it takes and my average heart rate give me an indication of my fitness.

One of the lessons this practice makes obvious (although not necessarily easy) is that of pacing. If I go too fast at the beginning it makes the later parts certainly harder and probably slower.

Another lesson is that after a hard effort, to go over a climb for example, if I allow some time going more gently for my heart rate to come down and to recover before the next hard effort, I will also go faster over the whole ride.

Many of us run our lives a little like a time trial too, we race around trying to squeeze in as much as possible, both at work and at home. Inevitably as different demands are made on us and we attempt cram more and more in, without letting anyone down, some things get lost on the way.

If I can have the discipline when cycling to pace myself carefully over the early part of the ride, and to allow time to recover after a hard effort I know, I can go faster with less discomfort.

In the same way if we can pace ourselves in our lives making a little extra time for recovery, for reflection and for planning we can actually get more done and with less discomfort.

We may feel guilty that we are not being as "busy" as we should be, but surely it is more to do with effectiveness than busyness? And busyness is not the same as effectiveness.

As three time Tour de France winner, Greg Le Mond said, "cycling doesn't get any easier (as you get fitter), you just go faster."

If you would like some help with reflection and planning for your life and work, perhaps you could take advantage of my three for the price of two August offer and I can help you.

If you want make some really focussed time for reflection you might like to join us for The PIE Retreat in October. See Neil talking about PIE on MNBTV.

If you find these e-mails valuable and energising, you may like to contribute some energy to help me continue to write them. £5 per year seems like good value.

with love

nx

neil crofts - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk
www.authentictransformation.co.uk
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
- George Orwell