Like me, you probably used to walk miles to school. In the snow. And it was uphill both ways. And in NZ’s deep south in the depths of winter, we played sport on pitches so frozen our boots sounded like we were on concrete. And that was back in the days of real rucking... Don't start me.
So you’ll be dismayed as I am to learn that kids’ sport is now being cancelled due to… rain.
But it’s not the kids’ call, of course.
Either the Wicked Witch of the West is in charge or it’s merely in keeping with the image-over-substance style of our time, but the powers that be have determined a playing field should look like a playing field rather than being one. And the problem of kids making a right mess of it when it's wet is one for the too-hard basket.
Let me send an email to New Zealand 35 years ago, and I'll see if I can drum up some tips. In the meantime, I accept it must be hard work to keep these pitches in good nick but remember that is the point of them. And that's your job.
So if those playing surfaces can't handle the jandal, that's your jandal to handle. So that one day, we can have some hope that kids will be able to handle the jandal too.
Speaking of which…
The winter solstice marks halfway in the Leftfield training year and we turn for home with Challenge Week.
Opportunity to step outside the constraints of normal programming and explore far greater degrees of difficulty and intensity, because a challenge is not a program. Our training blocks are the accumulation of small stressors compounding and cementing adaptations over time with an intensity best described as enough.
But not this week. It's a gut check. Deliberately difficult.
And, by contrast to all other training, here the idea is not to be better for it physically. Indeed, it’s highlighted that—physically speaking— it is needlessly and pointlessly difficult.
Although you won't be physically worse for it. And that's important to note, but not obvious, because that's typically where these physical challenges end up.
If you want to run a marathon or something otherwise extreme and you're prepared for it, go for your life. But to break yourself down and roll out a red carpet for long-term injury and pain for any upside is madness.
And from a professional standpoint, irresponsible. Especially so when there’s a long list of things you can do that are safe and —excepting short-term muscle soreness — harmless.
Indeed, that's what makes this week at Leftfield more challenging still— the fact that none of the perfectly reasonable, common-sense objections are on the table.
I know you have to go to work and have lots of things to do and... yes, I know.
I'm careful to ensure none of the usual caveats apply. No rational rationalisation. These are challenges that, by any measure, you can do. Or, more accurately, attempt.
But you won't want to do them — delusion here, while not unheard of, is quickly dispelled. But neither is it mandatory. You can just add a week to the Autumn training block. No drama.
Meaning, that to put yourself through one hour of what will quickly be hell, you must do the most challenging thing of all: volunteer.
So, it's a tough ask. Not that I'm asking—but a tough ask of yourself. But then to shoulder serious discomfort purposed purely to take you to those dark places, and to do so voluntarily, makes whatever we might then encounter in life certainly easier— if not easy— by comparison.
And that, you’ll remember, is the point of training.
It’s stress inoculation but also a sorely needed recalibration. Standard training certainly helps in this regard but when worn down by the slow drip of chronic stressors this jolts you out of that weary malaise. By contriving what body and mind interpret as a life and death struggle you create a new reference point. An outlier that anchors and pulls everything back into shape.
These are serious shits and giggles that, in short order, cut you straight from a different cloth, but I'm not going to share any of the physical challenges here. If you're so inclined—and prepared— a bit of online initiative will lead you to no end of them, but I won't be responsible for any foolishness.
And, I’ll remind you: these peak experiences are hugely rewarding but not at risk of incurring an injury and, at best, a period of rehab or worse a lifetime of suffering.
But, if you do want to play along at home, I’ve listed some non-physical challenges below, all valuable in their own right:
30-Days of Real Food - eat as your grandparents ate. If you want to eat things found in the aisles of the supermarket you have to make them yourself.
Cold Shower (WHM) - 20-days
Cold Shower LITE (as detailed in the Mindset section of the link) Just three times in the next seven days, start your shower with full cold for 10 seconds only. That's it. Just 30 seconds of cold water in a whole week! It's laughable. A fantastic drill for learning to distinguish between protestations of can't when what you really mean is won't.
Get 8 hours of sleep every night for one week. Pretty self-explanatory. Set an alarm to go to bed.
Breathing - The Last Straw. (as long as it takes)
Phone Fast (set a window of 2-4-6 or10 hours/day in which you cannot hear, hold or look at your phone) - 14 days
Landline (wind the clock back by plugging your phone into a wall, ideally in a different room) - 14 days
Dumbphone - 14 days
Meditation - 10mins/day for 14 days. If you can't spare 10 minutes, double it. Saying 'meditation' is about as useful as saying 'sport' so if you've tried and been unsuccessful with making it stick in the past you may simply have been playing the 'wrong' one. I recommend starting with an app such as Headspace or Waking Up. Also recommended.
Portrait Challenge (note this is less about drawing and more about seeing. You can make this far easier by simply committing to taking a photo every day for 30 days.
No Complaints - 21 days minimum. (but more like 70)
Choose your own adventure. This list is hardly exhaustive and if you've been entertaining something else, go for it.
The links provide all the relevant info (no affiliations). So there you go.
Inconvenient? Yup.
Uncomfortable? Sure.
But, as ever, suggested only on the basis your life might become easier for it. Better.
Enjoy.
But I’ve gotta go. It’s time to prepare. In keeping with our theme I must steel myself because I’m facing what for me is one of the greatest challenges of all.
I’m going to Chadstone. So help me God.
- OLI