Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Tunnel Vision



It happens every workout. During a hard effort, your world becomes a little smaller, you stop being able to hear anything but your breathing, and your vision becomes focused solely on the object or task directly ahead of you. And this works...if you are a simple, mindless piece of meat (or textured soy protein Kevin).

But you're not. You are a thinking, calculating, scheming, sentient athlete. And, you've got to know where you are, what's going on around you, and how much you've got left in the tank.

What are we talking about? Situation awareness.

Fortunately, being able to think clearly under physical duress if very much a practiced skill. And, this is one of the reasons your coach makes you count your own efforts and keep your own scores.

So the next time you feel your world getting a little smaller, look around and notice that everyone else is in looking out of the tunnel as well.

Coach K

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that a Bozman-esque style photo? What a composition!

Josh Cunningham said...

The other nice part about pausing to look around is to see other people suffering much more than you. It lets me know that I can push myself a little harder and a little farther. I call it the Darby Queen-Effect (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_School). Thank you all for suffering with me a few times a week.

Anonymous said...

I look forward to the suffering daily. Its the best part of my day. The tunnel vision helps me focus on whats in front of me, and not worry about how much I have left, but only to push myself second after second, minute after minute. Crossfitters can be my wingman (or wingwoman to be PC) anytime.--------Lucas

Olivia de Santis said...

I was never sure if it was best to retreat into that mindless soy protein (heh) state or try to keep the rest of the world in focus - so thanks for the info. I definitely could be better at keeping score!

Anonymous said...

My tunnel vision is focused soley on beer and tacos (or pastries and lattes, if it's Saturday morning).

M

Nick said...

Tacos do sound pretty good right now. I may have to cheat on my diet tonight to go get a burrito from El Farrolito....

Otherwise the tunnel vision remains.