What in hell's a Speed Dream?

Simply put, the "Zone", the Zen, the paradoxical coexistance of opposites, both impossibly true at the same time. Like the eye of a hurricane, the calm at your deepest awareness while all around is a rush of activity and motion. There isn't an athlete alive that doesn't crave the experience.

Eastern culture holds for the balance of active and passive principles even though it mey seem unlikely while engaging in intense athletics. The usual experience is one of pain, and the isolation of mind to block out the pain. This technique gets quick results but at the cost of the ultimate expression of speed and longevity of the athlete.

Perhaps the lack of trust in one's own body inspires the need to hurt, or pound the fitness in. Speed happens when one speaks the language of speed, the actual speed is meaningless! The experience of being at one with swiftness and effortlessness is the real goal, a goal in every step that will guarantee an unlimited relationship with one's own ultimate potential.

The potential of most athletes is determined by their resistance to training stress, this then becomes their limiting factor to "conventional" athletics. As a road racer, I had friends that were delighted to be selected for the Olympic Training Center clinic in winter only to have them return to a lousy season because the coaches were trying to "make or break" them in order to find out if they had the "talent".

Most of us don't have this particular brand of talent and struggle mightily for awhile only to retire to the couch after putting our best years behind us all too soon. The stress and recover system gets pushed to an agonizing limit and becomes an abuse of our fight or flight response. The idea of coordinated effort is forgotten.

There is so much speed available from our bodies that can be accessed through relaxation and concentration, and they can be trained like muscle strength and aerobic power. Try one of the many progressive relaxation techniques, and in deep relaxation imagine taking the experience with you while performing athletics. It's like a state of meditation that allows you to forget the intrusive thoughts of the everyday move into the realm of "peak experience", a timeless effortless state that must be coaxed not demanded.

Some top professionals have revitalized their careers by reconnecting to the thing that made them want to ride in the first place, the sheer joy of movement, the privilege of possessing a human form and politely putting it through its paces. Most athletes will wait until an injury or serious bout of overtraining shakes their world enough for them to "return to the well" of a blissful state.

A Speed Dream is that blissful state, while setting a personal best, withoutfear, pain, or concern for the result. One of those perfect days that can happen more than just once in a blue moon. You must, however, believe in it, and search for it dilligently. One Racer lamented... "Why is winning so easy and losing so hard."

Recommended reading: Body, Mind and Sport - John Douillard.
The Warrior Athlete -