Personal trainer
Paul O'Brien
“As I turned into toward College Green, I was intensely aware of the sound of my feet hitting the road. I could feel every muscle in my body working. But it was not difficult. I felt like I was flowing along, totally relaxed and immersed in the experience. The crowds clapping around me added to the feeling of euphoric calm. I realised I was smiling broadly. I didn’t want the feeling to end.”
I was recently flicking through an old training diary when I found this entry. It was made the day after the Dublin City Marathon in 2004. Reading it transported me back to that day. The ‘flow’ I experienced at the end and, indeed, throughout that race, was what athletes call ‘being in the zone’. It was the culmination of months of hard training. But I had trained hard before for marathons and had never experienced this. So what was different? Instead of simply getting through the daily hard miles, I had for a couple of months been trying to train my mind as well as my body.
The first couple of months of training for Dublin were spent toiling around the streets of London, where I was then living. I was enjoying the feeling of being fit, but can’t honestly say I was enjoying the training. Putting in 12 miles after a ten-hour day, with 20 miles on a Sunday felt like more hard work. I was sleeping-working-training and eating, nothing else. I had read before about ‘running within’ – developing the mind/body connection when training. I gave it a go.
I started by developing my awareness. Instead of allowing my mind to wander randomly over the thoughts of the day, past experiences or future possibilities, I brought my awareness to my body. I started by becoming more aware of my breathing. Then I ‘watched’ my muscles, joints and even my heart working. I soon became aware of apparent weaknesses – my breathing seemed to shallow, almost like I was gasping for air. My foot strike was very different on one foot than the other. I was holding a lot of tension in my arms and shoulders.
Like many athletes who carry out this practice, I felt I was going backwards. All these errors were popping up since I started my awareness practice. I realised though, that what was happening was my becoming aware of weaknesses in my technique that had always been there. Here was an opportunity to improve my running if I was willing to keep the practice going.
I also became more focused. During my training, at different times I would focus all my attention upon a particular area – my breathing, my leg muscles, calming my mind, releasing any muscular tension.
The result of these practices? Well, pretty soon, I started to love training once again. I looked forward to learning more. More importantly, my training had become time when I was fully present in the moment. I stopped living in my head and enjoyed every moment of my training. This culminated in my experience of the marathon itself.
The point? Physical exercise and training can be an access to living more fully, being more immersed in the present moment. I found these practices spilling over into my everyday life. We can create a connection between our physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual beings through exercise and training. A powerful life – isn’t that worth getting moving for?
Paul O’Brien is a certified personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise and a qualified life coach. He runs his own business in Westport and is the creator of Bootcamp West, an exciting and challenging exercise programme in Westport. For details of upcoming classes, visit www.bootcampwest.com or e-mail paul@bootcampwest.com or telephone 086 1674515.
