Riding The Highs And Lows To Optimize Stressors

When your Goal is to do Amazing things, and Peak Performance is a Necessity requiring you to constantly push Further, you Will Encounter plenty of Stressors.

Now, Stressors are not Inherently Bad for us, and Indeed we "Must" Experience Stressors to Achieve Peak Performance.

However, "How" we Approach Stressors is also Incredibly Important.

To Succeed at the Highest Levels, we must Optimize our Stressors.

If our Stressors are Too Low, we become Bored and our Performance will not Improve.

On the other end of the spectrum, if our Stressors are Too High, we end up in Dis-Stress where we will Fail to Perform Well.

If we are in Dis-Stress long enough, our Performance will actually become Negatively Impacted and eventually, we will hit Burnout...

Assuming that you aren't in Burnout already, like 80% of people.

Then, on top of those factors, for our Peak Performance to Improve, we must have Enough Stressors to get out of our Comfort Zone, but not so much we enter Dis-Stress.

This ends up being an Interesting Balancing Act to Accomplish, where you discover that you will "Never" be Perfectly Balanced - It's Impossible to Do.

Let me give you an Example.

Yesterday, in my Endurance Training (which is both to Improve my Leadership and Improve my Semi-Professional Athletic Career) I ran a Barefoot 10k (6.2 mi.).

Yes, I did run the whole distance, outside, on Sidewalks and the Blacktop, with No Shoes, and it is something I regularly do but that is a story for another time.

I was averaging a 10:19/mi pace, with a 142 Average Heart Rate (Below my Maximum Aerobic Function Heart Rate).

That ended up feeling great and I had Perfectly Optimized my Stressors for that Run.

Went to bed, and was excited for today.

Then, for Today's Endurance Training, I had a Barefoot 15k (9.3 mil.) to accomplish.

However, my Stressors were "Not" Optimized today.

The Run itself was pretty great, nice and easy, 12:22/mi pace.

However, I had some extreme hills today which my body has not gotten used to yet (we just moved, so the environment is new).

That Stressor, pushed my Heart Rate above the Zone I wanted to be in at 153 Average, which itself is another Stressor.

That wouldn't be so bad if I were doing the 1 Mile Loops that I've gotten accustomed to here, except I wasn't doing that loop.

As you can see, the mixture of Stressors from the Extreme Hill, Heat (because it is 90+ Ferenheight here daily), New Environment, and High Heart Rate ended up taking a gigantic toll on me today.

By the end of my run, my body was very unhappy with me, and it took me quite some time to Recover afterward.

So, yesterday I rode the high of the 10k, and today I went too far with the 15k.

Where does that leave me now?

At a Low.

So, in order to prepare my body correctly for more Peak Performance in the Future, I now have to ride the Low which means De-Stressing in the Recovery Zone.

If I do this correctly, I can still gain some Benefits from a little overdoing it.

It won't be as great as if I had hit the Flow Zone (Where Optimal Peak Performance happens), but our bodies are amazing at overcoming Stressors "If" we Recover Well.

This becomes the Process of Improving Ourselves.

We Must Push the Boundary to get to our Best, but sometimes We Will Miss the Mark which Forces Us to Adjust.

We Do Not miss the mark because there's something Wrong with Us, but for Two Other Reasons.

One, We're Human.

As Humans, there is no such thing as Perfection and that is just a part of being Human.

Second, this Boundary is actually a Moving Target.

It is Difficult to Hit a Moving Target, but that is what is required to be our Best.

So many Factors go into that Moving Boundary, of which most we are Completely Unaware in the Moment, so it is only Natural we will Miss from time to time.

This only means that we must Ride the Lows when we face them, which is exactly how I will be spending the rest of the evening.