Solve For X.
I hopped in the car, and onto the highway. I had forgotten a piece of my equipment, it was put away in the equipment shed adjacent to the track at Edwards Stadium.
I threw the keys on the passenger seat.
So many keys…
I pulled onto the street, and parked curbside, grabbed the keys, and proceeded to walk to the gate.
Which was open.
Landscapers were busily engaged in their work of maintaining the grounds.
I waved, already in masks, I hoped my smile reached my eyes as a greeted them from a distance.
This would be my last time on this track…for a while.
A track…
that we have the keys to.
I looked down at the keys dangling like a tempting, mouth-watering piece of something-something I shouldn’t indulge in.
I shook my head at the irony of being barred from training. Because it had been less than a month since my body returned to health enough for me to return to training in the first place.
I had worked so hard to get back to health. So many medicines, so many doctor’s visits, so many procedures, so many needles.
So much time alone…
So much time in my head.
I got terribly sick after spending a few days in the hospital in Colorado for my last procedure. So even though I was healthy enough on paper to return to the track, I was too sick to be grateful for it.
Too sick to take note of the differences I could feel in my body.
Too sick to notice or celebrate how much fight I have in me.
The Bay Area’s Shelter-In-Place Order went into effect and it hit me, all this work to get back to health so that I can train…and now I can’t train.
I moped for two days.
On the third day, she rose.
I looked myself in the mirror and asked myself if I was done fighting. Am I going to let my corner throw in the towel for me? Or am I going to put my big girl panties on and get through these championship rounds.
Championship rounds.
That’s my name for the “hardest part” of anything I might be doing. Like today for example, I’ve got to go out and run this hill 12 times. Reps 8,9,10, and 11 are my championship rounds. Or like, pushing through cooking dinner win you’re tired instead of ordering delivery. The times that require a gut and heart check. The times were you decide if you’re going to go toe to toe in the center of the ring and let you hands go.
Championship Rounds…COVID-19 is currently landing a lot of body shots, a lot of jabs. Knocking out proms, graduations, Mother’s day celebrations, birthdays, relationships, baecations, careers, incomes, you name it.
But standing in the mirror, looking at my face, skin taut across my cheekbones, sallow from worry and stress and I begged myself to stay in the fight, because we’ve already come through so many rounds, some of which I had won too.
But I wasn’t sure how to do that, how to keep fighting…so I did what I always do:
I SOLVED FOR X.
Because you know I’m a nerd, you know science is my thing, and math is the language that science speaks.
So I had an equation, well…a problem.
And I needed to solve it.
Remember how we solved equations in school?
(probably got a good refresher homeschooling the kiddos right now)
It was a four step process:
simplify each side
move all the variables to one side
isolate the variable so that the equation = X
Solve.
I’m a sprinter/jumper. Logistically that causes quite a few problems. But whatever, we’ve all got problems.
Probably more of them now than usual, but still.
I had to decide what I wanted. And I decided that I wanted to continue training. I decided that I wanted to get my body even more healthy. I decided that I would get strong AF mentally and physically.
Each of those “wants” is and requires a different equation.
Each with different variables.
So I solved for X.
I figured out how to keep training, and even though I’ve now “found” a track where I can get my work in I didn’t know two months ago that that would be the case on a consistent level.
I tweaked my fuel plan, so that I can be my healthiest and at my optimal weight. I’ve lost 6 pounds while on shelter-in-place…largely because I’m committed to moving my body daily but largely because I support those efforts by not screwing myself with what I’m eating and drinking.
I did a deep dive with my life coach, opening up a little more about my mental state and personal life so that we could really get to the root of some issues I’m working through.
And then…because I’m a type A personality I wrote all of this down. I created systems to support me in being successful at the things I identified were important to me.
And when I emerged from the dust of my brain storm, I had HomeWork.
My latest offering on tbtrackstar.com
It’s the embodiment of problem solving.
Got issues with your fuel plan? I’ve got something for that.
Want to move your body but don’t no what to do, and need more than piecemeal ideas from IG posts? I’ve got something for that.
Got core strength issues? I’ve got something for that.
Help with flexibility, relaxation, injury prevention, recovery? I’ve got something for that.
You feel fucked in the head right now? (yea, me too) I’ve got something for that.
HomeWork is how I solved for X.
I had a problem, and I solved it.
Because every problem has a solution.
Even this one.
So simplify your goals right now.
list all the variables
isolate each one
and then solve the damn problem.
It won’t be long before you can check your work.
