Under What Conditions?

50.

The application is always the challenge. One would think that given twenty-four hours each and every day in which to exercise the body, cultivate the mind and nourish the soul one might create a satisfactory system of work, study, rest and play. The combination resulting in a state we call balance. I have always found it fascinating how a single pebble tossed into the calm waters of a balanced equilibrium can cause tsunami like waves, crashing into the placid stasis of our creation. But, I remind myself as we prep for a thirty-three mile bike ride, the test, the challenge always seems to be in our response. We can answer the question with another one, ‘Why is this happening,’ or worse, ‘why is this happening to me?’ Or we can ask the right question, ‘What am I going to do about it?’ I am considering this as I fill my water bottle with my secret formula of electrolytes and diluted fruit juice. The big question is always what. What do I do about it?

There are few activities that inspire such a broad range of opportunity as cycling. One gets the benefit of physical exercise, and today we are tackling one of our most known, revered and cherished routes, one the team loves to call gnarly, as well as the freedom to pedal, however momentarily, outside of the pressure cooker of the everyday banality of life, and into a magical world of endorphin flow and ethereal gamesmanship. I get to be whomever I choose as I push the limits of my physicality and ability to ride away from the negative, the unfair and the hurtful. There is no-one that can match my ability to sustain a relaxed focus in this state of dynamic flow. I challenge them to try knowing that their attempt will enhance my own effort creating a one-two punch of championship caliber. The lessons of riding, of sports, athletics and to another degree all physical activity where sooner or later the goal will be to discover one’s personal definition of winning and losing, of victory and defeat and the invaluable idea of intent, effort and practice towards the achievement of those goals, will manifest in the participant as character. This is a personality trait we have studied and chosen the acronym ACQ to better measure and manage. It is one’s Athletic Character Quotient that allows us to apply its only question to any effort. Our individual ACQ seeks a real-time answer to this question:

“Under what conditions will you quit?” 

The creative solution to this monumental ask is my personal study of self awareness. Everyone has a point at which they slow down, a point they will stop, a breaking point where the information they keep from an enemy will be revealed in exchange for the cessation of punishment. Knowing this, I have long considered it to be a particularly effective training tool to push to that very point. To get there, to that place where ninety-nine percent of the population would never consider going, and see what it is like, how it feels, test how long I can stay there. Many times the victory, success or any other of the more subtle forms of progress, comes down to the participant who can last the longest in this boiling pot of  intensity. 

As we start the first six percent climb I juxtapose this idea into other areas. Does it apply equally as well to the cerebral, the academic or the scholastic? Wouldn’t the student stand a better chance of success as a direct result of being able to maintain a relaxed focus as she studies? Could the curious answer to ‘How do we make love last?’ have its answer in maintaining emotional intensity well past the initial stages of infatuation? If our purpose is to find an personally acceptable answer to the question of life’s meaning, would not a pilgrimage to the mountain top of maximum intensity provided a clue or two? 

My heart is pumping close to maximum volume as we near the crest of the hill. I feel my lungs fill and empty with phenomenal efficiency. My core, glutei, quads and hamstrings are engaged in a harmoniously syncopated crescendo of power. We are taking this hill. Our flag atop it will soon be seen for miles around as a flowing symbol of our eternal quest for meaning. Our motto will be emblazoned across it in full caps: DO NO HARM. This is good. 

The idea that one’s ACQ might be secondary to one’s HCQ, Human Character Quotient flashes across my internal heads-up display. Suddenly and ironically I wish that this hill was longer, steeper, maybe even more gnarly that it already is. I hear the voice. 

Under what conditions will you quit?