the two minute rule

you can do anything for two minutes.

how many times have you heard that? I hear it frequently, in power camp, when a coach is trying to convince us that zone 5 isn't that bad.
we hear it when we only have to visit zone 5 for two minutes (eight times, of course),
we hear it when we've been in zone 5 for 18 minutes and only have 2 more minutes to go.
it's an oft-repeated phrase, one I'd almost come to believe.

and then came yoga.

where there are hundreds of things I cannot do for two minutes.

some things I can only do for about 10 seconds, or maybe 5. (can you say dolphin pose? wheel?)
some things I can possibly do for one minute, but there are numerous--uncountable--things I cannot do for two.

yesterday's power camp workout was 6 intervals in zone 5 for five minutes each, with two minutes of recovery in between each interval.
two minutes is not a lot of recovery, but it's better than one.
I can recover for two minutes.

and some day, I'd like to be able to hold a headstand for two minutes.
plank.
crow.
chair.
dolphin.
because just as in cycling, much of it is mind over matter. it's convincing your mind that your body is capable.
it's not giving in.
it's working through the trembling, the shaking, the point of collapse, and coming out on the other side.

maybe someday I truly will be able to do anything for two minutes.
never give up the dream.
never.
(and there will be more about dreams next post.)

namaste, and perhaps you should start timing yourself.

the possibly impossible

I've written before about the infamous two minutes.
it began during my first encounter with power camp three years ago: one of the instructors, one day while talking us through a tough work effort, said to us, you can do anything for two minutes. that's the length of a commercial or two ~ come on, you can do that.
and of course, then, it grew to
come on, you can do anything for three minutes.
or four minutes.
or five.

this past year I've heard a lot of those you can do anything for . . . motivational comments.
but this week it's been switched up on us.
this week it's been our recovery, not our work effort, that's been scrunched into two minutes.
and I've learned that I can even find recovery in a brief two minute stretch.

during this past year the elite, blue-card people have experienced interval workouts with three and two minute recoveries between intervals. but remember, I'm a white card person, and we've always been allowed a minimum of three minutes between intervals.
for example, we've had a workout where we take our heart rates up to zone 5 for four minutes, then recover in zone 3 for three minutes, then repeat this process six or seven more times. the elites were made to go to zone 5 for five minutes, then only recover for two minutes, and then (lather, rinse and) repeat.
so those blue card people had already experienced the challenge of a two-minute recovery.
I hadn't, and it seemed slightly impossible.
but what I've learned this week is that I can do it, too.
monday we had 6 visits to zone 5, five minutes each, with two-minute recoveries in between.
I survived.
today we had 4 visits to zone 4B, eight minutes each, with two-minute recoveries in between.
I survived.

this may not seem like much, but it's powerful;
small victories often have great impact.

and it brings to mind all of those times in life when we get by on much less food, sleep, love, rest, refueling, whatever, than we truly need. we adapt, we learn to keep going, becoming stronger with each new test of our selves.

but as I said to my fellow-biking friend patty the other day, I would never make myself do this kind of ridiculous effort on my own.

pause.

okay, well, maybe I would, if I could only learn to remember how great I feel when I conquer the unknown, the scary, the possibly-impossible.
small victories.
that's what it's all about.