Peak performance is hard.  Hard on your body.  Hard on your mind.  Hard on your soul. I mean a truly committed, as close to 100% as you can get, effort.  It is a rare time when you can have your best day on the right day.

It might be even more difficult recognizing these days for what they are and appreciating them.  These are PR days, and even PR days come with caveats, rather than enjoyment. How could I have gone faster? Was there a way to squeeze another second out of what is already the fastest I have covered a distance?  That question replaces what should be the immersement of seeking your potential, or simply being in the moment of human movement.

The term “flow state” was tossed out to the public over 40 years ago by a Hungarian psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  More popularly known as “being in the zone”, “on fire”, “firing on all cylinders”, “getting work done”, or any other number of euphemisms. It is a moment or series of moments where the effort at hand seems effortless.  Describing it would be like trying to describe snorkeling in Belize to an Inuit in Alaska. Or the Internet to a golden retriever.

But if you have been there, you know it.  You are relaxed, worry free, every step or movement is seamless into the next.  The actor gets done and barely remembers the event itself.  You finish the workout, or even better the race, and are almost bewildered at how easy it was.  It is most wonderful when this happens during a race (though it could occur with a day at the park, a day teaching, or doing the damn crossword).

But often it happens when you are just out for a run.  Odds are good you barely remember these times, though at the time you are thinking to yourself how awesome you feel.  Maybe you can recall moments of these moments.  Flashes of light, breathing easy, totally present and at the same time aloof of what is around you.  I have had this happen on mundane runs on Rock Island Trail in Lincoln.  With my brother on a beach in Newport California.  Down Boylston street with Matt Neukirch.  Through the Sandhills of Western Nebraska.  A random backroad in Belize.  Exploring San Francisco.  An indoor track meet years after college.  Huffing up a hill in Platte River State Park.  Through the redwoods in Northern California.  Back trail on Long Island.

Clarity and focus are wonderful.  Wonderful because they happen when you least expect them to.  Can you find focus?  Can you pursue it?  Honestly, it finds you.  A person can do all of the right things.  Eat right, do your ancillary work, train consistently, improve your mental game. But despite all of that, these fleeting moments are rare.  They are also addicting.  Whatever parts of your brain light up when you eat a dessert or get a compliment have to kick in when you are simply being present.

Zen Buddhism has a word, mushin.  Loosely translated it means “no mind”.  You just go and do your thing.  On the days when you do your thing, and you have “that” day, embrace it and file that memory away as something to be remembered. Something to get you through the tougher times.  Something to be shared with friends.  Something to smile about when you are falling asleep.

Didn’t have that focus at the 2014 version of the Leprechaun Chase 10k.  Actually ended up running close to a lifetime best.  Which on a course like the one that winds through Mahoney State Park and after a nice long warm-up is something I can be happy about.  But raced as well I could have that day and that is all a runner can hope for.