A note from last week

I saw that pin from Pinterest app. And I’m amazed how coincidence it is because of what happened to me yesterday when I was in the middle of completing a race. Halfway mark I felt my legs were giving up. The talk by Simon Grimstrup when my friends and I were in Vietnam emerged from my mind. He said, usually he had 3 options in his head, option A is to complete the race within xx time frame, option B […]

To worry or not to worry

When did the last time you feel worry before you are about to do something? It could be something very important, and if you screw it up, it would be a nightmare. Or, it could be something you’re going to do for the first time. Well I still feel the butterfly in my stomach on D-1 of my race. Regardless the distance or the sports. But those tensions are more like a self-impose pressure. Without realizing, I put pressure on […]

Why do you need to train so hard?

I don’t like working up a sweat or out of breath, buuuuut.. I don’t dislike sharpening my skills and leveling up – Kozume Kenma, Nekoma High (Haikyuu!!) Immediately I screamed (silently) Kenma you’re my inner character. Well except I’m not any teams’ brain like him to Nekoma. He is depicted as quiet guy, absorbed in game, laid back personality and never gets excited. And he wasn’t into volley ball until his childhood friend and neighbor introduced him to the sport. […]

On meditation

I’ve been wanting to join a meditation journey after hearing one of my friend who often went for a week or two meditation retreat. Because he came back refreshed after the trip. My friend mentioned that in one of his trip, he was having walking meditation and I thought, how could you meditate while walking? But recently, I think that it is actually doable. Because during long running alone, I always have a good long talk with my mind and […]

Are we there yet?

My friends and I were asking that questions to irritate each other while we were running last week. Sometimes we throw that question to other runner passing us. We all laughed at it and after that we saw some laugh, smile or just relief in our faces. We are not alone in this course. We have our own distance to cover, 100km, 70km, 42km or just like me and my friends, 21km. Some friends asked me if I like running, […]

Things to tell yourself when you see a hill

Few friends and I joined Vietnam Mountain Marathon over this weekend and it’s kind of special for me. Because there are many first about this event, first trail run event, first overseas sport event, first time to Hanoi and Sa Pa, first sport trip with friends and first half marathon distance for trail. So, it’s really memorable. Although I (tried to) ran regularly preparing myself for this event, but it still wasn’t enough. As a result, when I poked myself […]

The pain needed to grow

Back in 90s there is a TV show called “Growing Pains”, and I grew up watching it. I didn’t think much about the meaning of title back then. Sometime ago, Ajahn Brahm also mentioned in one of his talks about growing pain. Pain is usually associated with bad or negative energy, unpleasant feeling, and no one wants it. It’s not always about the physical pain like bruise, but it can be one too. When you’re aiming to complete something but […]

The only competition I’m having is

While last week I was inspired by my sensei’s word,  but this week I get my inspiration through this talk in YouTube. The talk appears in the recommendation to watch list. I like it so much and I shared the video in my LinkedIn too.  Within Simon’s video and what sensei told us, there is a similar message. Simon mentioned that there are 2 type of games or competitions, finite and infinite. Players in finite environment tend to have mindset to […]