This past weekend I was fortunate enough to help out Dr. Richard Hansen’s high school team, Peak 2 Peak, at their first cross country scrimmage of the season in Lyons, Colorado.  Only part of the team raced and the rest did a workout beforehand.  Their workout was a long progression run of up to 9 miles.  I was amazed by how much effort these kids put into the workout.  One kid was breathing really heavily within the first mile, yet ran the entire distance without complaining.  A freshman really impressed me as he did 8 miles (freshman were not allowed to do 9).  During these 8 miles he feel off the pace about half a dozen times.  Yet when the captains on the team or I turned and yelled encouragements, he quickly caught back up.  I’ve seen way too many times people give up when they fall of the pace, but this freshman was resilient and fought back multiple times.  If you have read the book, Brain Training by Matt Fitzgerald, you would know that Fitzgerald believes we are limited in our abilities by our brain shutting down the muscles to prevent death.  This makes some sense because running hard hurts and the brain doesn’t want us to die, so it will stop us before this point.