The "Perfect" Day.

As it is now, this blog is still under construction.  I am working to make it look just so.  According to the Enneagram test I took last week, I'm a Type 1... prone to perfectionism.  We'll see where this goes.

After noticing how busy I was between practicing and training, a friend asked me a few years ago, "so, what would your perfect day look like?"  I didn't have a great answer at the time I just told them something about having both running and clarinet-ing (I hope you'll permit me the indulgence of inventing a word).  Recently, I've thought more about what are known as KRA's or Key Result Areas.  Sometimes a run is just a run but perfection in this sense is defined by what measurable goals are being met.  

According to Itzhak Perlman, students should practice no more than 3 hours a day.  According to Arthur Lydiard, athletes should train somewhere in that range too.  What a coincidence!  One other statistic to consider is that Malcolm Gladwell did a study on violinists in Berlin and found that those that achieved "world class" proficiency had accumulated 10,000 hours of focused practiced.  Generally this took about 10 years.  So if we do a little math... 3 hours/day, 7 days/week= 21 hours/week, 50 weeks/year (two off for a little R and R)= 1050 hours/year!  By these numbers in a little less more than 9.5 years a person will be "world class" provided that their practice/training is focused and specific to their growth.  With running, that's usually easy... get to full volume, put on the HRM and stay within the zone, throw in some high quality speed sessions and a long run or two and there you go (ok, it's not quite that simple but that's the basic Lydiard model).  With musical practice, it's really easy to be lulled into less than focused practice.  Because we're dealing with neurons and not muscles (generally) progress can be much faster but it can be lead awry very easily too.  

So what is a perfect day?  "Perfect" is not a great word so maybe we should ask, "what are the KRA's for this day?"  I think my answer is already here... 3 and 3.  The nice thing about this is that it leaves plenty of time for other things including eating, sleeping, lounging, reading, blogging, etc.  Tony Robbins says: "Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!"  So, my friends, go out and become world class.  Even if you already are world class, imagine where you'll be in 10 years!

In other news, the Caveman Gym at Texas Creek is open for business.  On Thursday we'll be expanding to include some free weight training.  At the moment, we're a body weight only type of establishment. Caveman weight training is a system I developed living in Creede, CO whereby a person uses rocks and body weight in place of formal weights or machines.  More on this later.  

Have a great day, go make yours "perfect."