Try this workout at home... Enjoy the outside!

Go outside and warm up.  After your warm-up.   Perform 50 Squats and run as far as you can or no more than  400m.   At 400m perform another 50 Squats and run another 400m.  Complete at least a mile of running and 200 Squats.  

I think the lessons we teach as coaches derive from our own self awareness and the lessons we learn discovering ourselves.   I learned one of those lessons yesterday in a workout and I wanted to transfer my experience to you so that you may get something from it as well.  I think the two biggest inhibitors of performance is self doubt and excuses(in whatever form that they appear).   Here is how it happened yesterday.   After class,   I decided that I needed  to try to workout.   I felt bad because I had programmed a class a few days before that I had not done myself.  One of the things I always say is that I do not ask anyone to do anything that I haven't or can't do myself.   This is a principle of mine so it bothered me that people said this workout was extremely difficult and I had not attempted the workout before hand.   I decided that I needed to make penance by doing the workout.  The workout was a 50-40-30-20-10 of double unders and hands off burpees.   From more than one person, they said this workout was one of the toughest they had ever done so I was nervous.   Bruce even made fun of me because I procrastinated starting the workout for more than 15 minutes.   Here is what was going on in my head:  

Why I am doing this?   I have had 2 extremely hard workouts over the last 2 days and I need a light workout today.   The baby was up at midnight and 4 and Gavin woke up at 5 and started throwing up.   I had to get up at 6 to come to work and I have been working all morning.  I shouldn't attempt this being this tired and fatigued.     Before beginning the workout, I had doubt and I made excuses why I should not do well. 

Finally, I started the workout and I made it through 50 double unders and 25 burpees.   Then it hit, all the doubt doubled and came back with some friends.    This is stupid, I am too exhausted to finish this workout.    Why I am doing this- I am going to hurt myself and then I will not be able to compete in 2 weeks.  I should stop right now.   Then I heard a voice like an echo coming across a mountain..."Don't walk away! John"  "Don't quit!"   Bruce saw what was going on and called it out.   "Just Finish!"   he said.    "You will regret it if you quit this workout!"  I kept repeating that in my mind... just finish- you will regret it if you stop.   If I am an expert of analysis and technique then Bruce is the master of intensity.    I focused on little goals from then on out.... do 5 burpees, do 2 burpees, keep falling to the ground.  Get up, don't leave the mat.   Pick the jump rope up- don't stop doing double unders.   Step by step - I made it to the end.   Was it a record time?  No 18:57 is not a record time.    Was it a victory?   It was a huge mental victory for me.   So what did I learn... 

PRs don't always come from best times and higher weight!
Excuses can come in any form!  
My self doubt was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy!  I doubted myself so I almost made myself quit the workout
Everyone needs a coach!  Everyone has moments of weakness, and we all need that outside person to think clearly when you have a brain full of garbage. 
If you don't get close to failure are you really training hard enough?  

I am not sure if you will get anything out of this but this workout has definately improved my ability as a coach, to relate and empathize!