"New Training Block" w/ video filmed, edited, & read by Greg Lehman

New Training Block

or calendar

as lion,

growling agenda

in a cavernous heart,

stalking each day

we attune to the beat

of scaling up volume

by weeks, months,

and game day, pointed

at peak fitness,

then,

pouncing,

a strike

that might

land, catch,

pull down a time

sharp enough

to carve a new me

out of me,

gorging

on tempo pace

and new highs

on vertical gain,

a feast amid leaps

on loose stones,

a cold track,

more reps,

and the endless, gloriously

grueling framing

of road,

eating any temptation

to be reasonable,

the plan breathing

like a squall line,

an apex I study,

sleep next to,

eat, drink,

work beside

and stares back,

watching this vessel

to a low rumble

that asks what I’m doing

right now, always right

now, right

now,

and quick to snort

a wall-shaking chuckle

when I tell anyone

that I relax

sometimes,

that it’s a priority

at all, sure,

laughs the lion

I live with,

laughs even harder

anytime I forget

to stay loose

when I grab at his mane

with both hands,

the sound, the

fucking fury,

grappling with the non-option

of shying away,

and shakes where I live

through to the ground,

cracks concrete footing,

and must, absolutely

requires

full focus

as I

breathe, smile,

voracious,

bearing fangs,

famished,

nothing

tastier

than the fervor of losing

any line

on possessing

or being

possessed.