On The Leash: Borrowed Truth
“On the Leash” is a recurring series within the oyo.run podcast that examines control structures, power dynamics, and constraints that shape runners and their training.
What is a leash? A constraint, a limiter; something that impacts your freedom - of movement, of control, choice. This series will continue to point at this one fundamental insight: “we don’t get to choose whether we have leashes - the question is whether we can see them operating and work with them consciously:’ These leashes are everywhere, some we are painfully cognizant of, others are hidden & less obvious. The most challenging are the ones we are not even aware of.
& this is the motivation behind my decision to highlight the idea of truth as the first leash in the series. For many listeners this leash will fall into the category of unexamined leashes.
& speaking of unexamined, this is the whole point.
Borrowed Truth may be the Ultimate Leash
The Setup
- How do you know what you know? How do you know that what you hold to be true is actually true?
- Many truths present as clarity, conviction, knowing yourself — but it's almost always someone else's map: we can’t actually know so many things about our reality & we are dependent on experts for so much of what we know about our world.
- It’s important to borrow truths in many cases. Take something as basic as the earth being round or flat. Most of us haven’t seen the earth from space, we have no direct personal experience of the earth being round. We’ve seen photos, satellite images, models, globes, the mathematical proofs, etc. But your knowing is still borrowed. & thank god it is because there is too much to know! Too many amazing things!
- But it is unacceptable in relation to our own inner experience, especially in relation to a person’s values & worldview. You are operating as if certain things are true & it is important for the effective & efficient operation of your nervous system to have these be as clear & clean as possible. This is how we stay safe.
- But in a race, do you know what’s true? Under duress, under the stress of what the race requires, can you ask yourself what is true & be able to function enough to regulate your breath, to relax & make decisions?
- Why don’t you ask? Ask the question "what is true in, of, for me?" cuts through the noise
- Body answers immediately and honestly — if you're listening
- Truth lives in blood, bones, breath — in your specific relationship to ground
- The nervous system opens toward truth, closes toward untruth
- This isn't mysticism — every runner has felt both states
- Open toward truth with that simple question: Is this true? Is it true in me? Of me? For me?
- You must practice this however. Don’t expect the question to take you far if you haven’t worked with truth in practice, in training, in lower stakes races.
- Your nervous system is hardwired to keep you safe & if asked about your truth when you are under fire, it will likely laugh at best; & shut you down at worst.
The Invitation
- Your truth is non-exportable — and so is everyone else's
- Your truth is non-importable - no one can know for you
- Self-coaching is permission to treat your own experience as primary source
- Getting faster is the side effect — knowing is the point
You must realize that the journey of self-coaching is one’s unique, idiosyncratic pursuit of your own truth. The truth living in your blood & bones, pumped as air through your lungs, felt as power & fatigue in your relation to ground.
This is what we do it for, ultimately.
Sure, we want to get faster.
But we really want to know: know what we are made of, what we can withstand, what we are here on this planet to experience.
& what we learn is our truth. It's not borrowed, it's an authentically earned truth.
Don’t let your truths go unexamined, lest they not hold water.
If it’s real, it can take the pressure. & please remember, what is your truth is not meant for others to experience. They have their own truth to explore.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.