Controlled Chaos

The ORXC Team regrouping after a tough Ladder workout in Centennial Park

Building Champions Through Challenge

By the time October rolls around, fitness isn’t what separates good teams from great ones. We’ve spent months building strength, endurance, and speed, but championships are won by athletes willing to take risks, trust their teammates, and push past their limits.

That’s why, in the weeks leading into championship season, we bring in what I like to call “controlled chaos.” These are workouts designed not just to test the body, but to test the mind. We purposely make them hard enough that athletes feel nervous days before, anxious at the start, and challenged in ways they’ve never been before. It mirrors the very feeling they’ll face at the start line of a big race: excitement, nerves, and the unknown.

During these “See the Face of God” workouts, something important happens. Some runners will fall off early, realizing they’ve panicked more than they’ve truly hit their limit. Others will dig in, embrace the fire, and discover that they can keep going long after their brain tells them to quit. Just like in the final mile of a 5k, when their legs are burning and the lungs are screaming, the choice is there: shut down, or rise up. And every time an athlete chooses to keep fighting, they’re rewriting what they believe is possible.

The beauty of these workouts is what comes after. Most athletes finish saying the same thing: “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” The fear they initially carried turns into confidence by the end. They learn that fatigue is not the finish line, it’s just the doorway to the next level of toughness.

That’s the goal of this stage of the season: not only to sharpen our fitness, but to sharpen our belief. To show our runners they are capable of more than they ever imagined, especially when they lean on their teammates and commit to going through the fire together.

When athletes buy into this mindset, amazing things happen. And that’s when championships are won, not just on race day, but in the weeks leading up to it, when the cream rises to the top.