RAON — Fieldwork
PEOPLE / PRACTICE / PURPOSE
A MORE INTERESTING TOMORROW
FIELD INSTITUTE
FOR HUMAN CAPABILITY
SOUTH SALT LAKE, UTAH
QUESTION → PRACTICE → OBSERVATION → RECORD
RAON / FIELDWORK / 01–∞

FIELD
WORK

Training gives us somewhere to put a question where the body has to answer it. We train together, notice what happens, talk about it, try things and sometimes change our minds.

IDEASEXPERIENCESRESEARCHCONVERSATIONSPRACTICAL GUIDES
FIELD NOTES / ONGOING
TRAINING IS NOT JUST SOMETHING WE DO.
IT'S SOMEWHERE WE CAN LOOK.
WORKING PREMISE / NOT A MANIFESTO

THE PROGRAM IS
NOT THE WHOLE EVENT.

An optimized program can produce an adaptation. That does not necessarily mean it changes the person doing it.

Training is interpreted. It is social. It carries expectation, memory, attention, frustration, curiosity and meaning into the room. The physiology matters. So does the person experiencing it.

FIELDWORK STARTS THERE: NOT BY REJECTING PROGRAMMING, BUT BY ASKING WHAT PROGRAMMING LEAVES OUT.
01We train.

Real sessions. Real constraints. No laboratory costume required.

02We notice.

Something changes, surprises us, or refuses to fit the explanation.

03We talk.

Experience gets compared instead of immediately converted into doctrine.

04We test.

Sometimes the question deserves another session, a block, or six weeks.

05We revise.

Useful ideas survive contact with people. Others get edited or abandoned.

TRAINING / AS A SHARED ACTIVITY

DOING THE WORK
GIVES US THINGS
TO THINK ABOUT.

A session is not merely a delivery system for adaptation. It is also a place where people encounter uncertainty, effort, boredom, confidence, comparison, attention and choice.

THE SAME TASK CAN CREATE DIFFERENT PROBLEMS FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
THE SAME PERSON CAN MEET THE SAME TASK DIFFERENTLY ON A DIFFERENT DAY.
CURRENT FIELD STUDY / EN-DURANCE / 01

EN-
DURANCE

A STUDY OF STAYING WITH SOMETHING AFTER IT STOPS BEING INTERESTING.

Part essay, part training block, part group experiment. We are interested in what changes when duration stops being a number and becomes a problem of pacing, attention, discomfort, meaning and choice.

The sessions are real. The physiology matters. So does what happens to perception when the easy reasons to continue are gone.

SESSIONS
GROUP / FIELD
RECORDS
NOTES / DATA
OUTPUT
ESSAY / ATLAS
FIG. 07
STAYING WITH IT
CHANGES THE TERRAIN.
PERFORMANCE NOTES / OPINIONS WITH CONSEQUENCES

BETTER
IS SPECIFIC.

“Better” without context is almost meaningless. Adaptation has a target, a cost and a horizon. Good coaching begins by deciding which problem is actually worth solving.
ABETTER AT WHAT?
BFOR HOW LONG?
CUNDER WHICH CONDITIONS?
DFOR WHOM?
EAT THE EXPENSE OF WHAT?
PN / 01

YOUR HYROX CLASS IS PROBABLY TEACHING YOU TO SURVIVE HYROX CLASS.

Why mixed fatigue can feel specific while quietly replacing the strength, running economy and pacing work that would actually improve race performance.

ENDURANCE / STRENGTH / TRANSFER →
PN / 02

WHY STRENGTH PROGRAMS EVENTUALLY MAKE STRONG PEOPLE WEAK.

Not because strength stops working. Because one adaptation gets asked to carry too many jobs, fatigue becomes the program, and maintenance gets mistaken for stagnation.

STRENGTH / FATIGUE / LONG HORIZON →
PN / 03

THE TEST IS NOT THE ADAPTATION.

A benchmark can reveal something. Repeating it can also become a very efficient way to practice the benchmark instead of building the thing you hoped it represented.

MEASUREMENT / SKILL / PERFORMANCE →
HOW WE THINK / WITHOUT MAKING IT A RELIGION

BUILD.
TRANSFER.
EXPRESS.

The point is not to become excellent at our workouts. It is to become more capable outside them.

Training is an idiosyncratic experience. The body adapts, but a person also interprets. Each session passes through attention, expectation, history, sensation and social context before it becomes experience.

That is why we separate what we are building from where it should transfer and how it eventually gets expressed.

01Build the thing.Raise the limiter: tissue, energetic capacity, force, skill, tolerance or something less obvious.
02Move it into context.Change the terrain, information, pacing, partners or constraints and see what survives.
03Express it.Tests, races, hard sessions and ordinary life have value when there is something worth revealing.
04Remain revisable.The goal is not to win Thursday. It is to remain capable of becoming more capable.
THE WORKOUT DOES NOT SIMPLY CAUSE THE EXPERIENCE.
ATTENTION
EXPECTATION
INTERPRETATION
EFFORT
BEHAVIOR
EXPERIENCE
OPEN QUESTIONS / CURRENTLY FOLLOWING

NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS AN ANSWER YET.

Q / 01Why does ten minutes feel different when you know how long it will last?TIME / EXPECTATION
Q / 02What makes effort feel voluntary?EFFORT / CHOICE
Q / 03Why does novelty sometimes increase output and sometimes destroy it?ATTENTION / SKILL
Q / 04What happens when you remove the clock?PERCEPTION / ENDURANCE
Q / 05Why does training with other people change what feels possible?SOCIAL / CAPACITY
Q / 06Can someone become fitter without becoming more capable?TRANSFER / LIFE
FIELDWORK ARCHIVE / THINGS WORTH KEEPING

FROM THE NOTEBOOK.

ESSAYS / GUIDES / STUDIES / CONVERSATIONS →
STUDY / 001

EN-DURANCE

STAYING WITH SOMETHING AFTER IT STOPS BEING INTERESTING.

PRACTICAL GUIDE / 014

HOW TO FUCKING SLEEP

LIGHT / TIMING / TEMPERATURE / BEHAVIOR / RECOVERY.

ESSAY / 022

WHEN MORE INFORMATION MAKES TRAINING WORSE

INSTRUCTION / ATTENTION / PROBLEM SOLVING.

FIELDWORK / NEVER REALLY FINISHED

BETTER QUESTIONS.
BETTER TRAINING.
BETTER PEOPLE.

TRAIN → NOTICE → DISCUSS → TEST → REVISE →
RAON
SOUTH SALT LAKE, UTAHFIELDWORK / ATLAS / ARCHIVE / OBJECTS / TRAINTRAIN / INVESTIGATE / RECORD