To get in on the March drawing, you need to head over to Curly Su’s blog before the end of the day on February 29.

If you don’t get the book for March, don’t fret. You still have plenty of chances since we’re running this through June.

Not sure what the book is about? You can read my review of “Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior,” or keep your eyes peeled for Curly Su’s review which is due any day now.

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On Monday, I wrote about a semi-fictional scenario where a runner is about to be attacked by some local dumbasses. In that article, I introduced Condition Orange, which is one of the four colors of Col. Jeff Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness, now commonly referred to as the Color Code of Awareness.

What is the Code? In short, it describes various states of mental awareness to your environment. You’ll find the term bandied about in the self-defense community as preludes to a fight. In my 24 years as a martial artist I’ve come across several versions of the Code, but, before I show you why you should give a shit as an endurance athlete, let me share Cooper’s original version with you.

Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness

• Condition White: In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
• Condition Yellow: In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
• Condition Orange: In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
• Condition Red: In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.

Hak’s Color Code of Awareness
I don’t take credit for what is to follow. It is an amalgamation of concepts I’ve learned from my instructors, colleagues, students and direct experience. Let’s see how we can adapt the Code to the endurance athlete from Monday’s story.

• Condition White (Duh?): This is the condition most of us live in 80 percent of the time. Were you ever so engrossed in a book or TV program that you tuned out the outside world? That is Condition White. You don’t have a friggin’ clue what’s going on around you. You are focused on the endless inner chatter of your brain. This is the driver yakking on his cell phone who sideswipes the car next to him because he didn’t see it move into the lane. It’s the woman fumbling with her car keys, worrying about her to-do list, not noticing the guy walking up behind her in the parking lot. It’s our endurance athlete zoning out to her iPod, mostly unaware of her immediate environment. The only place to be in Condition White is in your own home.

• Condition Yellow (Relaxed Awareness): This is the condition where we should be. You are not paranoid that the mailman is going to go, well, postal on you. You simply pay attention to your environment. You note to youself, “Hey, there’s the mailman.” Sounds simple, right? It’s very difficult to do in practice. Later on, I’ll share some exercises that should help you develope this situational awareness. For our driver, he’s put his cell phone away and is noticing the traffic in a 360-circle of awareness and his relationship to that traffic…vehicular and pedestrian.Our parking lot lady has her car key already in hand and notices that there is a guy loitering two rows down from her car.The runner has unplugged from her iPod and is continuously scanning her environment. From Monday’s story, she notices the white sedan drive by, slow down and park ahead of her.My friends, when you walk out your front door, you’d better be in Condition Yellow.

• Condition Orange (Possible Uh-Oh Ahead): Here is where life has the potential to get very interesting for you. Something, or someone, has now popped up on your radar as having the capability of causing you grief. It may never happen, but it’s presenting enough of a concern that you start focusing your attention in its direction.The driver notices an oncoming car nudging out in the median to make a turn in front of him. Is that car a potential threat? You betcha.As our parking lot lady walks to her car, she notices the loiterer starts walking on what appears to be an intercept course. Does he want to give her a car detailing coupon or stick a knife in her face and grab her wallet? Either way, he is now a person of interest.The iPod runner sees four men exit the white sedan and start walking her way. They could care less about her or they may have something more sinister in mind.With Condition Orange, you’ve gone from active observation (Condition Yellow) to focused attention. This is a great time to start running “what if” scenarios in your mind. What if the car pulls a left turn in front of me? I should move over a lane to give myself some more space. What if the parking lot guy is after me? I’ll make a hard right turn and head toward another row to see if he follows me. What if the guys from the white sedan are up to no good? I’ll cross the street to see if they alter their direction.By running these scenarios before they happen, you will have options. If someone does A, then I do B. It’s not if someone does A, I’m a fucked over deer in the headlights with my last thought on Earth being “This can’t be happening to me.”
• Condition Red (This is Going to Hurt): It is now enevitable that you, and/or your new friend, is going to get fucked up. Do you walk away from the incident with your honor intact or do you get a county-paid trip to the morgue? The car that looked like it was going to make a left turn in front of you does. The guy following you in the parking lot follows your change of direction and picks up his pace. Likewise, the white car gang crosses the street to follow you. This is the point where you take evasive action or if you’re ballsy, and can back it up, postive offensive action.

• Condition Black (Can I Survive?): You are now in the thick of the fight. The starting gun has fired. Our driver has hit the car that pulled out in front of him. The parking lot lady is fighting off the mugger. The iPod runner is putting her Nikes to good use and is hauling ass away from the bad guys who are in hot pursuit. Or, perhaps she is putting her C2 to good use or is using her BGBG stick to unleash holy hell on anyone scumbag within arm’s reach. No matter what it is, you want to do your best to never, ever, be in Condition Black. Ever.

The time it takes to go from Condition White to Condition Black could be the snap of a finger or minutes. You just never know. I do know that it takes longer to move from Condition White and orient yourself to what’s going on in your world. This is why I, along with others, advocate flipping on your Condition Yellow switch anytime you leave your home.

You can see how these ramped up states of awareness can not only help you avoid trouble in the first place, they also help speed up your decision-making ability in times of a crisis. Hell, the Color Code of Awareness doesn’t even need to be used for self-defense. Use it to identify hazards on the mountain bike trail or the next time you sit behind the wheel of a car.

A special message for the Pink Pony Brigade
I realize that there are some folks who have bothered to read this far and think I’m full of paranoid shit. You’ve probably never been threatened in your life (by human, animal or inanimate object) and believe the world would a better place if everyone had a pink pony. If so, then please explain that to Meredith Emerson, this Scottish teenage jogger, this Kansas runner, or this jogger from Bloomington (note that these are all recent).

Better yet, why not take Richard Gillmore out for a cup of coffee and a moonlight jog to discuss how his “problems” could be resolved by a pink pony.

After the Virginia Tech shootings last year, one of our local academics went on the air to say we should focus our resources on why the crazies commit crimes. Focusing on defending ourselves or improving security was a waste of time to this genius.

To the Pink Pony Brigade and the academic thinkers who live in the fifth Color Code Condition, Condition Brown (head up their ass), perhaps the “black box” concept might be a useful analogy.

Let’s say you have a black box and on top of that black box is a switch. Every time you flip that switch, the box will zap you with 20 volts.

What’s in the box? Maybe it’s a battery-powered motor. Perhaps a nuclear generator. Could even be one of the Invisible Mole People running around in Saran-Wrap slippers on a tiny piece of shag carpet to zap you with a mega-dose of static electricity.

It doesn’t matter what’s inside does it? Throw the switch and you get shocked.

Let’s use your imagination and transfer that analogy to someone trying to cause you harm. What’s inside this person? Is he the product of a broken home? A member of a disenfranchised community? Or did he simply forget to take his medication the day he decided your iPod was more valuable than your life?

Again, does it matter?

The point is this: Unless you turn off that switch, you’re going to get hurt.

How to improve your awareness
My goal is not to scare the piss out of you with gloom and doom scenarios and have you believing that there are rapists behind every bush on your running trail. There aren’t.

But, sometimes one freak might be lurking there waiting for you to obviously jog as you zone out to your iPod.

Your best bet is to learn to be in Condition Yellow. Again, don’t be afraid of the Bogey Man. Just avoid Condition Brown and acknowledge that he exists. Our job is not to fix his problems, but to keep him from mingling his fucked up world from messing with our happy one.

Here’s a simple exercise to get you started:

1. While you’re sitting here reading this, stop and listen. If you’re at work, listen for the conversations going on down the hall. Who’s talking? Can you hear the hum of the flourescent lights or your computer fan? What can you smell? Stop reading this and do it right now. What did you notice?
2. When you leave your house, or work, and walk to your car, notice who else is in the parking lot. What are they doing? Do they notice you are there? Bonus points if you can identify any bird by sound.

Mentally note everything…and move on. Don’t fixate. Just scan and move.

Martial arts instructor extraordinaire, ninjitsu practioner, Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, and of course, fellow Miami University alumnus, Stephen Hayes, used to encourage his students to increase their environmental awareness with a series of morning drills. Every day for one week, you use one sense (hearing, touch, smell, taste and sight) to check out your immediate environment. Upon waking, don’t move. Just lay in bed with your eyes closed and listen for a few minutes to the world around you. It’s amazing what you will hear.

The next week, use your sense of taste. Don’t lick the bedpost, but just lay there and open your mouth. Taste the air.

It’s a fascinating exercise.

Note to the remaining members of the Pink Pony Brigade who are still with me: Click the Stephen Hayes link and note who he is sitting next to in the photo. Yes, my hippy friends, even the Dalai Lama needs protection from his fellow mankind.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

p.s. I’m setting up an interview with a personal protection guru to see if we can get some valuable advice to share with you on your outdoor journeys. My goal is not to teach you the dim mak death touch, but to use some common sense that you may not be carrying with you all of the time.

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If I asked you to name the top five legends in the sport of triathlon, chances are Mark Allen will be on that list. Allen completed a 15-year career in the world of elite athletics with a 90 percent top-three finish record, going undefeated in 20 races between 1988 and 1990. He was named “Triathlete of the Year” six times and after retiring in 1996 was called “The World’s Fittest Man” by Outside magazine.

What cemented Allen in the annals of endurance sports history, however, was his epic battles with the iconic Dave Scott at the Ironman world championship in Kona. After six years of defeat, Allen was finally able to turn the tables on Scott and go on to win his first of six consecutive world championships.

Was it his training, nutrition, bike, or even shoes, that made him finally pull it together to beat Dave Scott? Ask Allen and he’ll tell you it was his belief in shamanism that made the crucial difference.

I keep finding myself running into Mark Allen and his spirituality in rather oblique ways. We’ve never met face-to-face, but my life intersects with those who do know him and have sought his counsel. The stories of their encounters with Allen, when taken in total, paint a picture of a quiet, humble man who dispense nuggets of wisdom. In other words, he seems to be a guy who just has it dialed in…and someone I’d like to know more about and perhaps, one day soon, have a chat about life and triathlon over a bottle of a sports performance beverage.

1) Question: How would you describe Shamanism to someone who is not familiar with this belief?

Allen: Shamanism is a fairly broad term, and each tribe or culture that practices it has their specific beliefs and methods of using shamanism in their daily lives. I have practiced Huichol Indian Shamanism since 1990 under the teaching of Brant Secunda. Huichol Shamanism is very simple on the surface, but very powerful and deep at the same time. In the broadest definition it would be honoring all of life through ceremony, pilgrimages to places of power in nature, and prayer. It is a way of connecting with the elemental powers such as the fire, the sun, the earth, and the ocean in a way that both brings transformation and energy to one’s life but also helps keep all of life in balance, which is certainly something that humans as a whole are failing miserably in at the moment.

One way I have described the experience of shamanism is to recall a place in nature such as a mountain peak, or a beautiful lake or the ocean when you had that feeling “Wow! Look at that!” In that moment where you are just overcome by the beauty of the place you have made a connection with it, and in that moment you forget that you owe money on your credits cards or that your job in not fulfilling or whatever else might be bugging you, and you just feel good. Shamanism helps people to have that experience but in a more predictable and sustainable way. It is what I used to be able to go to the Big Island of Hawaii, which is certainly a very powerful place, and feel at home and to be able to really have the race I had tried to have for some many years prior to making a connection with the Huichols and Brant Secunda.

2) Question: Do you see your involvement with shamanism as playing a role in the mental training of the athlete or the spiritual? Or is it both?

Allen: Both, and really there is such a strong connection between physical, mental and spiritual that they cannot really be separated if you want to address total fitness. But unfortunately, most people only look at the physical and very few look at the mental component and only a small number even come close to addressing the spiritual element and how that can affect performance.

3) Question: What led to your involvement with Shamanism and your decision to integrate it with your triathlon training and racing?

Allen: The moment that this happened was in 1989. I had raced the Ironman six times with everything from mediocre to disastrous results. Dave Scott was winning. I was falling apart. I could outrace him everywhere else in the world, but not in Hawaii. Prior to the Ironman that year in 1989 I saw an ad for a workshop that Brant was going to be leading along with his teacher and adopted grandfather Don Jose Matsuwa. There were pictures of both men in the ad. They both had a look on their face that was peaceful yet very powerful. It captured my attention for just a moment. But I had not heard of shamanism or the Huichols before and just kind of kept flipping through the magazine.

Well, around the half marathon point with 13 miles to go in the race, Dave Scott and I were in the lead and on a pace that was going to set a new world record. The problem was that he felt great and I was fading. At the moment Dave was trying to surge and break me as he had always done Don Jose’s image came back to me and I was filled with this energy or life force. From that point forward I just got stronger and stronger, and went on to win the first of six titles at the Ironman.

That’s the short version of the story, but safe to say I would not have won the race without Don Jose. Shortly after that I met Brant and started to study with him. He became the conduit for me begin to learn and practice Huichol Shamanism. I really took up the practice after meeting Brant because it is such a beautiful tradition and he is an incredible teacher. But in the end because so much of my efforts were going into my racing, that was where the insights and strength I was gaining from studying with him were most noticeable at least in an outward way.

4) Question: Many endurance athletes focus their energies on the physical aspects of training. How far do I run, bike, swim, snowshoe, etc.? What should I be eating? What kind of strength training should I do? Yet, few seem to have the interest in turning inward and examining the “softer” side of their training. As a coach, why do you think athletes are indifferent, or perhaps even reluctant, to shift their focus in this internal direction?

Allen: I have asked myself this question frequently because I don’t see very many athletes actually doing any kind of internal or spiritual practice as one of their standard training tools. Yet, everyone knows that when the gun goes off that the internal dialogue and internal state of emotions, thoughts, feelings, perceptions (whether based on reality or not) will all affect the performance. In simpler terms, everyone knows that no matter how fit they are they could choke and have a bad race.

The only answer that I have been able to come up with is that first, on some level athletes know that taking up this kind of practice will force them to actually look at who they are as people and see themselves with a deeper level of truth. This is never pleasant, no matter how much we want to be “together’ as a person, we all know that there are weaknesses lurking inside or things about ourselves that can be hidden until we are in a desperate situation (like a tough race) when truth reveals itself.

It’s much easier to do another 400 on the track than to ask ourselves “What is it about me as a person that might be holding me back from the success I am after?” Self reflection is tough, but ultimately the best tool to free one’s self to experience perfection in whatever endeavor we are pursuing. And for an athlete this means having that great race where everything works as it should.

5) Question: If an athlete were interested in starting to incorporate a spiritual component in their training, how would they go about doing so?

Allen: The best way is to find someone who has had a very positive experience with a method or path and give it a try yourself. Another is to just keep searching for something that really draws you toward it. The problem is that there are many people out in the world of self-help who really are not very together themselves even though they are trying to tell others how to improve their lives. So it can be tricky.

I was very lucky to find Brant and the Huichol tradition. He is very traditional in the way he teaches, and he has earned the right to teach what he does. He went through a 12-year apprenticeship to learn how to do the healings and lead ceremonies in the Huichol Indian way.

He and I teach a workshop together that addresses many of the things that athletes and people of all levels of fitness and spiritual development are looking for. It is called Fit Body Fit Soul. We are teaching it twice a year in 2007 here in the US. It addresses health, fitness and well-being on many different levels. I talk about training, nutrition, and tell many of the stories of integrating the worlds of Sport and Spirit together from my years of learning from Brant and having him be such an integral part of my success in triathlons.

He teaches Huichol practices for healing your body, heart and spirit as well as ways to live in harmony with yourself and the earth. These may sound like things that have nothing to do with athletics. But think about it, the most powerful performances come when we have the right balance in our training and when we feel centered or balanced within ourselves. The opposite of this would be if one is fearful or angry or unclear. This is certainly not a good way to improve your performance. But being balanced and doing the right kind of training is.

You can find more about these workshops at: www.shamanism.com/workshops.html. We have one in Austin, Texas November 9-11, and another in Santa Cruz, California November 30-December 2.

6) Question: Do you believe that your spiritual beliefs, particularly as you connect them with athletics, has led to more mainstream media and athletes marginalizing your work?

Allen: Well, I have met with the entire spectrum of reactions from others when I discuss shamanism and sports in the same breath. I usually fish around to see what level of reaction I might get from it. At first I actually didn’t say much if anything about studying with Brant or how that had been such a huge part of how I did what I did. But by not saying much I also felt like I was in a sense lying about how I won…lying by omission. So now I just talk about it and if people do like it or think I’m a bit nuts, that’s their problem not mine.

I often acknowledge that in the Western world there is almost no paradigm for having an understanding of the connection between Sport and Spirit, but that in other cultures you would be questioned as being a bit off if you did NOT make this connection and that you are not considered “normal” unless you do have visions or mystical experiences. Certainly studying shamanism is not going to be for everyone, even though it is actually a way of life that every single culture had in the beginning.

But the other side many people who have interviewed me have portrayed my experiences in a very positive light. On some level they get it. Athletes are the same way. There have been a lot of people who have come to our seminars who tell me that they heard my stories for many years but never really got what it was that I talked about, but that suddenly it kind of made sense and that they really wanted to have an experience of making that connection between sports and a spiritual approach.

7) Question: As we move into autumn, the triathlon season is coming to an end for many age groupers. A few big Ironman events were just held and for many, that marks the successful completion of their goal. I’ve noticed a trend where athletes often get a case of post-season depression and a sense of “Now what?” The lure of heading out for long rides or runs, or even getting into the pool at 5 a.m., has vaporized. Is this an opportunity to focus within?

Allen: It is more an opportunity to discover one’s self worth outside of a race result. If feeling good is dependent on racing, there is often something deeper that is not really being satisfied or met. The depression can come from too much importance placed on racing. It can come from having tapped into an avenue of exploring personal perfection (something deeply satisfying to pursue), but something that the person may not be doing in their job or other areas of life outside of training and racing. It can be from living a bit of a fantasy that has ended and now they have to do more of the mundane tasks that afford them the time and resources to train.

I always looked at the off season as a time where I could attend to all the things that got put on hold during the racing season. This is a way to keep things in balance in the big picture of one’s life. If you have a family, they most likely got shortchanged on your time and energy at points in the year. Now is a good time to put that energy back in and give up some of the training.

8) Question: If someone wanted to start working toward a better balance between sport and spirit, what is the one thing they could start doing right now?

Allen: The first step is to acknowledge that peak performance is more than just numbers in a log book, and that developing one’s spirit (who they are as a person) is just as important to being a complete athlete as the intervals they do in training.

Do something that stretches you on a non-physical level, that has nothing to do with swim, bike or run, but that could mean everything to your success at doing just that. As I mentioned I co-teach a workshop with Brant Secunda that addresses both Sport and Spirit. We have two coming up soon. One is at The Crossing in Austin, Texas on November 9-11 and the second in Santa Cruz, California on November 30-December 2. You can get more information and sign up by going to: www.shamanism.com/workshops.html and scrolling down to “Fit Body Fit Soul.”

For more information on Mark Allen, or to learn about his various coaching programs, go to www.markallenonline.com.

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