Start of the season - and the power of the unconscious.

Started the competition season on Sunday, had a really good day.  Won the hose and ladder 5s and got 5th in the Y8.  Also substituted into the A class side for their Y8 and won that with them - first and 5th in the same event, not bad! :)  And my ladder race time was only 0.19 seconds behind the PB I set at the state championships in March, which is good for this early in the season.

Even more significant that this is what's been happening in the 4s.  Late last year, I was moved from the front of the cart to the back to get more speed off the start.  This season, we've all been swapping positions, and last Monday at training, the first run was with me on the back, which worked reasonably well, except the guy on pole was pushed around a bit by the unbalanced forces on the back.  The next run, I was put back on the front.  This time, the cart was even faster, and for much of the run I was pulling it pretty much single handedly, according to those who were on the back.  We stuck with this arrangement on Sunday, again with similar results.  It seems sometime in the last couple of weeks, my unconscious mind has completely reprogrammed how I pull the cart, giving me considerably more power, and enabling us to go around 10% faster - around the same speed as our A class team.  The change was sudden, like it didn't happen until this "reprogramming" was complete, then it caught everyone off guard.  I have had similar quantum leaps of performance since my teens, but it's only recently that I'm starting to understand what's going on.  The mysteries of the autistic mind never cease to amaze.  Now to find more efficient ways to harness the unconscious power within.  This is only the tip of the iceberg of what's possible. :)