You create this version of yourself.
If you don’t like the “version” you have become or if there are aspects that you think need improvement, then there is good news: You are malleable.
You can change the version of yourself.
Create some better habits, strive towards a new and better you. You know what’s right or wrong for you; you know whats healthy and what’s unhealthy.
But you have to do it. No one is going to do it for you.
Change your mind about failure.
Failure is a good thing. It means you are trying something. It means you are in the arena fighting rather than spectating.
Failure is the only way to grow something. Its a cycle; a process. Try something, fail at it, determine why it failed, try again.
You WILL fail at anything worth learning. In fact it’s the way; the path to learning something new.
I always tell my students that “Failure is just a First Attempt In Learning.” That’s all it is. It’s not bad or something you should feel shame about. It’s simply a tool to help you accomplish whatever it is that you want to accomplish.
Failure is uncomfortable only because we’ve been raised in an environment that does not promote it.
But you know what else is uncomfortable? Growth. Any growth. Growth is a shaky, awkward, painful process. Growth is difficult. Growth takes repeating the failure cycle over and over and over again. Growth is the opposite of “hacking”, it knows no shortcuts. It is hard work.
This is why so many people shy away from growth as they age. They get comfortable in their habits. They repeatedly take the EASY PATH. They stop growing because they stop failing. They stop failing because they stopped creating opportunities to fail. They stop creating opportunities to fail because they become complacent.
Do NOT get hung up on the path of complacency; this path of stagnation. It is a path that will ultimately lead to an unfulfilled life.
Take risks, try something new, purposefully fail. Accept that personal growth is going to be difficult. Accept that failures will happen; that obstacles are expected and embraced (another reminder hanging in the front of my classroom- from The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday)
Accept that the cycle of failure is the path towards personal growth.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. This blog is an attempt at something new for me. An attempt to overcome certain fears I have about sharing my ideas publicly. I appreciate each and every one of you!
Be aware of the fuel you are putting in your body.
Are you getting enough? Too much? The right kind?
Is it the right fuel to help you accomplish your athletic goals?
One thing that has always bugged me was the idea of “you run a bunch so you can eat whatever you want!”
That is completely wrong. Trust me I’ve tried. When I run a bunch AND eat like crap my body hurts…badly. When I run a bunch and eat a clean and healthy diet my body feels damn good!
Right now I’m in the down time between big race #1 and training for big race #2 (the serious training starts in March) and this weekend I let myself gorge on birthday cake, oatmeal cream pies, chips and dip, french fries, and pizza. At the time it was wonderful and I’m a big proponent in not being unbelievably strict ALL THE TIME (helps keep the sanity).
But, as a result I feel really sluggish this morning. If I continued down the route of “eat whatever the hell you want” then workouts will be more challenging, I will wake up much more sore, and I will probably get sick a lot easier.
So while I’m training hard it’s actually EASIER to eat healthy because I know my body needs FUEL.
The Holiday Lake 50k is 2 days away! On Saturday I’m going to be freezing, exhausted, and sore, but more importantly I’m going to meet up with an old friend…Pizza. The meeting will be brief. So brief in fact that I will probably not even recall inhaling this beautiful piece of food, but by golly it’s going to taste FANTASTIC!
Three weeks ago I gave up pizza, ON PURPOSE, with the sole purpose of giving myself a reward to look forward to during the race.
My mental plan of attack:
Whether you are training for a marathon, an Ultra or even something crazy like a obstacle race or adventure race, one day you will glance at your training calendar and spot these dreaded words: LONG RUN.
The long run. The day of training that simultaneously has the time consumption of race day and none of the excitement. The absence of good vibes makes this something to power through. You won’t be out there with hundreds of other racers…you will be alone. There will be no gunshot (or one of my favorite parts of ultras the announcement of “go whenever the hell you want, it’s going to take you literally HOURS to finish ha ha ha”). Delicious Aid Station treats and spectators are non-existent.
During your long run YOU have to rely on pure IRON WILL to get your butt out of bed and spend the next few hours punishing yourself…on PURPOSE!! Continue reading
New Year, New athletic goals.
First goal as per usual = get outside as much as possible. I had an amazing morning recently running up two of the best trails near Roanoke Virginia. (Seriously, if you wanna experience some of the best views the Appalachian Trail has to offer, hike up McCaffee Knob and the Dragon’s Tooth)
I started trail running in June of 2013 when my wife and I moved to southern Virginia. I left behind a town that I loved (Des Moines, Iowa), a job that I loved, and many friends whom I loved. The saving grace behind this move was that our new town had 25 miles of mountain bike single track course! I made learning how to trail run my main objective (behind finding a job, renting a nice house, and meeting nice people…you know all that boring adult crap).
Up until that point, I had known trails only through hiking; the lone time I had run on one was to escape sudden death at the end of a 17 mile hike through the mountains of Colorado. I had researched the benefits of trail running and had read Born to Run (the book that apparently every ultrarunner everywhere has read…for good reason. The book kicks major ass!) and the idea of trail running very much intrigued me.
A few days after settling into Virginia I tied up my shoes and headed out to Angler’s Park our local mountain bike course. Continue reading
Why do we like running extremely long distances? Is it so we can look suffering in the face, flip it off, and keep pounding anyways? Is it so we can understand our own physicality and remind ourselves that our “limits” are imagined and really we can push ourselves WAY beyond their confines? Or is it because we are kinda sorta psychopaths?
These were some of the questions running through my head around mile 27 after a long morning of running up a mountain in pouring down rain and 30 degree temperatures. My body was drenched due to shoddy raincoat manufacturing and my hands were borderline-frostbitten. By all rights I should have been absolutely miserable. I should have been questioning every decision that I had made in life that led me to this stupid a$$ mountain in this stupid a$$ race. But I wasn’t, I had a goofy grin on my face. I was in the middle of Linville Gorge in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the midst of December and I was loving it!
Every race will teach you something new. In our lives, we learn the most from the kick-you-in-the-teeth moments, the moments you have to buckle down, face adversity and let resilience shine through you. Continue reading
Running is hard. Lifting weights is hard. Yoga is hard. Sitting around, binge-watching entire seasons of TV shows is easy. Exercise in general can be challenging, particularly if you are just starting to get back into shape.
You will be uncomfortable. You are contorting your body, putting pressure on your joints, discovering muscles in places you didn’t think possible, and quite literally tearing your body down so it can rebuild itself. This is especially true starting out. This is why it is so damn hard to stick with an exercise routine that is new to you.
The first few weeks will be uncomfortable. You will wonder “what the hell am I doing?” over and over again. This is where being cool with being uncomfortable comes into play. Continue reading
Eliminate Excuses
If “workout” is on your to do list for the day, it has to get checked off. Too often, we find ourselves making up reasons not to complete our goals.
“Something came up.”
“I had to ________________________ so I just could not find the time.”
“I’m just not in the mood.”
All these excuses sound exactly the same: “I don’t want to.”
Now is the time to put the excuses away. Man-up or Woman-up and get your heart pumping. Continue reading
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