How to think about the 'long effort'

Making it fit into your life

It’s important to challenge yourself in training

Being physically fit is important for its own sake. Being healthy and moving well are worthy ends to aim at. But sports speak deeply to our spirits. How do we engage that part of us in excerise?

That’s the question that drives my study of sports in theory and practice.

But what is the spirit and how do we tap into it?

Here’s the basic framework I use to understand body, mind, and spirit in connection with eacother

• The Body → MOVES

• The Mind → THINKS

• The Spirit → WILLS

In this framing the spirit is the part of us that is irrational. When the cost benefit analysis of the mind and body say to quit, stop, turn around, go no further, the spirit rises up and says “NOT TODAY, I WILL KEEP MOVING FORWARD”

The famous ultra runner David Goggins teaches the lesson like this: Your mind tells you to quit when you’ve only given 40% of what your body is capable of.

The body helps the mind with real pain and discomfort that you can’t ignore. So it’s the spirit that kicks into action and helps us realize that final 60% of our potential.

So when thinking about our training we need to plan accordingly to exercise our spirit in addition to our minds and bodies.

This is where the ‘long effort’ comes in.

Why the ‘long effort’?

Before diving into what a long effort might look like let’s first take the time to hammer home WHY we need the long effort.

We’re all busy. We have tons of responsibilites and obligations. Busy lives at work, running around at home staying on top of the kids and house duties, social and familial obligations on top of all of that, plus we want time to workout and develop ourselves. Who the heck has TIME for a long effort anyways?

That’s why it’s important to go after the WHY first. If you don’t have a strong enough ‘why’ then it’s not a big enough priority for you to make the necessary sacrifices to fit that long effort into your schedule.

The long effort is your time to go after it without worrying about the external world. A place where you can shut off the distractions that bombard you every day of the week. It’s a sanctuary of effort, progress, and passion.

I love running at sunrise but during the week I need to be home in case the kids wake up early but also so I can help get them fed and ready for the day. I’m not going to abandon my wife at such a high leverage point in our daily schedule. But one day a week I NEED to be out running with the sun.

When I’m out in nature and feel that rising energy of the day break it fuels me to take on all the adversity and overcome all the distractions for the rest of the week.

The long effort fuels my spirit. That’s why I need it. That’s why you need it too.

What is the ‘long effort’?

When thinking about a long effort it’s important to keep it relative to you and your training goals. Don’t judge yourself based on others.

There’s no scientific definition of the ‘long effort’ that I’m going to point to.

I want this to be an artistic expression, not an objective requirement.

Here’s how I think you can conceive of the long effort for yourself.

“In a perfect world without external responsibilites how long would you like to spend doing the physical activity/exercise that you LOVE.”

This is your starting point.

When you use this framing it’s clear that a long effort is both personal and sport specific.

If I’m a golfer who plays rounds that take 4-6 hours I might answer “Having 2 hours at the range just to practice would be amazing”

If I’m a trail runner who can only fit in 40 minute runs during the week I might answer “Having the ability to run for at least as long as I do in the short runs combined in one big effort on the weekend would fire me up”

Spoiler, I’m both the golfer and the trail runner here. But I think you get the point.

You’re likely thinking of what that long effort looks like for you right now. Imagination and creativity are your friends in this process. Remember, its an effort for YOU.

But here’s the difficulty. Just because we can identify the activity, how long we’d like to lose ourselves in it, and where we need to experience it doesn’t mean it’s a realistic fit for our busy lives.

This is the difficult balancing act we all struggle against. But if you have a strong enough why, or WILL, it’s not as hard to find the way to make it real.

How do you plan for it?

First off: The Long Effort is not an excuse to get out of your obligations

I’ve made this mistake many times.

Going out for a long trail and coming home to lie on the couch because I ‘earned’ the rest. But that just leaves a giant hole in my responsibilites. I’m running away from them.

This isn’t the best way to use exercise and you won’t be going on many long efforts if the people who rely on you see it as a way to skirt your responsibilities to them.

So if we need these long efforts we have to make up the time throughout the week.

Secondly: The Long Effort should energize you to take on your responsibilites

We are filling up our spirits when we engage in the challenge of the long effort. We should return invigorated and ready to show up even more than when we left to take on that long effort challenge.

These two points are fundamental to making the long effort a positive part of your family’s weekly schedule.

Here’s how you start to plan for the long effort

Talk with your spouse or partner about the time you need for yourself.

Offer to trade other parts of time on the schedule to make up for the time you’re taking away for yourself.

If you need 2 hours in the gym on the weekend give back 30 minutes 4 times during the week to make up for it (easy example)

This makes sure you enter the week on the same page and have a fair plan in place.

But it’s not just the front end that matters. It’s how you show up after the long effort that matters most.

You need to come back ready to take on every bit of responsibility you can bare. If you have kids that means walking through the door ready to be an engaged and present parent the moment you’re back.

Do this consistently and all of a sudden the long effort becomes an important event on the schedule not just for you but for your whole family.

If you prove to the people who depend on you that when you get the chance to fill your cup with a long effort you come back ready to pour it out into them they will literally push you out the door to keep going on them.

This helps with the final pieec of the long effort puzzle.

Making it ‘non’negotiable’

Shorter efforts during the week are up for negotiation.

Life gets in the way and we have to adapt to the circumstances we’re thrown into. Be prepared to check down from 60 minute workouts to 20 minute workouts for example.

But the long effort stands outside these pressures.

You aren’t putting this on your schedule because it’s a physical requirement for your training (although it opens you up to that possibility in the future). You’re doing it because it’s a spiritual necessity.

That’s why you pour out when you get home.

That’s why you pre plan the weekly schedule with it 1st on the calendar.

That’s why you go the extra mile to make the people who rely on you feel like this effort makes you show up more present when you return.

This is what we preach in our Tribal Training team. Coach and team leader Ryan Dreyer put it perfectly in this post. After coming home from a half-marathon trail run he makes sure to come back with love, gratitude, and appreciation (and muffins of course).

When we coach athletes going for massive goals like 100 mile ultra marathons, Ironman 70.3 races, and full Ironman triathlons, we focus on making things work with family and using our training to enhance our ability to rise up to meet our responsibilities outside of training.

For us, long efforts are physical requirements. But life still gets in the way and the long efforts might get negotiated down to short effort or potentially even skipped workouts.

If it’s viewed as just ‘physical’ then it’s easy to make these negotiations. But when it’s spiritual you don’t look at the effort the same way.

Try telling a religious person they can’t go to church every week.

That’s the type of energy I want us to bring to the long effort.

When we prove how fulfilling and meaningful it is to us with our actions and attitudes throughout the week it no only becomes non-negotiable for you but also the people who rely on you.

Good luck on finding and establishing your own long effort.

If you want some personal guidance on making this happen in your life send me a DM using the button below.

If you’re interested in checking out how we accomplish this on our Tribal Training team use the Tribal button below to get into contact with team leader Ryan.

Now let’s go celebrate ourselves with long efforts the fill us up in spirit by challening us in body and mind!