On gratitude and effort

“Fast running is a privilege”

I sent this message to my brother, teammate, and fellow lover of fun fitness Mike Donatelli before he set out to run a fast marathon (he writes an excellent substack, you should subscribe)

He went out and smashed a new PR, inching ever closer to his sub 3 hr goal, shaving over 20 minutes off his 1st attempt.

I thought about him as I went out on a run through the Chicagoland suburbs, and stretched my legs a little bit more in honor of the effort.

It got me thinking, how grateful we should be to move our bodies in intense ways that make us feel alive and challenge us to move through pain and struggle.

So many people shun the hard efforts when it comes to fitness. Shuffling through easy to moderate workouts, feeling as if the gentle effort is a type of penance for a lack of motion or poor diet over many years of neglecting their physical vitality.

But they NEVER push themselves out of their comfort zone. What a shame. Leaving all that potential on the table.

I want you to completely reframe what a hard effort truly means when it comes to gratitude. Most are happy to avoid the ‘pain cave’ because it feels unnecessary but also carries extra burden.

Good, you should be GRATEFUL to even have that carrying capacity in the first place. A healthy person has a million wishes, a sick person only one.

When you stretch your body to the line it’s a testament to the power of your spirit to will you forward. It’s a sacrament to the honesty of bringing your best and feeling the truth and consequences viscerally.

Praise lactate buildup!

Make holy beads of sweat that don’t stop.

Glorify the privilege of feeling alive through your own determination to BREAK THROUGH.

The strain you feel in the body should be celebrated instead of shunned. You need to go hard in order to find out who you really are. What are you made of? What can you overcome?

Fast running isn’t a time.

It’s an attitude.

Live it.

Love it.

Embrace it.

Happy Training Friends