Why I race long
The Real Endurance Test
I haven’t been keeping up with my usual cadence of articles this week, but I have a good reason team.
On Monday, I piled myself and my two kids (age 7 and 3) into our car and we headed from our home on the North Shore of Chicago back home to Ontario for a week of visiting family.
It’s a 7 hour drive including a trip through the border. Talk about an endurance challenge of epic proportions.
Road trips are excellent places to apply endurance lessons, especially with the addition of little ones who rightfully so play by their own rules on travel days.
I want to quickly share a few tactics I used in the trip to get us there in ‘seriously impressive’ time and fashion (my wife’s words when she saw how smoothly the trip went and how quick me crushed the miles). Then I want to highlight how applying the lessons I learn in big races and training help me realize the high priority and leverage points of my day to day and ultimately my values.
Applying Endurance Principles to Travel With Kids
1.Consistency beats Urgency
I decided to leave early, REAL early. That way we could keep a similar pace throughout the entire trip. We left our house before the sun was up and by the time the golden hour dawned we were already through the Big City and on the way east.
It was almost 2 hours before either kid made a peep about needing to stop. By that time we were already 30% done.
Knowing we’d have to stop a few times along the way helped me frame the duration of the trip and plan a strategy to keep consistent speed. We never rushed, but we made quick work of the trip together.
2.Fuelling on the go
Road trips have lots of shiny distractions in terms of food and drink options. Sometimes it’s not just the poor nutritional choices but the TIME that eating can take. If we decided to stop for a sit down meal, that adds another HOUR onto the trip.
Heck, even taking the kids into a gas station to pick a treat can turn into a 15 minute ordeal, there are just too many choices.
So I packed up ALL our food for the trip, breakfast, snacks, lunch, treats, etc. and every 25-50 minutes I’d pass some back to the kids. This worked perfectly. Just like slamming food out on the trails during an ultramarathon.
3.Patience, Patience, Patience
I did something unthinkable, NO SCREENS for the entire trip. We don’t have a car with TV screens in the back of sheets to keep our kids entertained. And I did not want to simply lobotomize them with a screen so I could have some quiet and listen to what I wanted during the trip. Instead I practiced a prime virtue you learn in endurance, patience.
We listened to the same kids podcast weaving Jewish tradition, history, and education with classic fairy tales. Keeping this one rolling for 6 hours in a row allowed my kids to look at books, out the window, and to ask questions about the stories the entire way without getting bored.
All I had to do was remain patient in listening, patient in being consistent, patient throughout the entire trip.
Why training helps me aim true
The right priorities reveal themselves through the intersection of discipline and interest. Training provides discipline, especially when aimed at competing in public races.
You want to perform competently, not injure yourself, and have a great experience. That means submitting to training and exercising when you don’t have desire or motivation.
The interest part is your passion. I love trail running and pushing my body through hard challenges. The internal drive to succeed, excel, and achieve meet with the discipline to produce a powerful sense of knowing.
I’m able to pinpoint the right value, the right principle, the right attitude, the right action, from examining the truth in my training.
It’s how I know to slow down while on a ‘vacation’ where family time is the most important aim. That’s why we took the road trip.
It doesn’t make ANY sense for me to just transport the same things I do at home this week. It’s why I haven’t been getting up early to write an article each morning, like I’ve been doing the past month.
Instead, I’ve been reading and hoping that my kids would also get up early and we could spend some time together not needing to get out the door to be on time for school.
When I’m out running in the woods, I’m stripped away of all the distractions and can target the true purpose of whatever I’m engage in. I can then filter decisions through the proper filter of values instead of expediency or comfort.
The difficulty of the training and pressure of competing makes understanding life’s challenges easier. I’m able to SEE CLEARLY what’s valuable because I’m taking myself to the limit and knowing what I can do when I’m pushed towards that limit. I reveal the truth of myself and therefore gain awareness on how to act towards and through that truth more clearly in all the days of my life.
The Takeaway
When it comes to your training and being able to mine deep lessons from the experience I want you to appreciate the importance of discipline and interest.
If I was just going to the gym, doing exercises I was TOLD to do to simply maintain health, I would be blocked out from all the deep lessons I’m talking about today. I’d have no interest, and therefore no guide towards my priorities.
Interest and enthusiasm are powerful spiritual signals. You’re being directed internally towards the things you value for their own sake. And through fidelity, dedication, and discipline to follow that passion, you’re rewarded with self discovery, self knowledge, and ultimately self mastery.
Our road trip was successful because it was a battle of me against me.
I was in control of the situation and I determined it would be a success.
I set out the proper expectations.
I took the responsibility to lead.
I lead with conviction and purpose.
I determined our destiny through my will.
I’ve done this before on long training runs and every single long race I’ve competed in. Instead of complaining about the pain and difficulty, I remember that I chose to do this and reframe my stance towards gratitude.
I’m grateful I can take a week to travel with my kids
I’m grateful I have the energy to drive 7 hours with precise focus.
I’m grateful my kids don’t have attention spans the size of goldfish because we shove screens in their face whenever they are bored
I’m grateful to have the desire to run 4 miles the minute I get out of the car and the kids are off playing with Grandma and Grandpa
I’m grateful that endurance training and competing has guided me towards the signal of my heart and that I can capitalize on acting out where it takes me.
I’m grateful I’ve discovered the power of love based fitness to power my life towards it’s best potential.
I’m grateful to share the lessons I learn daily with everyone here and HOPE you are implementing this ideas, actions, and attitudes into your life to positive results.
I know one thing, if you seriously play sports you love and do your best as an adult, you’ll discover more truth about yourself than you realized.
And once armed with that truth, you’ll have the courage to live it out from your heart.
Happy Training Friends