Weekend Challenge #21 – The Long Race of LIFE: 3 Lessons From the Early Stages of Endurance Training

The weekend is here, the sun is out, and the mainstream media is still awful. We are facing incredibly real issues right now that need deliberate action from all of us to move toward resolution. Next week, we’ll take a swing at trying to contribute to the learning on topics of equity and race. This weekend though, I want to give you a couple of minutes to read something that I hope, brings positivity to your LIFE journey.

The bottom line is that abiding in the LIFE Principles of love, integrity, fellowship, and excellence is the equivalent of the longest ultra-endurance event you can think of. In fact, it’s longer. For an event to match the endurance needed to fully live by the principles, the finish line would have to be six feet in the ground. You never finish the LIFE principles, the only way to stop is to give up and not be the best you can be, or to be relieved only by the end of your life. That’s grim…but true.

For an event to match the endurance needed to fully live by the LIFE principles, the finish line would have to be six feet in the ground.

For those of you in the endurance world of fitness, you’re about to get a chuckle from me claiming to be a part of your world so stand by.

Last year I took on my first Spartan race and caught the bug of endurance events. After a year of taking on longer runs and more intense work, I’ve set my sights on an Ironman Triathlon in 2021. Naturally, I’ve begun to ramp my training further and further. I’m nowhere near where I want to be on race day but just the beginning of the journey has already taught me some lessons that clearly apply to the LIFE principles beyond chasing a physical goal.

Since I am so new to the game, I also recruited one of my LIFE Council brothers, Daniel, to speak on the topic. Just a couple of days ago he completed his first marathon and fought all the mental demons that like to attack us when we decided to run further than we even like to drive.

So, here are the 3 LIFE lessons we have learned from the beginnings of endurance training.

The Training Matters

Unless you’re David Goggins, you\’ll want to train for your endurance events. Training not only prepares your body for the actual activity but it teaches you how to fuel with nutrition, set a pace, and shatter what used to be your mental barriers. It’s been said that how you practice is how you play. For endurance events, we couldn’t agree more. If you train poorly, you will play poorly. If you train smart, you will race smart.

“How would the best version of me react if I were them?”

To live the LIFE principles, this lesson is crucial.  Most of us never think about how we can “practice” our principles because we take life moment-by-moment as it comes at us. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, we can think ahead and practice our reactions before situations arise. For example, next time you see someone react in a way that you find less than ideal, ask yourself, “how would the best version of me react if I were them?” You don’t actually have any skin in the game at the moment and you get the luxury of time to practice in your mind, who you want to be. And then, as it surely will, when a situation comes by that you are involved in, you’ve already practiced your best response and can more easily follow through. You practiced well, so you play well.

If You Can’t Run, Walk

With a mile left in my first Spartan race, I came to face-to-face with the dreaded “Bonk”. My blood sugar crashed because I didn’t eat properly before the race and found myself sitting under a tree a mere mile from the finish as person after person, passed me. Slice of humble pie for one, please! Luckily, my friend was with me, and with his encouragement, the mantra became, “if you can’t run, walk”. I could at least walk to the finish but I wasn’t quitting. I didn’t want to walk but it got me going and I ended up running the rest – crossing the finish line 3 minutes ahead of my goal.

Remember that if you can’t run, walk

Your journey with the LIFE Principles needs the same approach. There will be times you’ll be too tired to help your spouse clean up or too full of shame to admit your integrity lapsed. You might not want to make time to call a friend and check-in or be too afraid to make a big goal. In those moments, remember that if you can’t run, walk. If you can’t do and be everything you want to be in the moment, at least do something. The momentum compounds and you inch closer to the LIFE commitments you’ve set.

It’s Better Together

I preach it every week, but it is the foundation of the LIFE Council – we are stronger when other people are with us. Like the wolf, we are individually strong but we are truly at our best when other people are involved. For Daniel’s marathon, another friend of ours, Andrew rode a bike alongside him the whole way, and his coach Troy of Barbells and Brothers joined for the final leg. He carried everything Daniel needed – water, food, and the like. But more importantly, he carried the positive spirit Daniel was able to use to push through moments of pain. During all of his training, Daniel also had a beautiful surprise. He thought he would train alone but his wife began to go with him and bring their daughter in a stroller. After it was over, Daniel told me, “getting to train with them was even cooler than the marathon itself.”

As a husband, father, and friend Daniel discovered the overlap between endurance and LIFE in the most literal form. He saw how during the chase for excellence, the people he most wanted to live by the principles for, were the very people supporting him. When you decide to no longer settle for mediocrity and instead pursue LIFE every day, you are going to be better together as Daniel was. The LIFE Council meets in-person for a weekend every year because we know the power of support and accountability from one another. Be better together.

When you decide to no longer settle for mediocrity and instead pursue LIFE every day, you are going to be better together.

There are three of the many lesson’s endurance training teaches us about love, integrity fellowship, and excellence. Train well and pursue LIFE well, if you feel like you can’t uphold the excellence you’re called to just take a small step, and find those people who are ready to run the long race alongside you.

Weekend Challenge

Run a marathon and learn from it. Go.

Kidding.

This weekend, I hope you will step back and do some thinking or journaling about the lessons you have learned in your favorite hobby that could help you live the LIFE principles better. For example, in addition to training, I love fly fishing. The patience and stillness I’ve learned on the river have taught me so much about how to love people better by being still and how to be patient with the process of reaching my excellence goals. What’s your hobby and how can you become a better person for the lessons in it?

I would love to hear some of your lessons learned and where you picked them up. Comment here or tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

That’s it. Have a great weekend. Thanks for staying the course and walking the path of LIFE alongside me.