In my experience, most ultramarathon athletes, even the elites, find success through a lack of failure on race day.
They achieve their goals, win races, and get those coveted belt buckles not because they ran one section very well but because they prevented the negative. They prevented time spent at 0 miles per hour. They prevented themselves from becoming a nauseous, sore, blistered, battered, and stumbling mess. They continued to be able to eat, drink, and locomote down the trail, even if it was not very fast.
Because so many things can go wrong, and the penalties for failure are high, “success by lack of failure” is a key element in successful ultramarathon running.
Almost Any Runner Can Finish A 100-Mile Ultramarathon
Jason Koop / July 19, 2017
Much of the conversation around change is about “sprints.”
Have you ever done high-intensity sprint training?
If not – try this….
- Run up a set of stadium steps as fast as possible.
- Go down the stairs.
- Repeat – trying to match the pace of your first run.
- Repeat 8 more times.
- How do you feel?
- How do you feel for the next 3 days?
High-intensity sprint training is its own form of hell.
Yet we approach
We’re lucky if we even get the rest period.
Any wonder the vast majority of us are running on empty?
Even the self-improvement space provides pressure for us to be the perfect version of ourselves (often defined by some external standard) and to achieve that by yesterday or face the spectre of rejection.
Really important changes are ultramarathons.
We’re just trying to get through the transition without too much damage.
And, unlike the ultramarathon, the “finish line” is often the start of another ultra.
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