When I was first learning about endurance training from my friend and mentor Pete Jacobs, the biggest shift was learning to back off.
We would head out on a ride, and I remember people would pass us up the hill. I remember thinking, wow, I’m riding with this guy at the world-class level, and everyday weekend warriors are passing us…
The ego in me wanted to surge all the time to keep up with anyone that passed us.
But, I would stay with Pete.
Slowly I started to learn.
The people who are new to the sport, or who get “caught up” in the game, feel that everything needs to be hard. That they need to push all the time.
“No pain, no gain…”
He taught me the opposite.
We basically trained easy.
Don’t get me wrong, occasionally we would push, and it would be hard.
But typically, we built up a year of training through consistency, volume, having fun, and always thinking about technique.
It really, really works.
Persistence, consistency, grit and resilience are all important. But if you the decisions you are making are strained – if there is extreme effort on the day-to-day in your projects or relationships, it might help to either shift direction, or shift perspective.
At the end of the day, despite the “growth” and “accomplishments” that we seek, it’s a lot easier to have an outlook that is swimming with the flow of reality rather that fighting against it.
