Why You Need To Start Endurance Training
Table of Contents
- Endurance: Forging Your Will To Continue
- Why You Need To Train For Endurance
- The Training Plan For Endurance
Endurance: Forging Your Will To Continue
"You're fine. This is fine. Everything is fine. Keep Moving" - Courtney Dauwalter, Ultra Marathon Athlete/ Certified Badass
These are the words Courtney Dauwalter uses as she chisels away into the 'pain cave'. This mantra is at the heart of her gritty nature, and how she uses self-talk in pursuit of ultimate endurance.
"It's not about the running... It's about what those things do for your mentality...you get better by coming out here and getting the f**k after it..." - David Goggins, Ultra Marathon Athlete/ Certified Badass
These are the words David Goggins said during one of his infamous 5 am run Instagram posts. As an ultramarathon and endurance athlete, this quote is at the heart of his "why". Using physically arduous endurance races to build the mental capacities of the mind.
What connects these two high performers is the form of training through which they work to find the best versions of themselves.
Endurance Training.
At the start of this newsletter, I described how high performance combines mental and physical training. Regardless of the setting, wether that is a basketball court or your office, these are intimately tied to your output.
Mental Skills are the 'weapons' in your High-Performance Arsenal, and Physical Training is the forge where you develop and master these 'weapons'. As you physically train for endurance in the forge, you develop and master mental skills that help you to endure.
"The process of (endurance) training expands the capabilities of the muscle and heart, sure, but it also recalibrates the brain's horizons...In this sense, all the training is brain training, even if it doesn't specifically target the brain." - Alex Hutchinson, Endure
A standard view in sports and exercise psychology is one where psychological skills training positively affects physical performance. No arguments there. However, it is a two-way street, with physical training has an equally important positive effect on mental performance.
Why You Need To Train For Endurance
Training your endurance isn't just about pushing your physical limits. It is training your mind to to push past discomfort, in all areas of your life, and reach greater potential.
Take for example a long run, your body is telling you that you have reached your limit and can't go any longer. However, you use your mind to muster up the strength and squeeze out an extra mile. In the process, you begin to sharpen the mental skills to recognize these perceived 'limits' and push past them.
Physically, your body becomes more capable at running longer distances. Mentally, you mind learns to redefine the physical limits as mental barriers that can be surpassed.
The main 'weapon' ⚔️ you develop in the forge through endurance training is that of Self-Talk. Each time you push your physical limits, your sharpen the minds ability to talk itself into doing hard things.
The Endurance Training Plan
Training for endurance is subjective, and you can craft your plan to your interests.
Step 1: Pick an activity
Aerobic Activity: Run, Swim, Bike, Walk, Climb etc.
Step 2: Set aside 2-3 days/week
Starting at 2-3 days gives enough time to rest, and gives you a lot of room to grow. You are simply laying down the groundwork for you to build on. You can increase the frequency overtime. If you are fitter, start at 4-6 days/week.
Step 3: The Workouts
Workouts: Steady State Cardio Sessions
These can be stand alone sessions, or you can mix these in with your weekly workouts.
For these sessions, you are working at a very low intensity, but for a longer period of time. Set a time for 20-30 minutes, and go at a pace slight above your comfort level.
If you have a heart rate tracker, you want to be working at 60-70% of your maximum HR. This is also known as your Zone 2 HR.
Here is how you can calculate this. Let's say you are 25 years old.
- 220 - (age) = Max HR
- 220-25 = 195 bpm
- Max HR x (0.6) and Max HR x (0.7) = Ideal HR range
- 195 x (0.6) and 195 x (0.7) = 117 - 139 bpm
When you are doing Workout A, you want to stay between this HR range. Start with sessions lasting 20-30 minutes, and every week, increase this by 5-10 minutes.
If you do not have a HR monitor, use the talk test. The ideal pace is that pushes you, but still allows you to hold a conversation. Just outside of your comfort zone.
Step 4: The Mental Component
When you find yourself fatiguing, you will notice that your self-talk will start veering away from the task at hand. In sport psych, this is known as dissociative self-talk.
It is now, where you need to start using self-talk to bring your attention back to your body, your breath and your form. Known as associative self-talk.
- What are you saying to yourself? Is it associated with what you are doing, or is your attention off somewhere else. Use self-talk to bring focus back to your body.
- Notice your form, what are your legs doing, how is your posture?
- Bring attention to the breath. If it is labored, and you are wheezing? If so, slow down if you have to, take a few deep breaths, gain back control and then continue.
As you use self-talk to assess the situation, bring focus back to the now, and push your body to endure. You are sharpening and training that weapon for use not only in runs, but also for daily life.
Step 5: Rinse and Repeat
Repeat this routine every week. To see valuable results, you need to spend months hammering away in the forges. With time, you will see that not only has it become easier to push farther physically, but the tasks that used tire you out mentally, have now become more manageable.
Closing Remarks
When you train for endurance, you expand your physical and mental capacities. You redefine fatigue from the stopping point, to the starting point of something greater.
Through this process, you learn to wield a new weapon that you can add to your high performance arsenal. That weapon is Self-Talk.
More on that next week. Thank you for tuning in, and see you next Monday 😄
