The Hard Way

Modernity has created comfortable pitfalls that prevent most of us from reaching our potential.  Most of us train in the expensive, complex, and easy way.  Only a minority really trains the simple, hard way. 

What do I mean?  I mean in every discipline only a small proportion of amateur athletes, usually the highest performers, train to maximize the performance of mind and body.  Most people actively shy away from the things that work most efficiently and instead just “exercise” comfortably or conveniently.  The acid test of competition and real-world experience exposes the softness of the latter approach.

To identify the hard way, ask whether it sucks to do and whether most people avoid it.  If the answer is “yes,” then it’s likely the hard way. Here are “hard way” things: six hours of hill repeats in the heat, three hour rocky trail runs in 35-degree rain, 800 meter track repeats, long hilly road rides in the afternoon sun and wind, getting under a barbell and grinding a hard set of squats where you can barely do the last rep and then doing it again, and open-water swims. Hard way things are not just physically difficult, but they take mental concentration and effort. One cannot just zone-out and get through hard way workouts.

In contrast, the easy way involves training that does not make one tough.  Things like easy runs with a friend where you talk, jogging on the treadmill in the AC because its hot outside, the spin bike, cable crossovers and bicep curls, and swimming in a heated pool are all easy way things.  These things may have their place as an accessory to hard way training, but they should never take the place of hard way training. 

For hard events one must train the hard way.  That means if we are running a marathon we better be sucking wind during beatdown track workouts.  For a mountain ultra, we better be running on rough trails in all weather and counting vertical feet and time more than miles.  For a big bikeride, we better be going on real rides in the hills. 

Failure to train the hard way often results in hilarity.  Go to almost any road race, ultramarathon, or bike ride and you will hear people complaining about the weather or the course.

News flash: you signed up for and paid good money to participate in an event takes place outside.  People that complain about the wind or rain or heat or cold or rocks or hills or snow are soft, not because of anything inherent but because they did not prepare themselves for the event.  Do not be that person. 

Train the hard way.