On group runs in the army, they would sometimes take us on extra laps right as we thought we were supposed to be done. The first time they do that, you freak out a little because you didn't think you had anything left. After that, you generally avoid letting your guard down to feel done. Whatever you may have planned, it takes what it takes. I've found this helpful at times when I take a wrong turn on a longer hike and end up adding an extra mile or three. And I have to admit, when going on longer, less scenic hikes, I sometimes listen to audiobooks. Five or six hours pounding away on a trail can be a long time otherwise. But I turn it off for at least the last hour.
My hack for enduring indoor cardio “zone 2” sessions is to watch shows on my phone while on the machine. I find a show I want to watch on Netflix or such and I only let myself watch it while doing cardio work. Then I can easily bang out 45 minutes or more at the right intensity and actually enjoy it. When the show ends I switch to music and bang a shorter high intensity session to end it and voila- an enjoyable 45 to 60 minutes of zone 2 followed by 15-20 minutes of HIIT done to appropriate music.
I hike & backpack where I sometimes encounter venomous snakes, so unfortunately in warm weather I have to avoid earbuds. I don’t want to violate the principle of “Don’t die”! 😂 Great article!
The difference between a standard treadmill and something like Peloton treadmill is enormous. I hate the regular treadmills, but I got us a Peloton, mostly for my wife (I thought), but I like the classes just as much, and it's completely changed my cardio habits and abilities. The classes, trainers, planned variations, and leader board really make a big difference! There are only so many rainy, cold walks I want to do outside for half the year.
I’ve been loving a combo class of interval running/sleds on a technogym tread and lagree which is like if pilates and resistance training had a baby. Yesterday was speed day and as a big boy I am not made for speed. I knew the sprints were going to make the lagree workout harder. everything in lagree is on a 4 count. You move outward for a slow 4 and inward for a slow 4. I was drenched and felt like I was going to die so I just leaned into counting. 1,2,3,4 and then 4,3,2,1. That focus makes it much more manageable. I check my watch to make sure my heart isn’t exploding and know while difficult it’s mostly in my head telling me to quit :)
Great article (as always). Couple of mind tricks that I've used in the past to get me through workouts or events. The first for workouts is to let myself scale back when I'm just not into it. If it is leg day and I'm not in the mood to do heavy squats....I'll go light. Most of the time, just getting under the bar will unlock my competitive spirit, and I'll end up getting most (if not all) of the workout it. The second is for longer events. I ran Ironman in 2017 and was bonking hard after 5 miles into the run. Nothing was working and my plan had fallen apart. I used a trick that some special forces friends had shared with me - I started running for 10 breaths....then walk for 10. I pulled my visor down to take distance out of the equation (I only looked at the next 8 feet in front of me and no more). If I could make it to 10, surely I could run for 11 breaths, 12, 13, etc. By 100 breaths, I was at mile 18 and completing the event was mentally possible at that point (just a training run to the finish). In many ways, the approach was meditative, but by taking the distance out, I also changed the metric of progress to the finish line. It wasn't 15 miles to go...it was can I run for 30 breathes.
If I'm in the pain cave, I'll generally have music or something on the TV. I try to keep it inspiring (a couple of fitness YouTubers, race documentaries, the Olympics, etc.)
My rule for outdoors is that I never have music on a trail run or mountain bike ride and I only have music or a podcast on a road run if I'm on call for work and need my phone with me anyway. I feel like this approach strikes a decent enough balance. 🧘🏼♂️
Thanks for the great post, especially regarding music and digital distractions.
I almost always listen to music when lifting weights in my home gym.
If it's a heavy day, I'll set my timer for 3 minute rests and read on my phone between sets.
I almost never listen to music running or hiking outside, but when I do, I use it as a reward for a certain distance.
I've completed a few local trail 50 milers and my rule is no music till mile 30, then I'm allowed to listen to whatever keeps me going. Sometimes that's a favorite song on repeat. Sometimes that's me pressing the skip button till I find whatever suits my mood.
As luck would have it, I stumbled across this article on a study exploring endurance fatigue attributed to low blood sugar, rather than low glycogen (I. E. Low glucose in the brain causing the fatigue "emotion")
Some of the claims sound a bit sensational, so naturally, I'm a little bit skeptical on how it might affect non-atjletes like myself 😅
I've gone back and forth on the "music in the gym" question. I've heard some people advise against listening to music or otherwise being distracted by technology while exercising, so I cut it out of my routine and got used to it surprisingly quickly. I'd also had that experience of frustration at getting to the gym and realizing that I'd left my headphones at home, and I didn't want to be dependent on music like that. I do wonder if listening to music on my most difficult lifts would improve my performance, however. I do have a hard line against music on long runs as I consider that to be my "moving meditation".
This is really so cool, though, the central governor theory thing. Thinking back to my Burn the Ships comment this month—about how the mental dialog gets SO loud (even though I’m pretty sure I’m fit enough) that there’s no way I’ll finish, that it’s too hard and too long and it’s ok to just call it a day—it’s crazy to see this in action. Whether it’s runs or a workout or a breakup conversation or a piano performance, I can just see there’s always something more to give, but for some reason the brain is insistent still.
And thinking about two recent breakup conversations, I had more going on during the week of the most recent. I remember noticing how noticeably less stressed I was going into that talk. The one before was during the summer when I had much less happening, and I was terrified. Hindsight bias or just experience? Maybe, but I wondered if I was just more prone to distraction with work and other responsibilities, but maybe it was a bit of the “mile 4/5 vs 4/10”
You didn't get called out so much as said what everyone feels! Haha. Thanks for the great comment and apologies, again, for making you run that boring treadmill. :)
I love how you recognized it as a torture machine 😆 I knew it’s boring, but I at least listen to things to distract. No music/podcast was indeed tortuous!
Great points Michael. This weekend I cross-country skied a little over five hours and I was on my SkiErg for an hour — only it seemed like six hours. I’ve noticed when I’m mountain biking or cross-country skiing time goes fast and I don’t think about the pain and suffering because my brain always has to work in cross-country skiing —working on my balance, getting my glide, changing techniques based on terrain, V1, double poling or V2, V2 alternate, avoiding bad patches in the trail, fast downhills, whatever. There’s a similar effect in the gym. If I decide I’m going to do 10 bench presses, at about eight reps I start wondering if I’m going to make it. I often wonder if I decided I was going to do four reps would the second and third reps be hard. That probably doesn’t scale to 100 reps.🤣
On group runs in the army, they would sometimes take us on extra laps right as we thought we were supposed to be done. The first time they do that, you freak out a little because you didn't think you had anything left. After that, you generally avoid letting your guard down to feel done. Whatever you may have planned, it takes what it takes. I've found this helpful at times when I take a wrong turn on a longer hike and end up adding an extra mile or three. And I have to admit, when going on longer, less scenic hikes, I sometimes listen to audiobooks. Five or six hours pounding away on a trail can be a long time otherwise. But I turn it off for at least the last hour.
The Army does that for a good reason! Thanks for sharing.
My hack for enduring indoor cardio “zone 2” sessions is to watch shows on my phone while on the machine. I find a show I want to watch on Netflix or such and I only let myself watch it while doing cardio work. Then I can easily bang out 45 minutes or more at the right intensity and actually enjoy it. When the show ends I switch to music and bang a shorter high intensity session to end it and voila- an enjoyable 45 to 60 minutes of zone 2 followed by 15-20 minutes of HIIT done to appropriate music.
I hike & backpack where I sometimes encounter venomous snakes, so unfortunately in warm weather I have to avoid earbuds. I don’t want to violate the principle of “Don’t die”! 😂 Great article!
The difference between a standard treadmill and something like Peloton treadmill is enormous. I hate the regular treadmills, but I got us a Peloton, mostly for my wife (I thought), but I like the classes just as much, and it's completely changed my cardio habits and abilities. The classes, trainers, planned variations, and leader board really make a big difference! There are only so many rainy, cold walks I want to do outside for half the year.
I am reading Endure by Alex Hutchinson, this article couldn’t have come at a better time
That's a fantastic book.
I’ve been loving a combo class of interval running/sleds on a technogym tread and lagree which is like if pilates and resistance training had a baby. Yesterday was speed day and as a big boy I am not made for speed. I knew the sprints were going to make the lagree workout harder. everything in lagree is on a 4 count. You move outward for a slow 4 and inward for a slow 4. I was drenched and felt like I was going to die so I just leaned into counting. 1,2,3,4 and then 4,3,2,1. That focus makes it much more manageable. I check my watch to make sure my heart isn’t exploding and know while difficult it’s mostly in my head telling me to quit :)
Great article (as always). Couple of mind tricks that I've used in the past to get me through workouts or events. The first for workouts is to let myself scale back when I'm just not into it. If it is leg day and I'm not in the mood to do heavy squats....I'll go light. Most of the time, just getting under the bar will unlock my competitive spirit, and I'll end up getting most (if not all) of the workout it. The second is for longer events. I ran Ironman in 2017 and was bonking hard after 5 miles into the run. Nothing was working and my plan had fallen apart. I used a trick that some special forces friends had shared with me - I started running for 10 breaths....then walk for 10. I pulled my visor down to take distance out of the equation (I only looked at the next 8 feet in front of me and no more). If I could make it to 10, surely I could run for 11 breaths, 12, 13, etc. By 100 breaths, I was at mile 18 and completing the event was mentally possible at that point (just a training run to the finish). In many ways, the approach was meditative, but by taking the distance out, I also changed the metric of progress to the finish line. It wasn't 15 miles to go...it was can I run for 30 breathes.
Awesome anecdote. Thanks for sharing it, and congrats on the Ironman.
If I'm in the pain cave, I'll generally have music or something on the TV. I try to keep it inspiring (a couple of fitness YouTubers, race documentaries, the Olympics, etc.)
My rule for outdoors is that I never have music on a trail run or mountain bike ride and I only have music or a podcast on a road run if I'm on call for work and need my phone with me anyway. I feel like this approach strikes a decent enough balance. 🧘🏼♂️
Thanks for the great post, especially regarding music and digital distractions.
I almost always listen to music when lifting weights in my home gym.
If it's a heavy day, I'll set my timer for 3 minute rests and read on my phone between sets.
I almost never listen to music running or hiking outside, but when I do, I use it as a reward for a certain distance.
I've completed a few local trail 50 milers and my rule is no music till mile 30, then I'm allowed to listen to whatever keeps me going. Sometimes that's a favorite song on repeat. Sometimes that's me pressing the skip button till I find whatever suits my mood.
As luck would have it, I stumbled across this article on a study exploring endurance fatigue attributed to low blood sugar, rather than low glycogen (I. E. Low glucose in the brain causing the fatigue "emotion")
Some of the claims sound a bit sensational, so naturally, I'm a little bit skeptical on how it might affect non-atjletes like myself 😅
Be interested in your take though:
https://www.eatingwell.com/carbo-loading-study-11889993
I've gone back and forth on the "music in the gym" question. I've heard some people advise against listening to music or otherwise being distracted by technology while exercising, so I cut it out of my routine and got used to it surprisingly quickly. I'd also had that experience of frustration at getting to the gym and realizing that I'd left my headphones at home, and I didn't want to be dependent on music like that. I do wonder if listening to music on my most difficult lifts would improve my performance, however. I do have a hard line against music on long runs as I consider that to be my "moving meditation".
Go Kings! 😊 I hope you’re doing well, Michael!
This is really so cool, though, the central governor theory thing. Thinking back to my Burn the Ships comment this month—about how the mental dialog gets SO loud (even though I’m pretty sure I’m fit enough) that there’s no way I’ll finish, that it’s too hard and too long and it’s ok to just call it a day—it’s crazy to see this in action. Whether it’s runs or a workout or a breakup conversation or a piano performance, I can just see there’s always something more to give, but for some reason the brain is insistent still.
And thinking about two recent breakup conversations, I had more going on during the week of the most recent. I remember noticing how noticeably less stressed I was going into that talk. The one before was during the summer when I had much less happening, and I was terrified. Hindsight bias or just experience? Maybe, but I wondered if I was just more prone to distraction with work and other responsibilities, but maybe it was a bit of the “mile 4/5 vs 4/10”
Oh shoot I totally got called out
You didn't get called out so much as said what everyone feels! Haha. Thanks for the great comment and apologies, again, for making you run that boring treadmill. :)
I love how you recognized it as a torture machine 😆 I knew it’s boring, but I at least listen to things to distract. No music/podcast was indeed tortuous!
Thanks for the great content, as always 🤙
Great points Michael. This weekend I cross-country skied a little over five hours and I was on my SkiErg for an hour — only it seemed like six hours. I’ve noticed when I’m mountain biking or cross-country skiing time goes fast and I don’t think about the pain and suffering because my brain always has to work in cross-country skiing —working on my balance, getting my glide, changing techniques based on terrain, V1, double poling or V2, V2 alternate, avoiding bad patches in the trail, fast downhills, whatever. There’s a similar effect in the gym. If I decide I’m going to do 10 bench presses, at about eight reps I start wondering if I’m going to make it. I often wonder if I decided I was going to do four reps would the second and third reps be hard. That probably doesn’t scale to 100 reps.🤣
We're all jealous that you can regularly cross-country ski. It's an amazing sport.