I don’t see training or exercise as a chore, any more than eating good nutrition is a sacrifice. If I felt like that I would have given up both a long time ago. For me, it’s mainly about feeling good and fit and healthy, not really about smashing times and hitting targets of fitness or weight loss. If these things happen along the way, that’s great but not the main goal. Nor is about prolonging life as some think. It’s more about getting the most out of life in the present. As I begin to notice the signs of ageing in body and mind I want to do what I can to maintain my quality of life as best I can.
But I also like to set myself massive challenges physically, just to see how far I can go. Experience has taught me that most of the limits to our endurance are set by ourselves in our minds. For example, for many people running a marathon might seem like the ultimate endurance challenge, at the borders of their human limits. But actually completing a marathon is very comfortably within the range of what we can achieve. Running a marathon in sub 3 hours is a serious challenge, however, and will require some specific speed training and possibly a measure of athletic ability, although I do believe that, even here, our notion of what is possible is preconcieved in our minds and not necessarily limited by our bodies. If you think that such and such a pace is as fast as you can go then it will be. Sometimes if you are prepared to shut down the mind and trust completely in your body to adapt to a faster pace you can be surprised at what you can achieve. Ultimately, I believe that control over our mental processes is what enables us to train to go further or faster.
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