The trail of footprints in the snow abruptly ended as I continued on. Despite the disappearing signs, I was confident enough in my surroundings to avoid getting lost in the depths of Nevada’s Lamoille Canyon.
However, lingering doubts crept in about whether I was making the right choice by forging ahead on the hike. Cracking my head on a rock from a slip and fall in this remote location was a genuine concern. With no cell service for miles, the risk was high.
I was pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone, perhaps even surpassing them, but that was the purpose of this trek. It formed part of my training regimen for an upcoming adventure race, aiming to acclimate to discomfort as a crucial skill for the competition.
Few yards past the end of the footprints, I encountered what one could dub as a footbridge, yet its reality was mere wooden planks scattered over a creek with gaps filled by sizeable rocks. Both the wood and rocks were coated in ice. Crossing would mean risking frostbite if I slipped into the icy water, posing a far worse scenario.
The mountains across the creek beckoned to me, while the ones behind also whispered their call. However, to reach the mountains behind, a perilous creek crossing wasn’t necessary. Turning back, I retraced my steps to the parking lot and sought out an alternate trail.
This hike marked a segment of my preparation for the Castlewood 8-hour Adventure Race, involving canoeing, orienteering/hiking/trail running, road biking, and mountain biking. The event’s allure lies in its unpredictability – the location, duration, and weather conditions (in St. Louis’s outdoors during December) are all unknown. I trained in snow and ran in the rain, ready for anything, only to be greeted by an unseasonably warm, sunny day.
The irony lies in the fact that the weather endurance aspect of my training turned out to be inconsequential. Nonetheless, it imparted a crucial lesson, one of the many gleaned from endurance event training that can be applied to your solopreneurial journey.
It’s beyond mere fitness, the event, or the distance.
“Fitness almost becomes a fortuitous bonus,” asserts Taylor Thomas, the brains behind Thomas Endurance Coaching and a seasoned endurance athlete with over two decades of experience. His ardor extends not only to the sport itself but also to leveraging the lessons learned from it in broader life contexts, for himself and his clientele. “It equips you for triumph in all spheres of life, affording you a vision, clarity, and essentially mandating you to carve out time for yourself – a significant feat considering the modern world’s challenges in this aspect.”
Punit Dhillon, an athlete, entrepreneur, and the author of Catapult, expounds on how executives can leverage athletic undertakings for triumphant business ventures. He categorizes endurance races as “personal-drive” or “self-drive” sports, drawing a parallel between the motivation propelling participation in them and the impelling force driving entrepreneurship. “How often do you encounter someone running a marathon for mere recreation?” he questions. “There’s no recreational narrative tied to marathon running.”
The solopreneurial path mandates a similar resolve. Dhillon surmises, “For success, individuals must acknowledge the vital aspect of endurance, discipline, and the confidence requisite for pursuing any ambition wholeheartedly.”
Event training inculcates goal-setting proficiency and the art of planning and executing strategies to achieve them.
Adherence to a training regimen demands discipline and focus. “This serves as a foundational structuring tool on many fronts for me. It affords me that ritualistic aspect on a daily basis,” Dhillon affirms.
In preparation for a half IRONMAN race, Dhillon adhered to his coach’s plan meticulously, following “95-99%” of the laid-out schedule, a deviation from his normal practice. The outcome was extraordinary – he set personal bests in all three disciplines, slashed his overall record by a whopping 40 minutes, and was moved to tears at the finish line.
His next colossal fitness goal entails embarking on an extensive paddleboard expedition across the open ocean, a daunting endeavor necessitating a well-crafted plan, including meeting qualifications stipulated by the event’s organizers.
“The same principles apply in the professional realm,” he asserts. “We’re charting our objectives and milestones for the upcoming year. We have a clear set of milestones. We’ve set budgets, followed by operational plans. Some objectives are ambitious, a few are stretch goals, and some are unequivocally achievable. But sans a plan, you’re essentially setting yourself up for failure, as the adage goes.”
It unveils our vulnerabilities.
My expedition training fell short in one crucial aspect – I didn’t train specifically for the mountain biking segment. Lacking a personal mountain bike, I borrowed one for the race. I was well aware this would be my Achilles’ heel. I devoted my training to the road cycling portion of the event, hoping it would suffice.
It was a step above nothing. However, my sluggishness created bottlenecks on the course, with speedier riders amassing behind me. While I toppled just once, the tumble was relatively painless. Yet, picking myself up in the presence of other competitors was a humbling and slightly embarrassing experience.
My mountain biking struggles shed light on one of my significant professional setbacks that year. It came when I vied for a freelance writing position for a medical website. Following an assessment task, with promises of numerous assignments upon successful completion, I was confident my effort was adequate.
Alas, it was not so. I flunked the test, and the editor denied me further assignments.
Though not as public as my biking mishap, I was humbled and embarrassed in much the same vein. I refrained from seeking explanations (a decision I regret), but I now see a parallel between that ordeal and my mountain biking tribulations.
Gravel and road cycling are within my comfort zone. Crafting narrative pieces and essays is my forte. However, just as my expertise in gravel and pavement cycling didn’t seamlessly extend to mountain biking, my narrative and essay skills didn’t wholly align with the medical website’s requisites.
Patience, as Thomas attests, coupled with persistent effort, yields results eventually. Lacking patience or neglecting skill refinement is a surefire path to disappointment. “Whenever we ponder our objectives, we must strive to grasp the specificity and align our processes with the necessary preparations, ensuring our expectations align with our processes,” Thomas advises.
Solid fitness habits translate into professional virtues, and vice versa.
U.S. Army Major Jay Tiegs found himself fatigued, alone, besieged by a swarm of gnats so dense that he fashioned a makeshift head covering from a plastic bag, cutting out eye holes. “I shed a few tears and had my heart-to-heart with God – I’ll do whatever it takes to emerge victorious,” he recounts, with the focus being the MR 340, a lengthy kayak race traversing the Missouri River’s span across Missouri state.
The episode dovetailed seamlessly with his mantra/the namesake of his podcast: Do Hard Things. Confronting daunting challenges, he harked back to those hours on the Missouri River and many similarly arduous situations he had braved to cultivate grit. If he conquered the MR 340, he could endure any trial that awaited him at work. “Simply showing up, putting in the work, persisting through discomfort – conquering that overcast horizon spells triumph. It has steered me through numerous other life obstacles,” he attests.
A squad headed by Tiegs, a high-performance instructor and leadership luminary, edged out my team by a single position in the adventure race. We engaged in a neck-to-neck bout all day, with their final surge propelling them past us with a mere 200-yard lead.
Thomas posits, “High performance in one facet of life invariably spills over into other domains. It’s not just about pace or specific fitness levels. Devoting time to pursuing your fitness objectives culminates in more strategic strides across all aspects of your life.”
The converse holds true as well. Possessing those attributes at work seamlessly translates into physical training success.
The power is in your hands to shape your own narrative.
Just as the solopreneurial expedition allows for a measure of autonomy in picking your focus, the same applies to your venture in events. “The cumulative effort is what matters most; it transcends specific distances and disciplines,” Thomas elucidates. “Opt for activities that invigorate your spirit.”
My aversion to extended runs bars me from participating, but I revel in group or team-oriented endurance challenges offering diversity. Self-designed escapades intrigue me more than formal races or events, although I remain open to ventures of every ilk.
While selecting an event, strike a balance between pushing limits and setting realistic goals. “Your most profound lessons surface when you plunge headfirst into the fray, experiencing and learning firsthand,” Tiegs advocates.
Seek endeavors that inspire trepidation yet remain achievable. “It shouldn’t be such a far-reaching goal that its non-achievement jeopardizes your athletic or aspirant identity,” Thomas underscores.
