Member-only story
Always finish with something left in the tank.
Whether you’re running a marathon or writing a book.
Training for any long-distance event takes getting up repeatedly and running longer and longer distances. When I trained for my first marathon, I used a plan I found on the internet. The program included the advice you should always feel like you could keep running at the end of your run. I stuck with that advice and completed my marathon, which was my aim. I also avoided any injuries, which was another aim.
The only time you should have nothing left is when you can see the finish line.
When training, we should keep ourselves from completely depleting ourselves so we can train the next day again. And the day after that. The cumulative effect of this type of training is deep-seated exhaustion. This is why it is so important to finish a training run with enough energy left so that you could have gone further.
I used this same mindset when I trained for my first Ironman. I’ve done four, and I believe this strategy is why I completed every one of them and never got injured.
However, I struggle to use this same thinking when I am doing work tasks. At work, I have become an all-or-nothing kind of person. Part of the reason for this is a need for more self-awareness.
