The core principles behind Endurance State Training
Ignite The Identity
A new concept, forking off in a different direction, exploring unknown possibilities and enjoyments is the road I’ve currently taken. My path is clear, I’ve got that burning in the soul and the desire to smash down whatever lays ahead.
For many on their chosen destination, what got them started on route to their goal has become muddied and unclear. Obstacles, set backs or simply life has slowly chipped away at that initial spark that gave them all the enthusiasm in the world, leaving a pilot light that’s just about hanging in there.
What once worked for them seems to be stagnating the process, creating doubt and unease to what the next steps should be taken. The thing that never changes, however, was the thing that ignited that initial spark.
There’s a tick that doesn’t tock in those that don’t understand endurance sports. The idea, the process, the endeavour and the culmination of months and even years of the slow build to a crescendo that is designed and even preempted to leave you broken in a heap by the end of it, is a concept too hard to explain if you don’t already understand – but by god… when you succeed in achieving the impossible, the once thought of as unachievable, does it not half feel like the heist of the century.
Running is a craft. Each runner has their own set of skills, tools, mindsets and a key that turns in only their ignition switch. You can’t force the training to an intended goal if it goes against the grain of the core foundations that make you the runner that you are. You also can’t be told what your goals should be, because the petrol that fuels your engine won’t go in an engine destined for the wrong ending.
The desire to endure is yours, what gives you your kicks, is yours, and the direction you wish to set sail in, once again, is entirely of your choosing.
The first of Endurance State Coaching’s core principles is ‘igniting the identity‘, because without that drive, passion, belief in your own ‘running craft’, your ember will smoulder. With the right training designed specifically for your inner ethos, merged with your wholehearted belief in the process and the steps that lay ahead, then the ability to endure will be much stronger. Igniting a fire in the belly that just won’t go out, no matter the road ahead.
Brilliance Through Balance
Think back to your greatest running moments. It’s likely things just seemed to click, the good times were rolling in and the fuel in the tank seemed endless.
Think deeper and internally, you were likely in a happy place, absorbed in the process, the enthusiasm and hunger stocked up high and the trajectory seemed to only know ‘up’.
But success can incur complacency, tailgated by overcompensation and increasing neglect to chase down the good times that you once knew.
The methods used become more extreme in reclaiming, or even reaching new heights. Harder, faster, and more often. Oh, you’re still driven alright, but your tank is red lining and the dashboard flashing with warning signs you’d rather ignore.
Funny thing is, in endurance running you bounce wildly from the extreme of the up, crashing all the way back down with a thud and back again – but next time even higher than before.
Unless, that is… you haven’t got the balance right, because there ain’t no garage that can fix the vehicle of an out of control driver.
The balance of progression comes in the strategic placement of allowing the body room to grow. Putting the right fuel in the tank at the right time, servicing the appropriate parts for the destined journey, knowing when and how hard to push in the right moments, but most of all, keeping the mind focused, engaged and enjoying what you’re doing.
There’s a lot of moving parts to make you, you. Throwing that homeostasis out of balance can lead to a cascade of knock on effects, heading you off in an undesired direction. Get that balance consistently right, and the brilliance emerges not only in your running, but in every aspect of life.
Which makes ‘Brilliance Through Balance‘ the essential 2nd method in Endurance State’s 3 training principles.
Excellence of Execution
The insatiable need for something ‘more’ in race performance comes to everyone. Riding the wave of beginner’s luck and enjoying initial progression, momentum and success, a collision course with the wall of stagnation in running results is inevitable.
Training harder than your closest competitors, on paper it’s a shoe in you’ll cross that line first, but the race plays out differently than the hard work deserved.
How ’bout that un-itchable scratch of missing a specified time despite taking every perceived path in the run up to your envisioned goal?
You have the fight, but the game plan falls short. Not because you haven’t tried to reach that next step up, but because you’ve not yet realised you’ve missed the steps beforehand that belong only to you.
Executing a race plan with success requires unlocking the knowledge of what makes you tick first – the strengths, weaknesses and everything in between, with methodically analysing every step of a race or effort of endurance set to be undertaken.
Learning the finite details of your own abilities, being mentally and physically prepared and resilient to the onslaught ahead, preparing for any and every eventuality and outcome, whilst having every aspect of the course burned into the back of your memory is the final of Endurance State’s three key methodologies – Excellence of Execution.
