Living With a Seal, But First… An Apology
First things first! I apologize to anyone visiting Florida right now. I feel personally responsible for our weather, and it has been COLD!!! Down to the 40s at night… and that’s here in South Florida. I can’t imagine what it’s like in northern Florida… they’re probably getting out their parkas. Last night I thought, “I don’t want to run in 40 degree weather. I’ll do my run later in the day.” Then I thought about the book I’m reading, Living With a Seal, where Jesse Itzler has a Navy SEAL come live with him for a month to train him. He refers to the SEAL in the book as “SEAL” but we now know it was David Goggins. I imagined what David Goggins would say if I told him I didn’t want to run when it’s 46 degrees. He would probably swear at me and tell me to get my shorts on. So… I ran, and was glad I did it. But I am reminded why I live in Florida… I don’t like being cold! Looking at the forecast, it’s going to warm up a little… But what in the world is that low temperature on Sunday?????? Once again… I apologize to anyone visiting the Sunshine State this week. I’m about 3/4 of the way through Living With a Seal, and my main takeaway is that I don’t push myself hard enough. I think that would be anyone’s takeaway from this book. On the first day “SEAL” came to live with Jesse, they went to the gym and SEAL told Jesse to do pull-ups. Jesse pushed himself as hard as he could and did seventeen, which is more than he ever thought he could do. Then SEAL told him they weren’t leaving the gym until Jesse completed 100. Although Jesse believed it was impossible, an hour and a half later he did indeed complete 100 pull-ups. That’s the lesson on Day #1 and is the theme of the book- your body is capable of much, much more than you think. When your mind is telling you you’re done, you’re really only about 40% done. While I believe that most of us could be pushing ourselves harder, I have mixed feelings about this message. David Goggins is the guy who completed an ultramarathon with broken bones in his feet. When Jesse complains of being sore, or needing to rest, Goggins says “If you want to be pushed to your limits, you have to train to your limits. If you get hurt, you will recover.” Well… true. However! I don’t know about him, but I don’t heal instantaneously. Taking time off for being injured is no fun, and- guess what- you’ll lose fitness while you’re on your forced time off for injury. So I don’t think I’m quite ready for Navy SEAL training, but I do see that there’s something in between. About seven years ago, I worked with a trainer at my gym. I had a running injury- what a surprise, and interestingly it was to my right foot, not my left foot which I have now- and I figured I would go all in on strength training while it healed. My trainer wasn’t quite as strict as a Navy SEAL, but close. He pushed me way, way farther than I ever would have pushed myself. I would be shaking by the end of his workouts. Guess what? I got so much stronger. He actually called me one of his greatest success stories because I made so much progress with him. After seven months though I was back to running, and figured I could continue to strength work on my own. Honestly we didn’t have the same goals. He thought I did “too much cardio” and didn’t really get the whole running thing, so it was time for us to part ways. But I miss those intense workouts, which I’ve never been able to duplicate on my own. So let’s see. I won’t be having a Navy SEAL move in with me, but I realize how much harder I could be pushing myself. Running will always be my love, but I need to stop being a wimp with my strength training. Yep, I’ve been a wimp, and I have all sorts of excuses. No more excuses! It’s time to get stronger. Do you like strength training? Do you feel like you’re pushing yourself as hard as you could be? Have you ever worked with a trainer? Do you now? How do you like it?