Lessons Learned Vol. 1

Preface

I’ve wanted to put this together for a while now. Over the past few years, I’ve come across the great value of self-improvement through a number of physical challenges that I’ve taken a lot of pride in completing. Whilst it’s nice to succeed and achieve a goal, there has always been an underlying narrative of seeing what I can learn and take away from each of these challenges.

This all started with a 100km walk but soon morphed into marathons, bike rides, ultra marathons and inter-island prone paddling challenges. I’ll touch on each of these as I share some of my lessons but one thing has become clear to me as I’ve searched for the edge of what’s possible. Which is that these challenges have been vital in getting me to learn more about myself, my body, and the world around me. They might seem silly to some, and downright stupid to others, but the perspective they have given me is something that has helped me push myself further and take on the wisdom that relates to so many aspects of life today.

This series is not just a set of lessons that have been told and retold. They are truths that have come from years of dedication, struggle, success and failure. My aim is to turn my sweat into something that can be as useful to you as it has been for me.

The Biggest Issue

I want to start with my second lap of the Elephant Trail Race which was a part of my first ever official Ultra Marathon. The course is set up as a 25km loop that takes you all the way to the summit of the dauntingly steep Mount Cairncross. I signed up for the event on the recommendation of a friend who held back on the elevation figures until after I had registered. You might think that this isn’t the work of a ‘friend’ who was looking out for me but my intention for this event never had anything to do with the course, elevation, speed or competitiveness. Success to me in this event meant working on and sticking to my nutrition plan, something I had struggled with, and was well documented during my last challenge, The Molokai2Oahu.

So, no tuna sandwiches this time…

The first lap went as good as I could have imagined it. Things were going perfectly to plan, and as a result, I found myself in a position to chase a competitive time. This is one of those moments where all of the work you’ve put in before the event starts to pay off. I’d consulted a number of people I would consider extremely experienced in trail running to help me devise a training plan, I had stuck to and documented every single part of my training process, including nutrition. I took a weekend to drive the 6 hours to the course to get in one training run that would allow me to become familiar with the route, the terrain and the elevation. I even noted each of the sections of the run and set them as a background on my phone so I could check where I was and how hard I could push as I was running during the race.

Some may call this over preparation but I believe this level of attention to detail is essential if you make any sort of claim to wanting to do anything in life. It’s what led me to be in such a great position after the first lap of the Elephant Trail course.

That being said, as someone who’s lived a life as a surfer, I know that chasing perfection is pretty much impossible. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it. It’s a meaningful pursuit and something that still drives me today, especially when it comes to surfing. But to think you’ve got everything absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, nailed just can’t become a reality.

Let’s get back to that second lap. The route up Mt Cairncross is defined by three separate inclines, each increasing in gradient severity. The good news is that there is a small flat section in between each incline that gives your legs a little break. These sections feel like a downhill, especially after you’ve spent so much time trekking upwards and on the second flat section, right before the final incline is where everything fell apart for me.

Cramps! So many cramps! Both legs in excruciating pain. I’d never experienced cramps before so not only were they painful, and debilitating, but I was in shock that they had happened at all. This wasn’t something that I planned for or expected, so I didn’t have the appropriate fix in my pack to remedy the situation at that moment. My whole race was derailed by something completely unexpected. I’d put so much time and effort into correcting the mistakes I’d made during my last challenge that this setback didn’t feel fair to me at the time.

All things considered, after I struggled my way through the pain to the finish line I was still satisfied with what I’d achieved. The time I ran was beyond my expectations, and most importantly, I succeeded with my initial goal of building and sticking to a nutrition plan that worked for me.

The cramps were not a fun part of the experience, but they did give me something new to work on and approach differently in my next ultra race.

And this brings me to the first lesson learned that I want to share.

You can only control what you know. To prepare for something unexpected is paranoia, and to not tend to something clear and obvious is irresponsible.

I’d be willing to bet that everyone knows what it feels like to have that wash of anxiety consume them when preparing for something, whether it be an exam, an interview, or a race. In most cases that anxiety can be warranted because what you’re doing is often something with some sort of meaning attached to it. I won’t sit here and type this out under a veil of ignorance pretending I know exactly how everyone feels in these moments but I would ask what your focus is on during times like this.

Are you preparing for the unknown? Or are you approaching it pragmatically and ticking off all the little bits and pieces that you can be sure will make a difference?

This approach does require a shift to a process led evaluation, rather than an outcomes based evaluation in order to judge yourself on your approach and your ability to take care of the small and tangible things.

To put it simply with a few words that I’ve learned to follow, it’s all about taking pride in effort and ambition over the outcome. A positive outcome can’t happen without an emphasis on the former so it pays to have some tools to identify what to focus that effort and ambition on.

Reflection is a tool that I often turn to for perspective and learning and this is one of those situations where I gain so much from it. Specifically, I reflect after every challenge or race I compete in so I can note what went well and also what didn’t go well. That way I give myself an opportunity to refine my preparation process, as well as add in any other areas that have caused me to struggle. Cramp mitigation is now added to this list.

If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting in any area of your life, I encourage you to reflect on how you’re approaching things so you can look to make the changes needed in order to give yourself the chance to influence the outcome.

Another tool that helps glue all of this together for me is gratitude. I want to talk in some of my future ‘lessons learned’ posts about how to successfully and sustainably move from one goal to another and I’ll go into more depth on how important it is to pause and appreciate our successes but the same goes even if things have been more difficult than anticipated.

You have to be kind to yourself and not only is gratitude going to have a positive impact on your mindset and mental health, but it does help you identify some of those positive things that you might want to remember next time you’re undertaking something of significance. You’d be surprised how much of an influence these beacons of positivity can have when you do encounter those inevitable feelings of anxiety.

As I’ve worked my way from challenge to challenge, with the hopes of improving my processes and outcomes, one thing I have learned is that these struggles, setbacks and hurdles are all a part of the experience. There may be a time when you accomplish something and it all works out as close to perfect as you can predict and if you get to that point, I commend you for what must be a well structured process. That being said, I do believe flawless execution is a treasure that so many people are looking for, and only a few will ever find.

I go into each challenge, whether that be running an ultra, making a film or public speaking with the knowledge that there will always be something new that pops up that I get to work on.

Perfection would be nice, but it’s not an expectation of mine. As long as I don’t encounter the same issue twice in a row, I know I’m doing something right, and that’s what defines success to me.