As a part of building a life, regardless of what your challenges are, you have to build in sustainability. As someone who typically sprints through sections of life and then takes long recovery periods, that isn’t really my strongest skill.
For the next three months, Jordan and I are preparing for a long running race–for a distance neither of us has run ever.
We’ve only spent a week preparing, but I built in sustainability to our plan. Only three days a week involve actual runs. Days in between include some amount of yoga and strength training.
The strength training is the part that prepares us for long term success. Most runners spend several weeks to months each year injured, usually due to overuse injuries. By reducing the volume of training and increasing the strength focus, we prepare muscles and joints to handle forces far beyond what running can impart.
My other sustainability hack is start small. Do things that are easily repeatable and don’t take a lot of effort. At this point, I’m pretty sure I could take cold showers for months. It was a simple thing to start. Took a little time to get used to, and has lasted and entire month longer than planned.
I may choose to stop at some point, but right now, the habit to get in the shower and turn the handle to cold is locked in.