I’m reading a book called “Peak” by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. The main purpose of the book is to share results of 30 years of research on how the incredible performances of all time were set up by practice. This is not just limited to athletics but also music, academics, etc.

The book talks about practice. Deliberate practice. The way to get to deliberate practice is through purposeful practice. In other words not just going through the motions. Working on a specific weakness to improve, for example. Ericsson said something that jumped out at me. He said “purposeful practice requires getting out of one’s comfort zone.”

What he means is trying something you never tried before. If you ran a 400 meter race every week for a year and couldn’t get faster than 60 seconds, you can find something in your training that will allow you to break that barrier. Maybe you need to do more strength training to build up the glutes or arms. Maybe you need to work on posture. Or, maybe it’s a mental thing and you need to change the way you attack the race.

You get the idea, I think. The record in the marathon at one point was not too much under 3 hours. Runners didn’t start getting better endurance over generations. They learned what it takes to get faster for a longer period of time. They practiced on the specific things they needed to work on to get faster. They went out of their comfort zone.

Imagine if everyone said ‘Well, it’s a world record so there is no way I can beat that time.’ They didn’t, so the record was broken. And it was broken many times.

You can do great things as well. And it takes feedback to help you improve and determine what you need to work on to be the best you’ve ever been. That’s where I come in.

To do great things you really need a coach. I’ve had hundreds of success stories. If you follow my program you will succeed. In any distance.

If you would like to look more into this please contact me. runyourbestrace@gmail.com.

We can discuss what you want to accomplish. I will help you set realistic goals with rewards for hitting your goals. Get out of your comfort zone! Contact me!