Leader, Do You Need to Hold Back?

One woman standing on a running path of a stadium ready for run. Calf and feet front view. Wearing sneakers. Red running track with lines on a background. Copy space

Week 11 Mileage: 35 miles

Long Run Distance: 15 miles

This week (tomorrow) we drop down to a 15-mile run for the long run. Our weekday runs also have dropped back too, with what has been a typical 9-10 mile Thursday run decreasing to seven this week.

We’re following a training plan from Runner’s World which gives us this “easy” week before next week, which is what I like to call “peak week” – a 22 mile long run, which pushes the weekly mileage close to 50 miles, before the taper three weeks before the marathon.

As I think about the need for this constraint on holding back this week, I’m reminded of the concept of the 20 Mile March in Jim Collin’s Great by Choice.

In Collin’s research on how companies thrive in the midst of a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world) a key driver he finds is “fanatic discipline” described through the concept of the 20 Mile March:

A good 20 Mile March uses performance markers that delineate a lower bound of acceptable achievement. These create productive discomfort, much like hard physical training or rigorous mental development, and must be challenging (but not impossible) to achieve in difficult times.

A good 20 Mile March has self-imposed constraints. This creates an upper bound for how far you’ll march when facing robust opportunity and exceptionally good conditions. These constraints should also produce discomfort in the fact of pressures and fears that you should be going faster and doing more.

As I sit here writing, quite honestly, I want to be running. I feel like I haven’t done enough this week. I’m itching to get outside and go.

But like Collins describes with powerful research, those people and companies who push too hard and grow too fast end up, well, getting hurt. This leads to setbacks far greater than if they followed the plan and resisted the urge to “overdue it”, as my dad is so famous for stating.

Discipline requires us to not only push forward towards challenge, but to hold back for the sake of longer lasting results.

Where do you need to hold yourself back in order to avoid injury?