The adage in strength training is that its the last two to three reps as the muscle fibres reach exhaustion where the big gains lie. Physiology backs this up: in order to pull into play all muscle fibres, particulary type 2a and 2b, all muscle fibres must reach near-exhaustion state. This is a good analogy for doing hard things. In order to really experience discomfort, you have to be near the end of your tolerance.
Yesterday, I started the 60 Days project. Day one was fasting from dinner the previous night until dinner the next night. I’ve done this before - fasting is good for cellular clean-up and metabolic flexibility - but not for many years and I am out of practice. Around about 2:00 pm, I looked at the clock and thought: “Wow, only four hours to go.” Those are the longest four hours, and the last hour, as dinner is being prepared the very longest. But, of course, I made it, although I would find it difficult to repeat this pattern frequently. Some do however, notably hard man Jocko Willink and even rock climber/guidebook author Alan Watts.
Today’s hard thing was 30 kilometres on foot on trails. Things went pretty well until kilometre 25 or 26 after which I had that low grade nagging discomfort everywhere and a desire to get done. Again, the bulk of the event was easy, only the last few kilometres required some mettle.
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