The Upper Bound
“Don’t do more today than you can completely recover from by tomorrow”
I love this quote by Greg McKeown. While it is a good rule to follow for most things in life, I think it is especially relevant for strength and endurance training. As someone who struggles with moderation and is prone to overdoing it when things are going well, it is a good reminder for me to show restraint and keep the big picture in mind.
In order to make his point, Greg tells the stories of two expedition teams in a race to be the first to reach the South Pole.
The first was a British team, and their leader had the plan of going as far as possible every day. This maximized their progress on good weather days, sometimes covering up to 50 miles in a single push. But when the bad weather days inevitably came, the team was so exhausted from overextending themselves on the good weather days that they could make little or no progress when the conditions were unfavorable.
The second was a Norwegian team, whose leader took a different approach—they would go no more than 15 miles a day. Even on the good weather days when they felt like they could go much further, they showed restraint and stuck to the upper bound they had set. However, this meant that on the bad weather days they still had the strength to keep making progress. They adhered to this even when they were just 45 miles from their objective with perfect conditions. Although they could probably have probably got there in one big push, they took three days to complete the remaining miles, 15 miles each.
Would you push on or pace in this situation? I know that I would probably push (especially not knowing where the other team was).
What was the outcome of these two different strategies? Although the two teams left around the same time, the Norwegian team made it to the South Pole first, beating the British team by almost 30 days. Most importantly, they also had the strength and supplies to make the return journey, while the British team did not.
Even though this was a monumental feat of skill and endurance, a biographer of this event remarkably described the progress the Norwegian team made as “without particular effort.”
Consistent progress, even if it seems small or insignificant, usually beats heroic efforts in the long run.
It’s very easy when you’re feeling good or starting out with a new training or exercise regimen to do way more than you’re capable of recovering from and derail your progress from the start. Just because you could lift 5 days this week or spend 17 hours on the bike doesn’t mean you should.
Where in your training might establishing an upper bound be more important than a lower bound?
How can you use constraints to make your training more sustainable?
How could you possibly achieve your training goal or outcome “without particular effort”?
Make the lower bound so easy that you can do it even on your worse day or when things aren’t going well.
But on the days you feel awesome and like you could push way beyond your limits, show restraint. Have the discipline to stick to the upper bound you established, so that you are able to come back tomorrow and keep making progress.