If I Lived With A Navy Seal
This would be my reward…
Yesterday was just the warm-up.
In fact, I think today and tomorrow are just warm-up too. Because day 4 kicks into high gear. To say I'm nervous is a drastic understatement.
A few months back, I read the book Living With a Seal by Jessie Itzler. It’s a story about a guy who hires a navy seal to live and train him for 30 days. As you might imagine, the workouts are intense…
I went back through the book a few days back, and after listening to the intensity again, I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can do this…” So I decided to write down all the workouts and go for it.
We will see how I hold up…
Yesterday was my day 1. I ran 6 miles at an 8:59 pace and did 5 pull-ups on the minute for 20 minutes, totaling 100 pull-ups. I go through ups and downs with running, but I typically am pretty consistent, so I wasn’t feeling too bad after the run. Even the pull-ups weren’t as hard as I had imagined… But today, I woke up sore.
I don’t know why I do this to myself. I guess it a burning desire to push myself to my limits. I believe you are capable of much more than you give yourself credit for, and the only thing that ever can stop you is the mental limit you place on your life and your ability. Taking on this challenge is a way for me to self-educate and show myself, I am stronger than I think I am. Sure, this will be the hardest physical challenge I have ever put myself up against, but I'm looking for more than the physical test. I want to see what this challenge will do to my mind. How far can I stretch my limits?
We will soon find out.
Today I ran another 12 miles.
It’s in the books—6 miles in the morning at an 8:28 pace and 6 in the evening at an 8:58 pace. Let me tell you… The last 2 miles of the day were a mental battle. I kept trying to rationalize slowing down or walking the rest, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was tired, but I wasn’t that tired. I was sore, but I wasn’t that sore. Frankly, I am a little embarrassed to admit how mentally tough that was… It's only day two! And I just completed another running challenge a month ago, where I ran 48 miles in 48 hours and crushed it. I was a little concerning that it was that mentally difficult. But I continued, and that's that goal anyway; test my mental toughness to push through the hard times, and as my old mentor used to say, “embrace the suck!”
Now it's time for some much need R&R because tomorrow we have another 14.3 miles and a nice bonus of sleeping in a chair instead of my bed…
This should be fun! See you tomorrow with another update!
With love,
-Travis
PS: Just a little disclaimer… This is definitionally unnecessary, and it's hard as hell. I. would not recommend trying this, but my mentality going into it has been to push myself to my limits, and I believe I am physically capable of doing it. I will give 120% to complete all the training sessions, but if I need to amend the exercises, I will do so. So if you decide to test this out, too, consider that. The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to find your limits and push them, and that can be different for everyone.
