Hi Reader,

I make no bones about not being a fan of Dave Goggins, and I do not buy into the school of "Be a badass," "Ignore your pain" way of training and thinking. Yes, he has attained some pretty special achievements and is a testament to his commitment, but it is more about survival than finding his peak performance and that's the difference!

Survival is putting up with a significant amount of discomfort. That is an important and potentially a part of "being tough." There's a difference though between being good at surviving and performing. Here's a story of how I got it wrong.

When I was training for my first 100-mile race, several years ago, I had to put in a large amount of time on my feet. Both Saturdays and Sundays on a weekend were spent running, long runs during the week and plenty of hill repeats. Building up to some big km weeks, as needed for a longer race like a miler. Endurance wise I was the fittest I had been for years and ready to race the longer distance. Now this story is not about the race! That went well and I had a great time out there. It was the following weeks.

Having completed the 100 miler I had a bit of invincibility as an attitude. Whilst out on a training run, after the race, I had a sharp pain in my right knee. No probs, push on you have just raced and completed a miler you can survive this, keep pushing Ash. Yep, the pain got worse and before I knew it, I was on the very long and slow walk back to my car, with my head down and tail between my legs. I had definitely not survived.

Here was the problem. After a trip to the physio and a potentially torn meniscus, I was out of action for a long time, and it took months of rehab for any pain to subside and to get back to anything resembling consistent training. Even today it can still play up.

The actual "Tough" decision at that point, if my goal was long-term performance should have been to stop, when I knew there was an issue, not push on with a "Grin and bear it" attitude. Yes, being able to tolerate is highly important, especially for those of us running marathons and ultramarathons, it's in our DNA. But don't let it get in the way of being tough for the things that really matter to you, consistency in your training and a long-term performance mindset.

Being tough is about being in the right frame of mind, to take the right course of action. Surviving and tolerating suffering leads us away from making the correct decisions when it counts. It leads us to focus more on the outcome and become blind to that only getting to the finish line matters. As an extreme, you only have to look at the number of people dying on Mount Everest, with 108 deaths descending compared to 29 ascending.

This "Tough" mindset prevented climbers from recognising critical warning signs. They became unable to question whether the objective itself (summiting) justified the mounting risks. They were unable to stop and think, "Is this worth it in the long run?" Their toughness and outcome orientation (to summit) blinded them to the fact that the smart (and tough decision) was to head back down the mountain. Unfortunately, they achieved their goal but never made it back to share the experience or enjoy it.

On some occasions, putting up with things and not quitting might be the right choice. But if that's the only mindset you have it's going to blind you to what matters in the long run. Goggins and his approach do have some value but it's a single tool, and only effective in some scenarios but dangerous in others.

The goal is to have a wide variety of tools to call on, and that's the difference between purely surviving and performance. Some sessions you get in the zone and can push and trying gets in the way. Other times it is a case of pushing during that long hill rep. Other times it's being aware of reality and the right choice is to stop and call quits.

You don't have to be a Goggins to perform long term, and there is always a team around you to "Carry the boats!" if required.

See you on the trails,

Ash

P.S. I spent 10 years as a Commando in the UK and am comfortable I am in a position to critic Dave Goggins!