Grind alone, thrive together
Lonely reps and loud cheers
There’s a modern phenomenon that sometimes irritates me a little bit. That phenomenon is related to people that label themselves as introverts and extroverts. Once someone has labeled themselves as an introvert or an extrovert they sometimes use that label as a way to excuse certain types of antisocial behavior, such as being cold and indifferent to other people, or being loud and obnoxious in a way that bothers other people.
I have phases where I am both introverted an extroverted. I like spending my time with people but I also like spending time alone. I think this is a good balance to have. I get the benefit of being able to do things without 100% relying on being around other people but I also enjoy being around others and getting things done together.
I’ve had some thoughts on my mind about this recently so they are becoming this week’s article.
You can’t do it without others
Many years ago when I trained in 和道流空手 (Wadō Ryū Karate) an I remember attending a tournament where Otsuka Sensei (the second) gave a speech about respecting your opponent. The main focus was that you must be thankful to your opponent because you cannot win a match without them losing a match. You are both on the same path. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you literally cannot win without another person losing. When you win you have to remember the sadness and pain of your opponent, and do your best to win the next match for them because you literally could not be where you are without them.
Karate is something you practice with other people in order to achieve individual goals. This can cause some complex feelings sometimes, but I really appreciate Otsuka Sensei’s wisdom in this and that is something I still carry with me to this day.
But things were a lot more simple before the pandemic, an it was during COVID that I was left completely without opponents for some time, realizing that Otsuka Sensei’s wisdom ran deeper than I expected.
You will be alone sometimes
Before the pandemic my main form of exercise was martial arts. I would go to the dōjō and train with other people. I always had opponents and other people to train with. Of course I did a bit of other training by myself but my main focus was going to the dōjō and working out with others. In 2020, the pandemic took that away from me but it gave me something else.
When my dōjō closed their doors during the pandemic I trained alone in my room. I’d train basics, stretch, use weights, and do calisthenics. I did eventually develop a sciatica like symptoms and needed to go to hospital to get it looked at. A combination of physical therapy and giving running a try fixed the issue completely but also left me with a bit of an obsession with running.
From August 2020 onwards I started running a lot and pretty much always by myself. I set some pretty outrageous goals during my first year and a half of running where I ran my first marathon, ran my first (70 km) ultramarathon, and ran 3650 km in a calendar year (2021), but the marathon and ultramarathon aside, I ran totally alone.
There were times where I was very lonely doing all this running alone, but it gave me a lot of time to think and made me understand that running in itself is a very honest pass time.
It’s just you vs the distance
When you run you use your own physical power to move from point A to point B. No one else can do it for you and the clock doesn’t lie. If you run 5k in 20 minutes, people may be able to make subjective judgements about your form, but their opinions don’t change the time.
While running alone for so long I decided that I run for myself. I enjoy running. I’m not in direct competition with anyone. I don’t even see other people most of the time. I just do it because the action of doing so enriches my life.
Discovering other people
While I didn’t physically see many other runners, I did notice other runners in my area on Strava. I connected with a few local runners on Strava and noticed that one of them attended a parkrun event. I’d heard of parkruns before and decided to try and go along sometimes if I was available.
I attended my first parkrun in June 2022 and found that running with people was a totally different experience than running alone. I was pulled along by the energy of people running quicker than me, and pushed along by people I could feel approaching at my back. Volunteers and other runners alike cheer each other on and as a result we all end up doing better, not just at running but just generally in our lives.
I’ve run more than 100 parkruns now and made a lot of amazing friends. Thanks to the connections I’ve made through parkrun I’ve also gotten involved with my beach running events, and I’ve even run marathons, ultramarathons, and trail races with people I’ve met through parkrun.
There are clearly a lot of benefits we can get through running with others.
The power of encouragement
Cheering people on can come in many different forms and all of them have power. Since early 2025 I started uploading a morning greeting on 𝕏 before whatever run I end up doing, then I upload the run data after. I enjoy sending a quick message to my followers to essentially lead by examples (many of my followers are not in Japan and as such my early morning is ahead of there’s no matter what). Every time I do this I always receive nice replies encouraging me with my runs, wishing me a great day as well, and sometimes telling me that I’m an inspiration and to keep it up. This kind of positivity encourages me to keep going and I hope other people feel the same as well.
On another note, although I take part in a few running clubs already, there are other running clubs in my area where members ask me to join if I’m able to. There is one club that has a 6am start time that is a bit far away from my place, but last week I made the extra effort to get up early and run with them. The run itself is very relaxed and the purpose is mainly to just have a chat and do some exercise. By the time the run was done I felt like I had barely done any work because the energy I got from talking to a bunch of friendly people as I ran along made the 8k run feel like nothing.
And probably one of the best examples of this cheering power I’ve seen recently was last weekend where I went to my parkrun with the intention to run a pretty fast race. I set off and was in first place for most of the way with a friend of mine on my heels almost the entire way. The parkrun is a 4 loop course. We lapped one of our mutual friends (a running coach who was taking it easy), and on the 4th lap we met him again. I was still in 1st place but my running coach friend latched onto the guy in second, and started encouraging/pushing him to keep going and wring out that last bit of potential he had. Those two took off ahead of me and ended up finishing 9 seconds before I did, but I destroyed my previous personal best trying to catch them up, and my friend in first place finally came in under 19 minutes for the first time with a finishing time of 18:59. A glorious result for everyone involved.
Final thoughts and take home messages
It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that before the pandemic I was 100% training with others, during the pandemic I was 100% alone, and after the pandemic I 100% focus on training with others again. That’s not quite the situation.
Right now I still spend most of my time training alone. It’s important to put the hours in and put in the training volume. But I do really appreciate training with other people. That’s the time I enjoy most.
I think finding a balance is quite important. If you declare yourself an introvert and only train alone you are going to miss out on the benefits of cheering people on and being cheered on yourself. If you are a proud extrovert you are going to get a lot of socializing done, but you may not be able to spend all the time you need to grinding alone to get strong enough to ‘impress your friends.’
You should want the best for yourself and others. no matter what you do, cheer people on and try to set a good example. When you do well and want others to do well, everyone wins. I got second place in my race last weekend, but more importantly, a good friend of mine totally smashed the goal he was aiming for. And that puts a smile on my face.
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Osu!
Anthony