Struggle, challenge, and rise to struggle again!
Do not go gentle
Good thing I front loaded
A few weeks ago I wrote an article called Front Loading. In that article I discussed a very David Goggins style outlook on life.
“Frontloading” is the practice of working exceptionally hard early in life to build a strong foundation of accomplishments and mental fortitude for the future.
In that article I mentioned that I was about 204 km ahead of where I needed to be in order to hit my goal for a year. Which is a good thing, because I am now unfortunately eating into the advantage that I had.
A few weeks ago I caught a cold. That cold then developed into a fever, where I wasn’t able to properly exercise (beyond running very short distances) until I was recovered. I then needed to go on a trip abroad where the cold I had turned into a persistent cough. I ran a 62 km week with that persistent cough, but when I got back to Japan I went to the doctor and was told I was walking/running around with pneumonia.
Now that I have a diagnosis and a bunch of drugs to kill the infection and cough up all the unpleasantness in my lungs, I’m needing to actually take a bit of time off to recover properly.
This is of course hitting me quite hard. Mentally more than physically.
Rage…
I’m feeling kind of down that I can’t train properly because training is a big part of my life. But more than down, I’m kind of mad. I want to get back into the fray right away. And that, is power.
One of my favorite poems (which some of you may be familiar with) is Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas. The theme of the of the poem is that you should fight with everything that you achieve everything you can with the life you have. I believe the poem was written by Thomas to encourage his father to fight with everything he could to live his remaining life to the fullest in his final days. The poem is as follows:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Words to live by.
Struggle, challenge, and rise to struggle again!
I don’t read a lot of manga these days but back when I was more of an active manga fan I loved reading Berserk by Kentaro Miura.
For those who don’t know the story, briefly, Guts (aka black swordsman) was previously part of a mercenary army. The army was betrayed by their leader who offered him and all of his friends up as a sacrifice to a bunch of dark gods for the promise of power. Almost all of his friends were killed during this sacrificial ritual but he fought his way out of the situation at the cost of an arm and an eye. Guts is constantly under attack by demons because he is marked as a sacrifice. His soul being claimed by demons is seemingly inevitable.
There is a mysterious character in the story known as the Skull Knight. He appears strategically to offer help and advice and after seeing Guts survive against all odds and continue to fight against his fate, he gives him the title of Struggler.
I absolutely love this concept. The unbelievable willpower of Guts to survive and thrive in a world that wants to destroy him really gets me fired up. (Yes. It’s fiction. But take inspiration wherever you can get it).
I hate being sick and I hate losing ground. I have had a run streak going for most of the year (a run streak requires you to run at least 1 mile a day every day), but more importantly I have been maintaining at least 10,000 steps every day for more than 450 days in a row. If I miss a day of doing 10,000 steps the counter resets to zero. I’ve maintained this 10,000 step streak even after completing ultramarathons, so I definitely didn’t want to lose it to pneumonia.
So every day I’ve been making my 10,000 steps happen. I’ve been getting a mile in as well during my recovery. I’m making it happen even if it’s slow.
I’m clinging to my run streak, I’m buying a little extra time back, and I’m keeping active until I can get back out there again and crush it.
Struggle, challenge, and rise to struggle again!
This is the way.
Final thoughts and take home messages
I’m not dying by any stretch of the imagination. I learned I can run a 21:30 5K even with pneumonia, so my training has been good for something. Thank you VO2 max. But I am a bit down that I am under the weather.
Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas is a great poem. Remember that it exists and use it for fuel. Also take inspiration wherever you can get it. If watching anime/reading manga makes you train like a beast, let it happen.
Never give up. Keep fighting. Struggle as if you are going to get a cool title from a ghostly knight.
And most of all, take care of yourselves. Osu!
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Osu!
"Why do we fall? So we can pick ourselves back up."
Good piece as usual!