Developing Discipline for Endurance Sports

Discipline is something that, over the years, I've experienced to varying degrees. At times, I feel like I've mastered it, only to realize that it’s slipped through my fingers. When I was a teenager, it could be something as simple as avoiding beer or junk food before a summer holiday. In later years, it’s been about following a sports training plan down to the minute detail. What do these things have in common? I had a goal—something I was aiming to achieve.

Without a clear goal, maintaining discipline, especially in endurance sports can be challenging—at least for me. I need something bigger than my love of sweets to keep me in line. A large part of today's society is designed to make things as easy as possible for us, which, while it has its advantages, also has its disadvantages. Many of the world's largest industries—fast food, social media, and streaming platforms—have algorithms that make it all too easy for us to say yes to the next video or order that extra side of food. I’ll admit that I still fall victim to this; just yesterday, I devoured half a packet of strawberry marshmallows that were on sale and perfectly positioned in the checkout queue. Did I feel great afterward? No. Did they taste good? Yes!

When training for my Ironman in 2020, I joined a group that went swimming in an abandoned quarry near to where I lived. The water was crystal clear, and the quarry was deep—too deep to see the bottom. On sunny summer days, light would penetrate through the water, creating spectacular shafts of dancing light as we swam overhead. The challenge for me was that I hate the unknown depths of open water, whether it’s the deep blue sea or a murky lake. In this quarry, I could see nothing but an impenetrable blue all the way to its depths. Unfortunately for me, open water swimming is essential in training for an Ironman. My training consisted of multiple laps across the middle of this quarry. Every time I’d reach the midpoint, I'd look down and imagine some horrible monster rising from the bottom. Rationally, of course, I knew this was ridiculous, but whether from a primal fear or childhood tales of the Loch Ness monster, I couldn’t shake my fear. So, where did I find the discipline to keep swimming, half terrified, across that quarry day after day? It was in the goal I'd set for myself: to finish an Ironman. My desire to complete that race and my fear of failure far outweighed any temptation to skip those swims. My goal fueled my discipline.

How many times have I swum in that quarry since the race? Once, and I paddled close enough to shore so that I could see the bottom while the others swam across. Safe to say, no monster ever did appear.

While somewhat of a silly story, my experiences in that quarry taught me that when I was truly passionate about a goal, discipline came easily. However, I also learned that it could disappear just as quickly once my goal was achieved.

It’s been said that discipline equals freedom. This is particularly true in endurance sports, where discipline not only helps you achieve your goal but also clears your mind and allows you to focus on the high demands you’re putting on your body. If you decide to cut out all the temptations that are holding you back, and your mind knows this, then it’s going to stop wasting time bringing temptations to your attention. It’s going to focus on what you’ve made important and free up your time and mental energy.

I have true admiration for people who maintain discipline 24/7, 365 days a year; that takes a kind of mentality that I've yet to reach, clearly, considering my marshmallow exploits, and I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that level. I enjoy the occasional drinks with friends and the overindulgence of pizza from time to time too much to have that kind of discipline. And honestly, that doesn’t bother me, as long as the majority of the time I’m in control, I'm content.

For the average person, maintaining discipline every minute of every day is not really what we're looking for. What most of us seek is a level of discipline that allows us to progress without feeling riddled with guilt if we have a day off or a lazy holiday. In my own experience, I’ve often found that I need to have a break to renew my motivation and desire to be disciplined in the pursuit of a new endurance challenge.

A lesson that we can take from those who are truly disciplined is the example of what progress you can make when you make discipline a constant in your life. People who go on to achieve exceptional feats in endurance sports do so not by trying hard once and then stopping, but by consistently being disciplined, training again and again, and pushing themselves to greater heights.

If you ever stop for a significant period, you’ll likely find that your discipline will wilt away, and it’ll be harder to get started again. You may even find you have to take a few steps back in your training to get going again. I had a two-year window between my last two races, and I found this to be too long. I ended up getting lazy and feeling a bit aimless in my training; this then fed into a similar feeling in my life outside of training. If I've spent a whole year training for something, 1-3 months feels like a good amount of time to rest and enjoy myself without losing too much discipline. Once this time is up, I can get back into a training plan and continue to build for that next objective.

To state the obvious, the hardest thing that comes with being disciplined is the temptation of other, more appealing options; this is the essential struggle. It makes sense, then, that if you know there are certain situations or things you just can’t say no to, don’t put yourself in those situations or around those things. If you can’t go to the pub with your mates without having a drink, and you're trying to stay sober while training, then don’t go to the pub. Make it as easy as you can for yourself. Discipline can be a hard endeavor without torturing yourself during the process. Obviously, times will come up when it may not be possible to avoid them, but at least reduce the frequency, and they’ll likely be easier to manage.

The discipline required while pursuing endurance sports can also feel isolating for this reason. If you don’t have others around you who are aiming for the same thing, then they may not understand why you're being so disciplined. I experienced this when I first started training for my Ironman. This is when it can be good to join a sports club so that you surround yourself with like-minded people who can relate to you.

So how do you develop discipline? Find a goal that you want to achieve more than anything else, and discipline will be the friend you find along the way.

My advice: Don’t pick a goal you feel pressured into by others, because you’ll never stick to it unless you really want it for yourself. If you actually enjoy the endurance sport you're pursuing, you're more likely to stick with it. Once you pick something, then you can harness that peer pressure to your advantage. If you suffer from the opinions of others, tell your friends your goal, and then use the fear of their judgment in your possible failure to push yourself to train hard and stay disciplined.

Secondly, don’t set yourself some ridiculously large goal straight off the bat; at some point, you’re going to become overwhelmed and probably crumble under the pressure. Start with a small, easily attainable goal and progressively build upon it. I started with a sprint triathlon, then an Olympic triathlon, an Ironman then 100 mile ultramarathon.

Dr. Jordan Peterson made the point that we often undervalue the importance of completing small tasks. Regardless of how easy they may be, they build within us a mentality of “I can do this.” These small wins make us realize that we can accomplish goals that we set for ourselves. Then you can start to aim for bigger endurance challenges.

Money can be a big driving factor too. The hardest part for me is usually signing up for an event. For some reason, it's the time I procrastinate the most; I’ll spend weeks, if not months, pondering it, all the while knowing that I'll eventually pay my dues and commit. Once I've paid my fees, though, my mentality shifts to “I’ve just spent all this money; I’ve got to do it now.” It can be an added factor in keeping you disciplined, as it’s now a financial investment, and one that will help you grow and learn that you’re capable of a lot more than you thought.

So choose a goal that excites you, tell others about it to keep you accountable, and get going. There will still be highs and lows along the way—weeks where it comes naturally and others where it doesn’t—but over time, it’ll be an upward trajectory and one you’ll look back on to see all the things you achieved along the way.

A great book to read more on this subject is Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, written by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney.