Choose Your Hard

“What did they want you to do, like die?”

I laughed. “It kind of felt like it…”

I was telling Divya about the MADstrength Games at my gym that I impulsively signed up for the day before. Here’s what it entailed:

8 Strength Movements w/short fast runs to start and between every movement:

• Outdoor Run .25 miles = 1,318 feet start with and perform b/t every movement
• Pushups x 25 women / 50 men / 75 top athlete – chest much touch, 90 degree bend, forearm vertical. Mods allowed for knees down but must rise to plank between ea rep.
• 300 ft SA/SL KB rack lunge (10 lengths total, 5 lengths x on ea arm/leg). 10kg women – 16kg men – 20kg top athlete – knee must tap
• Squat clean and toss x 40. 20lb women – 40lb men – 50lb top athlete – arms must fully extend at top of toss
• Row x 1,000m
• Power rows x 60. 20kg women – 28kg men – 32kg top athlete
• Burpee broad jump x 300 ft – must kick back or step back legs, chest much touch floor, mods to knees allowed for push up but must reset to high plank between ea rep
• Ski erg x 1,000m
• Farmer carry x 600ft. 35lb women – 60lb men – 70lb top athlete

When a trainer first mentioned the event over a month ago, he looked at me and said, “You should do it, Ted.” I thought he was crazy, and quickly dismissed the idea.

Fast forward to the day before the event when something inside me said: You should just sign up and do it. It’ll be hard, but you might as well do it with other like-minded people.

The thought reminded me of Caleb, a volleyball player I’d just met, who was saying that he runs his age in miles every birthday (he’s 24).

“Why would you do that?” I asked, incredulous.

“I like to do hard things,” he replied, matter-of-factly.

The truth is, I don’t like doing hard things. Discipline is hard. Working out is hard. But, as Cooper said on the infamous Clouds Rest hike, “Working out is hard. Not working out is hard. Choose your hard.”

Those words weren’t pounding in my head at the time, but I signed up because I knew it would be hard, and figured it would be a good way to challenge myself. I also convinced Ben to join, because if anybody’s wired for ridiculously hard things, it’s Ben.

About three movements in, somewhere around the squat clean and toss, I caught myself thinking, I’m not sure I can finish this.

But I kept going – partly because everybody else was grinding, partly because I didn’t want to be a quitter. The runs became slow jogs, and eventually just walks. Still, I didn’t stop. And when I finally crossed the finish line, it felt amazing to accomplish something I had thought was not possible just 40 minutes prior.

Here’s what I realized: hard things change you. Not because you get a medal or bragging rights, but because you discover you can endure more than you thought. I suppose that’s why people train for marathons and Ironmans. Sure, the body gets stronger, but more importantly, the mind learns it won’t break as easily as it thinks it will.

So maybe I don’t love hard things yet. But I’m beginning to love how I feel after choosing them.