I've just finished a run of 18K as part of my training for half marathons. This made me recall the analogy between long runs and start-ups and I wanted to share with you my point of view.
Let me describe the run first - It is very hot and humid in Israel during the summer. Even though I started the run when the sun rose, the average temperature is almost 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and humidity is about 70 percent. I also ran on rolling hills. Once can say that these are not the perfect conditions.
Since I need to keep my heart rate on a certain level and since conditions are not too good, my running speed was slowed down. Mentally it is tougher since you tend to believe that your physical fitness is deteriorating. It is like "Hey, I used to run faster in the past and I ran longer distances, what is going on?" I know that it is the affects of the conditions, but still there is a mental barrier there.
Another "mental crisis" in the past was after two consecutive illnesses each of 2 weeks each in the winter. I did a half marathon and shortly after I got sick. After I recovered, I started again running 5K runs and then gradually increasing distances until several weeks after I was in shape again, I was happy for 2 days, and then I got sick again. This was a bummer.
It took much time and practice to understand that indeed, the physical fitness is improving, my body does get stronger, and I am able to recover faster comparing to former illnesses. However, I needed a yardstick and perspective of a really long time (years) to comprehend it while I had to be patient and continue to practice.
I think that the analogy to a start-up is pretty clear. Building a company is not a 100 meter race. The money you will be making is far far away. There are many ups and downs. However, if you keep on fighting, it will improve. It might take years, but you can get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment