What is endurance?
Endurance is the ability to withstand or persist through difficult conditions over long periods of time. It involves having both mental and physical strength and stamina to push through challenges without giving up.
Some key aspects of endurance include:
- Physical capacity - Having the bodily strength, energy, and fitness needed to sustain activity for prolonged periods. This may involve cardiovascular endurance for activities like long-distance running, or muscular endurance for feats of strength over time.
- Mental fortitude - Possessing the mental toughness, grit, determination, and willpower to overcome the urge to quit when faced with fatigue, discomfort, or adversity. As the saying goes: "It's 10% physical, 90% mental."
- Resilience - Being able to bounce back from setbacks and failures without getting discouraged. Endurance athletes learn to take failures and missteps in stride as part of the journey.
- Discipline - Having the self-control and consistency to stick to the training and preparation needed to build endurance over the long haul. This means doing the day-in, day-out work even when motivation lags.
Some examples of endurance feats include:
- Running ultramarathons of 50 or 100 miles
- Competing in Ironman or Adventure racing events over 8 hours
- Taking long, multi-week expeditions in extreme environments
- Persisting through difficult life circumstances for years
Ultimately, endurance enables people to push beyond what seems possible on the surface. It is that inner fortitude and deep perseverance that carries them down the long road towards seemingly impossible goals. The longer the challenge, the more endurance comes into play.
Or as the Kenyan marathon runner Mary Keitany put it:
"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory."
So in many ways, endurance helps tap into the very best part of the human spirit - the ability to turn adversity into achievement, one step at a time.