Endurance Quotes: Strive with things impossible

To many people, endurance training refers primarily to physical parameters with a variety of labels such as aerobic capacity or stamina.  And, indeed, endurance training results in measurable, physical changes from the invisible (and underappreciated) such as mitochondrial volume to the visible (and marketable) such as a tiny waist or broad back.

But, as a coach I believe that the most important result of endurance training (i.e. going faster than you want for longer than you want) is the development of mental stamina.  Mental stamina is a mix of determination, discipline, passion, and optimism…traits that can be developed through challenging swim practices…traits that can stay with a person long after the six-pack abs and world-class cardiac output have faded…traits that make it possible to overcome any obstacle and achieve any feat.  

The following quotes come from a variety of sources -- Olympians, U.S. presidents, great writers--and remind me that accomplishing anything, including flying to the moon, requires endurance:  You have to stick with it.  And if you can smile while sticking with it, the journey will be a whole lot more enjoyable.

 
*   “We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.” - John F. Kennedy, Jr.

2    *  “Now bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.” – Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

3    *   "If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's beside the point. It's simply that I just have to." - Emil Zatopek

Emil Zatopek, Olympic Champion

*  “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” - Calvin Coolidge

5    *  “Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance." --Virgil

6    *  “Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory."  --William Barclay

7    *  “Heroism is endurance for one moment more."  --George Kennan

8    *  "You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone."  --Percy Cerutty

      *  "It is only through work and strife that either nation or individual moves on to greatness.  The great man is always the man of mighty effort, and usually the man whom grinding need has trained to mighty effort." --Theodore Roosevelt 

1    *  "Pain is temporary.  It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.  If I quit, however, it lasts forever."  --Lance Armstrong

Sian Welsh and Wendy Ingraham crawling to the finish of the 1997 Hawaii Ironman.