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In this email I’m going to talk about the biggest (and most surprising) lesson I learned running my second marathon, and how to perform at a higher level by finding your ‘maximum minimum.’ 

While this lesson was drilled into me while running, don’t be fooled—it applies to pretty much anything you’re trying to do better in life.  

I’ll get into that soon, but let me start by setting the scene…

There’s a concept in running called ‘hitting the wall.’ 

In scientific terms: This refers to the moment your body runs out of fast-acting fuel sources (your carbs/glycogen) and switches to less efficient fuel sources like fat or protein, causing muscular and mental fatigue. 

In real terms: You start to feel like a zombie and forget why you ever signed up to do something as stupid as run 26.2 miles. 

(The wall isn’t inevitable, and if you’re smart you can figure out how to avoid it—but for many amateur runners there’s a pretty healthy chance you’re going to hit it during a marathon.)

I think the feeling of ‘hitting a wall’ can be present in anything we do in life.

Anytime we set a goal and get to work achieving it, we experience peaks and troughs in our levels of energy and drive. You might be feeling burnout from a work goal, running out of ideas for a creative project you’re working on, or literally running out of energy to lift heavier weights in the gym. 

So what should you do when you hit the wall?

The first step is to be ready for it. 

The first time I ran a marathon, I was completely unprepared for it. My plan was to churn out consistent 9-minute miles from start to finish, giving me a solid sub-4-hour finish. 

But as Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” and I’d add that every runner has a plan until they hit the wall. 

Around the 19-mile mark, as my body hit the wall and various other factors drained my energy, I started to feel like 9-minute miles simply weren’t going to be possible. I slowed down to 10, 11, 12-minute miles and gritted my teeth to get it done. It seemed 9 minutes wasn’t a possibility anymore, so I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and forgot about times. 

This was a mistake.

So what should I have done differently?

In life, we’re probably going to hit the wall from time to time. Our original goals might no longer feel possible. Our ability to get the work done, get the practice reps in, or just show up in the way we want to might start to slip.

In other words, our capacity is going to fluctuate. 

But what I think should (and can) stay the same is that we aim to give 100% of our capacity. 

In the marathon, I felt my capacity slip from being able to run 8-9 minute miles to running 10-12 minute miles. I was so disappointed at that shift in capacity that I didn’t stop to ask myself whether I was still giving 100%, even if that 100% was still not my original goal. 

Looking back, I asked myself: “Ok, maybe 9-minute miles weren’t possible. But those miles you ran at a 12-minute/mile pace—you probably could have run them in 11 minutes, right?

Maybe even 10 and a half? Just because your initial goal went out the window shouldn’t have made you give up on having a goal and giving your 100% to that.”  

I realised after the race that if I had just managed to cut those last 6 miles down by a minute or so—which I’m convinced was possible, even if 9-minute miles weren’t—I could have still saved 6 or 7 minutes on my overall time. 

As it happens, I finished the race exactly 7 minutes behind a friend of mine. 

This concept of giving 100% of your capacity, no matter what that capacity is, is something I refer to as your ‘maximum minimum.’ 

Even when we feel at our lowest, and like our capacity is the most minimum it has ever been—there’s still a maximum somewhere inside that minimum. Maybe for me, the maximum minimum was still hitting 10 and a half minute miles instead of 12. 

Maybe you’re an athlete coming back from an injury, and you’re discouraged because you can’t perform at the level you used to. 

Maybe you started the New Year intending to grow your new business massively, but quickly realised you don’t have enough time in the day for how big your goals are. 

Whatever your situation, I’d encourage you to not give up on your goals simply because your capacity isn’t what you wish it was—instead, try to figure out what 100% of your current capacity looks like, and commit to giving that.

The beauty is that over time, doing so will slowly increase and rebuild your capacity. 

The second time I ran a marathon, I tried to learn from my mistakes. 

This time I once again hit the wall around mile 20. I’d been running roughly 7:30/mile, and once again I started to realise my body probably wasn’t capable of holding that pace for the last six miles. 

This time, my mantra was simple: 

“Ok. You’re slowing down. 7:30 doesn’t feel possible anymore. That’s ok. But what’s the fastest you can run in this condition? Can you try for 8 minutes?”

I ran the next mile in 8 minutes. I started feeling even more fatigued, but again I was asking myself: “Ok. You’re fatigued, but what’s the fastest you can run while fatigued? Can you keep your pace under 10 minutes?” 

I ran the next few miles in 9 minutes. 

As I hit the final pile, I tried to empty the tank of what I had left, clocking under 8 minutes for the last mile. 

When I looked back after the race, I realised that even though the last 6 miles had felt like a disaster physically, I’d probably only lost 2 or 3 minutes on my overall time. They really hadn’t affected my race much. 

I was able to improve my performance by simply asking myself, at any given moment, what the ‘maximum’ I could do was. Even though, generally speaking, my body felt like it was slowing down, there was always a maximum within that minimum, and I wanted to push for that. 

I ran my second marathon nearly an hour quicker than my first. 

While this concept was really useful in helping me run a faster marathon, I think its real value extends far beyond running. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about this concept. That’ll be it for this week’s email. 

By the way, if you’re interested: this was 1 of 8 tips I recently put together on how to run a faster marathon without training any harder. 

These tips are mostly useful for runners, but there’s a lot in here that’s useful for any athlete (or anyone looking to improve their performance). 

Click below to watch:

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Your friends,

Benji and Jacob