Running 5 min miles!!
At the beginning of this year, three of my great guy friends and I spent a weekend retreat in a billionaire’s house in Woodside, California.
It was wonderful. We started the weekend by hosting 20 amazing founders from Silicon Valley on Friday night and settled into a two-day staycation where we gave each other feedback:
What was holding each of us back
What we think are others' superpowers
What could they do to be the best versions of themselves
What could we do as a collective, how should we show up in each other's lives
We talked for almost 8-10 hours. It was intense, and one theme emerged: that we are all capable of a lot more—we are all runners and decided to run at 5 mph.
As men in our mid-thirties, we can all run 6-minute miles and it's an effort. We are proud we can all run sub 6 miles, but none of us has attempted to break the 5-minute mile in a decade (I have never attempted it in my life), and it felt like an absolutely impossible feat—but so are most of our ambitions for love, family, work, and community.
We decided to take it as both a metaphorical challenge to run 5-minute miles. It sounded ridiculous, but that's the zone we wanted to operate in.
This is what followed in the first 4 months of that:
We run a pre-seed fund outside of our entrepreneurial/operating journeys, and we saw more companies in the first 4 months—and all of quality in the first 4 months—than all of last year combined. We also made 25% fewer selections—we wanted to run 5-minute miles and wanted others who can do the same—we became more selective.
Geoff actually ran a 5-minute mile on the treadmill and is now pacing to run it on the track.
Andrew got married and Marcin had his first child—TBH, these had nothing to do with 5-minute miles, but it added to the excitement of these 4 months.
My company, Spot AI, raised additional capital and we are accelerating as an executive team faster than ever before.
6-minute miles no longer feel like an accomplishment or something worth mentioning, even though I haven’t improved my mile pace—my mindset has shifted in all areas of life.
After years of neglecting my diet and mostly focusing on workouts—and a lot of biking and running—I am back in the gym lifting weights 3x per week, I have reduced gluten to maybe once a week, and made other lifestyle changes.
I have realized by setting a ridiculous pace for ourselves, we got our mind and body used to that, and now when we operate at our previous best, it feels average or easier.
I loved this exercise for resetting mental boundaries. It serves as a reminder that sometimes, the most formidable barriers exist only in our minds, and once broken, what lies on the other side is a pace that makes the previous walk in the park.
Accept no limitations, keep resetting your mental boundaries—expand, don’t contract.
