Are you a “Sprinter” or a “Marathoner”?
Are you a “Sprinter” or a “Marathoner”?
How to adjust your lifestyle based on the pace and intensity of your lifestyle
If I asked you how you live, work and operate in your day-to-day life, would you say you’re more of a “sprinter" or more of a “marathoner”? Are you someone who thrives in the heat and produces the majority and the best work in short, high-intensity bursts? Or are you someone who lives and works at a slower pace but for a longer period of time?
In this newsletter, I’ll be talking about the idea of being a “sprinter” vs “marathoner” and “sprinting” vs “running a marathon”: what do these sports analogies mean, the benefits and negatives of both, which one is better, how you should rest based on your lifestyle type and how to optimize it.
I encountered the idea of “Sprinting and resting" in 2019 when I first read Dave Asprey’s new book called Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life.
The book is a collection of ideas and lessons from 500 podcast episodes from what was then called The Bulletproof Radio (now called The Human Upgrade Radio) and I really liked it. It resonated so well with me, taught me a lot of new things and lit the spark in me, and gave me the motivation that I could overcome everything that I’d been struggling with at the time and become the best version of myself. It’s still one of my favorite books.
In the subchapter Law 13: Don't push yourself for too long, Dave talks about the idea of “Sprinting and Resting.” This was the first time I encountered this idea and it made so much sense.
Dave suggests that we shouldn't push ourselves for too long because when we go too hard for too long, our body believes that it's under threat. So instead, Dave suggests we should become a “professional recovery artist”.
He says:
“The only time an animal pushes itself until it drops is when it's starving or being hunted. When you push yourself without recovery, your body believes you must be under threat. An automatic system kicks in and shuts down the less necessary systems in your body. The ones that keep you young. The ones that keep you happy. The ones that help you think. You must learn to be a professional recovery artist. Screw running a marathon every day. Sprint, rest, sprint instead. Massively create and then massively test to keep your passion - and your meat - alive for the whole race.”
Are you a Sprinter or Marathoner?
If we use a sports analogy, a “sprinter” is someone who thrives in short, high-intensity bursts of action. They can be super productive and can produce a ton of work in a short period of time, but these “sprints” are less frequent or even occasional. Sprinters thrive in the high energy mode, flow states, and from dopamine that is produced in those states.
A “marathoner” is someone who lives and works at a slower pace but for a longer period of time. They tend to be more consistent and get the reward feeling for achieving small, consistent, daily work and accomplishments.
I think why Dave's idea of sprinting and resting resonated with me so much is because I’m a sprinter by nature.
I played football (soccer for my American subscribers) as a kid, but then in my teens, I switched to volleyball, partly because volleyball consists of short and intense bursts of performance and actions and I found football too boring because it was too much of an endurance sport and there wasn’t enough action.
I also never liked running or cycling. In the gym, I always preferred and enjoyed strength-based training and Olympic weight lifting which both consist of intense bursts of performance, followed by longer rest periods.
Since I can remember, I always pushed back and delayed studying and did my best work in fewer bouts of intense sessions. I like the feeling of adrenaline and flow when I have to give it all. I also thrive under pressure and it forces me to deliver and do my best.
Now you might be wondering what is better. To be a sprinter or a marathoner?
Which One Is Better? Sprinting or Running A Marathon?
In today’s world, we tend to simplify things and make them all or nothing, black or white, but there is no simple and right answer to the question of whether it is better to be a sprinter or a marathon runner: both have their pros and cons.
As a sprinter, you’re more likely to go into the high revs, drain your energy too quickly and go to the edge of burnout more easily and quickly.
As a marathoner however it’s easy to keep the intensity too high for too long: when you get caught into that low chronic stressed-out mode where your body is pumping out stress hormones and you’re fueled by cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, it’s tough to break that cycle and you could then end up burned out.
In the case of burnout, you might run into danger on both sides.
But no matter if you are a sprinter or a marathon runner, you have and need to pay attention to and get enough rest in order to recover, replenish your energy stores and prevent burnout.
How To Rest Accordingly?
I found one of the best explanations of how often, how long, and intensively you should rest in
's newsletter .“As a rule of thumb, the longer the effort, the longer the recovery time.
A week-long push will require more time to recover than a 1 day push.
And both of those will require more resources to recover than an hour-long effort.
The sprints, as the picture above illustrates, are easier to identify.
Less intense pushes, however, are not so obvious.
These are the week-long pushes.
Or the “phases” of life where we all have to endure extra duress.
Because these periods are made of up consecutive days/weeks/months of submaximal efforts (i.e. no single day is a true sprint) they have a way of sneaking up on us.
These are ones that “get us”.
Both the intensity and duration of the activated state will dictate the amount of parasympathetic state activation required to achieve “balance”. (I hate the word balance. That’s the reason for the quotes.)
A week long push might require 2-7 days of recovery to get back to baseline
An effort that lasts about 60 minutes (training session) might require 24-48 hours to return to baseline (Higher than baseline should be the goal. It’s called supercompensation and it’s the goal of all training. Topic for another day…)”
I’ve been a paid subscriber of
since it came out (it’s now almost 2 and a half years) and I find a lot of value in it. As a paid member, I recently received a few free monthly subscriptions to give away, so the first few people who will reach out to me will get a free monthly subscription to The Pursuit.
Other authors also emphasize the importance of prolonged periods of rest and inactivity: Tim Ferris in his most famous book The 4-Hour Workweek highlights the importance of short and longer periods of rest and recovery and periods of alternation of activity and rest.
“Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. [ … ] Personally, I now aim for one month of overseas relocation or high-intensity learning (tango, fighting, whatever) for every two months of work projects.”
If you’re a marathoner you need fewer periods of intense rest, but if you’re a sprinter and you base your life around sprinting - periods of intense activity - you have to later compensate for that with more and more frequent periods of intense rest and downtime.
If you paid close attention at the beginning of the newsletter, Dave Asprey gave the “rest formula” for sprinters:
“Sprint - rest - sprint, massively create and then massively rest.”
It’s obvious and self-evident, but it’s so easy to neglect this fact and get caught in the “always grind and hustle” mode: instead of being either a sprinter or a marathon runner, you become a “marathon sprinter” - a recipe for disaster and burnout.
I’ve been and sometimes still am sometimes guilty of that. It’s so easy for me when I feel good to just keep sprinting and working at my almost maximal capacity until I’m forced to slow down and rest.
Final Thoughts
So what is better? Is it better to be a sprinter and live your life sprinting? Or is it better to be a marathon runner and live your life running at a slower pace?
At the end of the day, I think it depends on the person and their lifestyle. It’s becoming aware of who you are, the situation and phase of your life you’re in, and working with what you have and optimizing it.
I would say to keep your core lifestyle identity (whether as a sprinter or a marathon runner), be aware of the dangers and adjust it so you don’t run in danger of burnout.
It can be very hard and challenging to charge your core lifestyle and how you operate in your everyday life: doing and living in a way that is not genuine to you can be stressful and energy-depleting and unfulfilling, and therefore counterproductive.
As for me, deep down I’m still a sprinter: I thrive under real pressure of deadline and I produce my best work when I’m fully into the flow. But because or my current job, work schedule and because my nervous system and my health benefit from a more lower-pace lifestyle, I try to reduce the amounts of sprints and do more steady state running.
I’m conscious of the fact that when I sprint, I have to take enough quality time to rest, recharge and recover after those bursts of performance: whether that’s after a few intense days of work, after finishing a project, after a high energy lecture, an intense workout, etc.
So what about you? Are you a sprinter or a marathoner? Do you prefer work over prolonged periods of time at a lower pace or complete your work in short intense bursts? Let me know in the comments below.
Dave Asprey, Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life, p. 99.
Timothy Ferris, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, p. 32.
Good post Jani!