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The Training

Cozy and Comfortable

  “You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.” – Dave Goggins, retired Navy SEAL You don’t compete in this event because it’s easy. You compete in it because it’s hard. You do it because it’s an escape from the normal routines that dominate your daily life. It’s easy to stick to those routines. Routines make you comfortable. They’re what you

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Mental Toughness Part 3: Embrace Discomfort

Hiking through rain and hail is no one’s ideal weekend, yet those were the conditions competitors faced last year. This type of weather was a first for the Endeavor Team Challenge and really threw a wrench in some teams’ plans. The difference between the teams that maintained their composure and those whose nerves became fried was how they handled the discomfort – those who embraced it were able to excel through the difficulties. Embracing discomfort

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Mental Toughness Part 2: What’s Holding You Back?

Close your eyes for a moment and envision your partner and yourself crossing the finish line in Bear Valley on September 9th. You have just spent the last 30 hours hiking, swimming, climbing, and navigating your way through the wilderness and you’ve lugged around your pack for most of it. Today, in this moment, does it seem possible? Crossing the line on Sunday might seem like an objective that’s out of reach, but we stand

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Mental Toughness Part 1: Excellence is a habit

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Most of the focus during the lead up to the Endeavor Team Challenge is on getting physically fit and acquiring or fine-tuning the necessary skills that will be tested during the event. Most training regimens, however, are lacking in one area – preparing mentally for such a long and demanding event. Mental toughness is an individual’s resilience against, and ability

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Type 2 Fun

Prevailing wisdom generally classifies fun into a few categories – the first two of which are relevant to most people (any more than 2 and you’re getting into “plot of an action movie” territory). Type 1 fun is your classic type of fun; it’s fun in all aspects. Examples of Type 1 fun activities are a bike ride through a park, exploring a lake via kayak, or a backyard BBQ with friends. Most recreational activities

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Remembering Fallen Soldiers

Memorial Day is a time to remember the heroes we have lost.  Traditionally this means those who died while serving in this country’s armed forces. These fallen men and women deserve our thoughts and appreciation for the sacrifice they have made. At Endeavor, today we are thinking of a hero of ours who passed away last year, Dave Edney.  Dave served his country.  He spent 10 years in the Coast Guard before moving up to

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The Value of Teams

At Always Endeavor we believe in the value of teams. Individual athletic events are great for building character and self-confidence.  They measure individual physical ability and willpower.  The individual is both the protagonist and the antagonist; fighting inner demons that are constantly saying slow down or give up. Something is lost in individual events though.  People are at their best when held accountable by others.  They fight harder when they are not just fighting for themselves. 

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Answer the Call

It takes a special kind of person to compete in the Endeavor Team Challenge. This is not a casual race to be completed in an afternoon, and we don’t call it a monumental fitness challenge for nothing. The ETC is more than a race. It’s validation that you and a teammate can surmount challenges out in the wilderness requiring self-reliance, physical resilience and psychological fortitude. It taps into the inner primal instinct that has been

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Through the Eyes – Alden Jones, Competitor Field

Alden Jones competed in and finished the 2015 Endeavor Team Challenge. How would you describe the competitor field? The competitor field was all about nutrition for me. Did you do any training specifically for the competitor field? What types of activities or skills would be helpful in the Competitor Field? I made sure to workout at least 6 days a week. A rest day, should include an activity or sport. I tried to double up

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Through the Eyes – Ben Dickens, Forging a Friendship

  Ben Dickens competed in the 2014 and 2015 Endeavor Team Challenge finishing 2nd in 2015. For me, the Endeavor Team Challenge forged a friendship. John Hofius (aka Hofius) and I have known each other since college, where we graduated from Stanford together in 2008. We became friends over the following years while we both lived in San Francisco, mostly interacting at social gatherings. We became close friends in late 2012, when we signed up for

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