How to pee in a gale

- and seven slightly more transferable skills I learned on the mountain

I’ve been trail running for about 10 years, in which time I’ve found it to be a great way of staying fit, recharging and connecting with nature. My natural urge to see how far I can take something becomes literal in the context of running, and I’ve found that — as well as helping me to disconnect from work — there are work-life lessons to be learned on the trails. Here are a few of mine.

1. Run the hills now, and you’ll walk the flats later

A friend of mine is very fond of pointing this out at the start of a race. It’s great to race the easy parts, but if you have worn your legs out in the early stages then you won’t be able to. Pace yourself, in life as in races, so that you can perform well the whole time, not just in spurts before you collapse.

2. Crazy is relative

When I first started running, I read about ultra marathons and they seemed completely crazy. The tales of physical breakdown, pushing yourself to extremes in all weathers, running long distances over the mountains were interesting, but far removed from my running and from my idea of what was possible. Then I started to run with a bunch of nutters who did that kind of thing regularly. Just chatting to them and getting to know them made me realise that maybe these things were doable, and next thing you know, I’m on the start line.

Suppose you would love to work in the film industry, but your day job is a nice stable one in accounting. It is a long way from accounting to movies when everyone you hang out with thinks in spreadsheets. Connect to some movie people (LinkedIn might be a good place to start!), go talk to them, and you’ll discover that you have things in common, there are skills you can transfer, and it is possible to get into their kind of work. It may not be straightforward, but — unlike a mountain — the challenges will look smaller the closer you get.

3. Do something that scares you

When I ran my first road marathon, I had carefully followed a detailed training plan. This gave me the confidence that I had done the work and I’d be OK. Standing at the start of my first ultra, I was genuinely unsure that I’d finish. For something that is tougher, and with many more variables, it is much harder to go in for the first time and know it will be fine.

From a work perspective, if you are getting into something worthwhile, there’s a good chance it will look scary. There will be lots of unknowns, and while the first steps are clear, it may be hard to see how and where things end without that experience. That first step isn’t the hardest — I think the hardest is the last step you take before you decide you’re going to finish this whatever it takes — but it is probably the most important. Just keep the end goal in mind, get going, and take it from there.

4. Accept and understand your mistakes

When you get lost, which you will literally on the mountain, and figuratively pretty much everywhere else at some point, it is all too easy to make things worse. When you realise that you have gone wrong, it feels like there ought to be a way back onto the path by pushing on. What happens, of course, is that you compound the problem, and usually end up with some new scratches. The right thing to do is almost always to retrace your steps, figure out where you lost the path, and think again.

On the trail or in the office, advice from those you are with will probably help, if you can learn to listen. There are, of course, some times when you accidentally discover a new way of doing things, or learn more about what you are capable of, in the process of getting lost. History is speckled with happy accidents leading to great discoveries, so celebrate them when they happen, and enjoy the new perspective.

5. Something will give eventually

One thing I have discovered is that I have weak points: many of them. On a long run, it’s usually my back that causes a problem eventually. Sometimes it’s early on; sometimes it takes 50 or 60km, but that’s probably what will go. I know this, so I work to protect it, and to prevent problems by looking out for the warning signs. I’ve learned from my career that my general health will be the thing that gives when I have been overdoing it. For you it may be some other area of your life, but with me it starts with a sore throat and goes downhill fast. When that comes I know to slow down and accept a temporarily reduced performance in exchange for being able to continue.

6. Training works

It’s obvious that to run long distances you need to train. What might be less obvious at first is that you don’t just run long distances — it helps to walk, to run fast on short distances, and also to cross train and strengthen specific parts of your body. You will find that you are getting better, often without noticing it to start with. In my first proper job, my manager said to me that I was increasing my capacity through the work I was doing. I thought he just meant that I was working more, but I saw later that I was learning new ways of working, and picking up skills that meant that I could do more: run further and faster. If you want to get better at what you do generally, there are specific things that you can do that will help with aspects of it. Perhaps you feel self conscious giving presentations to a crowd — join Toastmasters. If you don’t understand the technical details around something, do an introductory course on Udemy or Coursera. It may all feel incremental, but the benefits are apparent if you stop occasionally to look back from the top of the hill you’ve climbed.

7. Prepare for the worst

Through a combination of clumsiness and fatigue, I’ve managed to accumulate 2 or 3 cuts needing stitches and a broken arm in my running ‘career’ — significantly worse than a similar length of time playing rugby. On a long run, I always carry a first aid kit, a dry top, food and water, and some other bits & pieces. I rarely need more than the food & water, but when I have needed the other things, they have been essential. Going into any potentially difficult work situation I try and be similarly prepared. Maybe it’s a key client meeting, or a performance review — have your thinking done and your facts ready, and be prepared for whatever might come. There won’t be blood, and if you do your homework then your sweat will save the tears.

And that other thing…

Before I close, you’re probably wondering how it’s done. This is gender-specific advice, obviously. Clearly peeing into the wind is a bad idea, but so is doing it with your back to the wind: it creates a turbulence that can get messy. 90 degrees doesn’t work because it tends to land on your shoe. I’ve found the best option is to get the wind over one shoulder from behind, thus creating enough dead air to get it clear. So now you know.