Learning to sit in the uncomfortable

Marissa Calvert
Jan 28
2 min read

I have a very healthy obsession with Lewis Hamilton. Others may disagree about the healthy part, but we move.

He once said:

“If I feel comfortable in the car, I’m not driving fast enough. Don’t ever be comfortable, because if you are comfortable you are not pushing enough. So I never actually felt settled because there was always something to push for.”

That quote has been sitting with me through training lately.

Last year was a proper PB year for me. On paper, it looks strong. Faster times, better execution, a body that felt capable and confident. But what the numbers don’t show is how uncomfortable that progress felt while it was happening.

This year, we start at zero again.

Back to building. Back to questioning my fitness. Back to wondering if taking time off was a mistake, even though I know rest is part of the work too. Podium Princesses need recovery as much as they need grit.

And the rebuild has a rhythm.

MLH hills on a Tuesday. The kind of session that has you bargaining with yourself halfway up, convincing your legs that yes, we are turning around for another rep. It’s uncomfortable in the least glamorous way. Breathless, burning, slightly dramatic. Then you finish and suddenly you’re feeling on top of the world as you crack open that much deserved Jack Black (thanks guys) and smile for one of Faizel’s selfies, tomato-red face and all.

MLH track on a Thursday. Exhilarating, humbling, addictive. The session where you look down at your watch and immediately second guess yourself. That pace can’t be right. Who do you think you are running like this? But you hold it, you find the rhythm, and you learn that your comfort zone isn’t a boundary, it’s a suggestion.

Then the weekends. Long runs with the friends we’ve made along the way. Road or trail, yappy or quiet (actually, we are never quiet), steady or slightly chaotic, it all counts. They pull you through the parts where you’d usually cut it short. They make the hard stuff lighter without making it easier. And somehow, those kilometres become the ones you remember most. Do you know how quick a 2hr run goes with people you actually like?!

In between all of that, the strength classes that don’t feel like running but always show up in the running. A stronger core, better form when you’re tired, less wobble, more control. The unsexy work that makes everything else feel possible.

It’s easy to think progress only looks like speed. But most of the time it looks like consistency. It looks like showing up to the session you really don’t have lis for because traffic, homework, a hard day, whatever. It looks like doing the reps even when you’re not sure you’re fit enough yet. It looks like rebuilding, again and again.