Anton Krupicka on The Doing (Not The Being Done)

Anton Krupicka and I are about the same age. I’ve been a big fan of his going on twenty-plus years now—for his ultrarunning accomplishments, yes, but perhaps even more so for his writing about running, training, lifestyle, process, philosophy, and more, which I’ve always found interesting, thought-provoking, and insightful. He doesn’t race or write as much as he used to, but when he does either these days, it’s worth paying attention to. His latest post, “Snow Shovels and Singlespeeds,” has nothing to do with running specifically but everything to do with honesty, simplicity, intention, and effort that you could extrapolate out to so many different areas of life. (And it also speaks to how apples usually don’t fall too far from the tree.)

“A decade ago I probably cared more about optimization, maximization, efficiency and outcomes,” he writes. “Carbon bikes, fast times, race results. Now as a middle-aged athlete and human, I find myself increasingly more interested in the means than the end. That might sound like a cop-out in response to my waning peak physical abilities. But I think such an attitude is also just the result of a natural maturation as one goes through life. It’s fine—maybe even appropriate—to not have this perspective in one’s 20s and 30s. I certainly didn’t. But, more and more, it’s becoming obvious to me that life is in the doing, not in the being done. How I do something feels far more important than any end-goal objective.”