Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. Weād run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me āWeāre going to go five.ā I said, āBruce, I canāt go five. Iām a helluva lot older than you are, and I canāt do five.ā He said, āWhen we get to three, weāll shift gears and itās only two more and youāll do it.ā I said āOkay, hell, Iāll go for it.ā So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and Iām okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. Iām tired, my heartās pounding, I canāt go any more and so I say to him, āBruce if I run any more,ā āand weāre still running-āif I run any more Iām liable to have a heart attack and die.ā He said, āThen die.ā It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, āWhy did you say that?ā He said, āBecause you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, itāll spread over into the rest of your life. Itāll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.
, arguably the greatest martial artist that ever lived, during a training run told by John Little, a close friend of BruceĀ (via
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