Training for 50 Miles in San Diego — One Breath at a Time

Hey there,

As we take a short pause to remodel Nirvana and prepare for our next series of events, I wanted to share a glimpse into my current training and reset routine.

The inspiration for this came while planning a hiking experience for an upcoming Breathe into the Wild retreat. There’s something powerful about moving meditation — it’s one of the purest ways to train resilience and focus.

Think about it.

Meditating early in the morning, in stillness, is level one of training. Why level one? Because life rarely gives us perfect stillness. The real practice begins when movement, noise, and challenge enter the picture.

Over my years of yoga practice, I’ve learned that true growth happens inside discomfort.
It’s in those moments — when the body resists or the mind wanders — that we learn to step back, observe, and direct our emotions rather than be led by them.

So I often ask myself: Can I stay conscious of my breath throughout movement?
Because that’s where the real work takes place — rarely in peaceful mornings, but in the moving rhythm of everyday life.

Here’s how I prepare for this work with my routine.

Mornings:

Lately, I’ve been grounding deeper into the earth itself.

Over the past few months, I’ve been hiking close to 50 miles a week usually between 5 - 7 am, in barefoot shoes to prepare for the Anza-Borrego 50-mile trail run.

I started this intense barefoot training before my Wim Hof teacher retreat. I hiked SD’s El Cajon Mountain twice over (26 miles) a few days before my trip and ended up with blisters covering the entire bottoms of my feet.

My feet are a little more weathered now — though I did have to learn again the hard way again after spraining all my toes and realizing I needed barefoot shoes with toe protection.

Silly stories aside, there’s something primal about feeling the trail shift beneath you — the rocks pressing against your soles, the raw feedback of every step. It’s humbling and deeply grounding.

Evenings:

Most evenings, right before the sun sets behind the mountains, I step onto our yoga deck, lay down a mat, and begin to breathe.

I’ve built a playlist just for this practice with each song signaling when to move into deep breaths, and when to hold in stillness.

For about 45 minutes, I move through rhythmic breathing — long, powerful inhales and slow, steady exhales — letting the noise of the day fade with the light.

It’s my ritual. My reset.

While most people focus on miles for a race, I’ve learned that true endurance starts long before your feet hit the trail. By training my breath, I’m strengthening my diaphragm, expanding my lung capacity, and regulating my nervous system — the real engine behind performance and patience.

Resilience:

The final part of my training is preparing for the cold. The Anza-Borrego race runs between 38° and 55°F, and the windchill can cut right through you.

That’s why in late November, I’m heading to Mammoth to set a new personal goal — to meditate for an hour and a half in freezing temperatures.

My last attempt was just over an hour, sitting in the snow, around 20°F. It took me almost six hours to fully warm up again even with horse stance.

During those meditations, I practiced Tummo breathing - deep nasal inhales, slow exhales through pursed lips, and visualizing a fire radiating within.

In this type of cold exposure, breath retention isn’t a part of it. Instead, it’s a continuous flow, channeling heat from within.

This experience is a strong test of resilience. Because once again, peace isn’t the absence of challenge, it’s the ability to breathe through it and keeping the mind focused.

This new phase of training isn’t just about crossing a finish line. I’d be doing most of it anyway.

But the race gives me a benchmark, a way to measure the quality of my training and my presence.

My ask for you is to find your benchmark for resilience and conscious breathing. Something you can come back to time and again to check in with yourself.

With care and gratitude,
Josh
Nirvana

P.S. If you want to run 50 miles with me in the future, just reply.