When I started running it was simply to run..now my drive is evolving. I am starting to run fast. I have discovered a new fuel for my motivation. This is an odd sensation. I wanted to achieve some good times this year across a few distances, sub 25 minutes for 5k, sub 50 minutes for 10k and a sub 2 hour half marathon(21k).
I haven't been running a lot of 5k runs but I reckon I could nail sub 25mins, and later in the year I will give that a bash. My best 10k is at 51:30 so that is close, and last Sunday I smashed the sub 2 hour 1/2 for the second time, except this time was 1:50:57.
This has raised a couple of internal questions ( and external from some other runners) am I setting goals that are too easy to achieve, should I be aiming for faster, and what should I shoot for in Octobers marathon.
I have the run Melbourne 1/2 on the 17th July, and my goal was sub 2 hour, I averaged 5:17m/k on my half on Sunday. If I can average 5 mins my time would be 1:45, is this a better goal? Then issue I have with this is twofold, firstly runs with lots of people tend to have bottlenecks, which makes pb's hard to achieve, second I have no idea what the course is like, last year I had to sit this run out due to injury.
So what do I shoot for in October, last year the goal was to finish, indie that in 5:08. This year I was hoping for 4:30, but it's looking like I should shoot for sub 4 hours...I just need to decide if I want that pressure.
I'm starting to see som subconscious strategy in my goals setting. I'm starting to think that I set achievable goals so as to not make running a stressful activity, so that I will not get discouraged by perceived failures, when the truth is that while I am out there pounding my body, putting one foot in front of the other it's impossible to fail. No one that enters an even comes last, everyone wins because they chose to compete against laziness, against sedentary life and against the voice in their head that says bugger it, it's 6am on a winter Sunday I just want to stay in bed.
There is something very satisfying about completing a run that you didn't really feel like doing in the first place. Try it sometime, running with a head cold is a good one, clears the head like nothing else, but it can be really hard to get out the door. Afterwards you will feel like you really achieved something because you overcame the little devil sitting on your shoulder saying "take something for that cold and go back to bed"
So get your ass out the door and run.
Daniel.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
What are you running from?
On occasion I am asked what I am running from. Usually I just laugh this off and say nah that's not what it's about.
There are several ways to really answer the question, aside from shrugging it off.
I run away from something, but it's not really something that's easy to admit to. I run away from the weak undisciplined fat person I was for the majority of my life.
I run for the energy I have everyday, for the satisfaction of knowing I have extended my life expectancy by heaps, for the confidence that discipline gives me, and because the reasons to run almost always outweigh the reasons not to.
I realized that people who don't run physically, still run metaphorically. They run from the effort that it takes to haul ass out the door. They run from the commitment it takes to just do it. They run from change.
How often I get told that my running can only end in long term injury is amazing, this I respond to with, then it will be time to swim, or bike but for now running has transformed me into who I am.
We all run, some physically, some metaphorically, and for some riding or swimming is their running, but the primal human instinct is to fight or flight.
I chose to do both as flight is my weapon to fight the person I no longer want to be.
It has also recently occurred to me how stark the contrast is between the roles in my life, and how little overlap there is. The old saying "wherever you are be present" is becoming something very tangible for me.
On a run day I play 3 parts. First when I get up it's the daddy/hubby role, making porridge and babychinos for the kids, the it's out the door for work role, performing my day job, but at about 11:30 it's time to change, clothes and role to runner. Back from my run and it's work and then daddy/hubby again.
It's oddly amusing to me, that the parts of my life are so separate, and so clearly defined.
I was asked recently how do you excel at something. The on,y answer I have is " have the discipline to force yourself out the door no matter what, just do it" (Nike really picked a good slogan there which I never really got until I became a runner)
There are several ways to really answer the question, aside from shrugging it off.
I run away from something, but it's not really something that's easy to admit to. I run away from the weak undisciplined fat person I was for the majority of my life.
I run for the energy I have everyday, for the satisfaction of knowing I have extended my life expectancy by heaps, for the confidence that discipline gives me, and because the reasons to run almost always outweigh the reasons not to.
I realized that people who don't run physically, still run metaphorically. They run from the effort that it takes to haul ass out the door. They run from the commitment it takes to just do it. They run from change.
How often I get told that my running can only end in long term injury is amazing, this I respond to with, then it will be time to swim, or bike but for now running has transformed me into who I am.
We all run, some physically, some metaphorically, and for some riding or swimming is their running, but the primal human instinct is to fight or flight.
I chose to do both as flight is my weapon to fight the person I no longer want to be.
It has also recently occurred to me how stark the contrast is between the roles in my life, and how little overlap there is. The old saying "wherever you are be present" is becoming something very tangible for me.
On a run day I play 3 parts. First when I get up it's the daddy/hubby role, making porridge and babychinos for the kids, the it's out the door for work role, performing my day job, but at about 11:30 it's time to change, clothes and role to runner. Back from my run and it's work and then daddy/hubby again.
It's oddly amusing to me, that the parts of my life are so separate, and so clearly defined.
I was asked recently how do you excel at something. The on,y answer I have is " have the discipline to force yourself out the door no matter what, just do it" (Nike really picked a good slogan there which I never really got until I became a runner)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)