My new personal record

Ugh, it’s been a busy week, but somehow it seems to be taking an eternity to pass! I wanted to update you guys on my recent runs, including the one last Wednesday where I made my own personal record!

I jogged 2.01 miles in 32.38 minutes, which is way faster than anything I’ve done before!

I’ve been trying to think what might have been different about this one outing, and I think I might have pinned it down.

Lately, I’ve been moving away from timing intervals. These days I warm up with a walk (as usual), and then I just kind of go at a pace that’s comfortable and kinda fun. I try not to think about how long I can last at that pace, whatever it is. I just sort of get lost in my own thoughts and let me body tell me when it’s time to slow down or start walking again.

It’s kind of weird, because conventional wisdom (and also research. Lots and lots of research) says that when you set specific, challenging goals, your performance will tend to improve. Generally, I think this is true.

But I also think that each person is an individual, and what tends to work for most people most of the time doesn’t always work best for some people.

For me personally, goal setting around running is more discouraging than anything. I’m still getting into the groove of things, and learning to read my own body. Some days, not making it to the end of a set interval crushes me and ruins motivation for the rest of the run.

And I’ve got to be honest, I never set out to break any records.

Image by Brad K.

What I did set out to do was accomplish something I could be proud of – something that discourages me from comparing myself to others, improves my health, and gives me a hobby that I can use to connect with people.

And so in this instance, I guess goal setting didn’t exactly work the way I needed it to. So I just let go and went with the flow, and my run was so much more enjoyable that way! I’ll still continue to set interval and pace goals, but not every time I run. Sometimes, a girl just needs a little bit of care-free fun!

Also, starting today, I think I’m going to separate my warm-up walk from my actual run time. I think it’s been dragging down my pace to include a 5 to 10 minute slow-walking warm up, and I’d like to see how that affects my pace. I was going to include the pace for today’s run, but my FitBit ate that data along with my map and my distance! I also noticed it at the map and pace data for my jog on the 5th!

ARG.

If I remember correctly, my jog today-without the warm up- had an average pace of about 14:30, so MUCH better than what I’ve been doing so far. So maybe there’s a new bar to be set here! Anyway, if you’re getting discouraged by the goals you set for yourself (and you’ve determined that they’re reasonable!) then maybe giving yourself a short break and enjoying the ride is the right way to go.

 

Image titled “Trophies” by Brad K. It is under an attribution Creative Commons License.