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| When you’re new to running, it’s important to choose realistic goals. |
Since I started running a year ago, I’ve actually inspired some other runners to start the Couch to 5k program, or resume running after years off, or run their first 10k. It’s an amazing and wonderful feeling when your enthusiasm for something encourages someone else to try it, too, especially when they end up enjoying it.
It’s a little demoralizing for me, though, to look these runners up after their first few races and see how much faster they are than I am! Or it was demoralizing, until I realized something.
Your running success can only be measured based on your own goals and how you’ve been working towards them. I haven’t been doing speed workouts, I’ve been working on adding distance to my long run and being careful not to run too fast and get injured while I up my mileage. So I can’t be upset if I’m not running faster, because I haven’t been putting in any effort to run faster.
Another goal I had when I started to run more regularly this spring was to really enjoy my runs by varying the scenery, taking it easy sometimes, and really relish my newfound ability to just head out and run for half an hour.
So if I’m going to think about whether or not I feel successful, I’d better ask myself if I’ve been meeting the goals of running longer and of enjoying my running, not whether I’m being schooled pace-wise by people who started running more recently than I did.
Realizing that really helped me feel better about all the running I’ve been doing, and at the same time, acknowledging my envy that other people are faster made me realize that I would enjoy doing some intervals and pushing harder on some runs to see my pace improve. So I’ve started to do that, not so I can compete with other runners, but because their times helped me realize that running faster is something I’d enjoy doing for myself.
People are always saying that in running, you are your own competition. This is very true, but I’m finding that in addition to that, you have to decide what type of competition you are creating for yourself. As I reflect back, I realize that I’ve had different goals for my running at various points in the past year.
- To complete the C25k program and run my first 5k without stopping
- To not give up on running after finishing my first 5k!
- To go out there and just run and enjoy myself and being outside without worrying about goals
- To run a 5k in under 30 minutes
- To run future races without looking like a nauseous, chinless zombie because I pushed too hard
- To start running regularly 10 miles a week
- To work on distance and get up to running a 10k
- To train for a half marathon next September!
- To work on getting faster as well as running further so I don’t take forever to run that half marathon
Good luck to you as you think about what makes you happy as a runner, what you’d feel good about accomplishing, and what you’d enjoy the process of working towards. Sometimes slowing down and enjoying the run is a great goal. Figure out what makes you happy and go for it – from what I hear, that’s how lifelong runners are made!
I LOVE that you posted the nauseous, chinless zombie pic of yourself – I reckon that means you are someone who is really comfortable in their own skin and can have a good laugh at themselves. I will admit to having a chuckle at your expense 🙂
Wow, I bet you have accomplished a number of these goals by now! I haven’t really thought about what my running goals are beyond the half, so now is as good a time as any to have that think…
– to get back to my 10km PB which I only got because I was running with (read: chasing!) a friend
– to start running shorter distances to improve my speed
– to try new routes
– to just go for a run and enjoy it for what it is 🙂
That picture is DEFINITELY worth a chuckle at my expense. On my first blog, that was the post that got the most hits out of anything I ever published, hah! It still makes me laugh. I have a couple other funny race photos by now, I’m hoping to get more and compile them together into a fabulous blog post of ridiculous running faces. We all make them, and sometimes a camera captures them 🙂 It’s how we know we’re working hard!
I have accomplished most of those goals… but NOT running a 5k in under 30 with the double jogger, and I don’t think I’m going to make it this year 🙁 I think my half marathons have gotten in the way. I’m a little sad, but I also know that sometimes goals change. My difficulty is that I don’t want to sign up for a 5k too late in the season and push the stroller when the kids would get cold, and so therefore I don’t have enough time to really train to get my time with them down under 30 minutes. That’d take me until December I’m sure! They’re heavy! Ohh well… there’s always next year!
lol – the nauseous, chinless zombie pic of yourself has been replaced by a cutie-patootie picture of one of your sons, but I do recall seeing that pic on another post. I, too, have been a victim of Bad Race-Photo syndrome. On my last 10K, second loop, no one in my vicinity, JUST after I had doused myself with a cup of water, I see a man sitting in the middle of the street… and oh, holy night, it’s a photographer. We exchange pleasantries.
He took 8 pics of me, half where I’m in the process of shading my eyes and half while we were talking. I’m running so slowly it looks like I’m walking. I have no lips and no eyelashes, I look old and my hair is a disaster. *sigh* My daughter said, “You look like Grandpa!” I hope she meant that I happened to resemble my dad, not that I looked like I was an 84-year-old man.