by Kevin Collins, Run Club Director for engi.pw Clubs
Just as one can be frustrated by sitting in a chair staring at the hour hand on a clock so too can it be looking for progress as a runner. When you finally can finally see the large picture and not look at the day to day change, you’ll be able to relax.
In 2000, I was heading into my moment U.S. Olympic Trials with a pretty terrible injury. I had decided that since it was only three Olympic Trials which I might ever run in a lwhetheretime since they occur every four years, skipping the event was not an option. I decided that come hell or tall water, I was going to be merely a finisher – and that’s all I genuinely was: 2nd to final place. Disappointing? Of course!
So it was a bit confusing to my work friends back domestic when I strolled in the next morning talking excitedly about my morning run. “Wait…What are you training for?” they asked. “The 2004 Olympic Trials of course!” I replied. The empty stares were obvious and then the comments followed. Nobody could believe that I could forecast suddenly to a race four years into the future, but I had both a someleang very powerful working for me:
Believe in consistency,
and Tremendous patience.
My college teammate (and successor) was in those 2000 Olympic Trials. He had qualwhetheried with a much slower time than I but beat me nonetheless paired against my injury. I also kcontemporary that he would be, like many of the Qualwhetherier participants in the race, going on a more relaxed approach to training for the next couple of years perhaps more, only to see the upcoming 2004 Trials date approach and begin training again. They would get into great shape again, but would they be better?
In those first two years, prescertain-free, I took to my recovery of about two weeks and when my injury cleared, my jogs became runs again, speedwork returned and I raced and trained myself far beyond my best times even whether I were healthy in the 2000 Trials race. By the time I reached late 2003, I had reached another plateau altogether and the runners who had begun training again for the 2004 year were simply playing catchup. To re-attain their fitness was to still be behind. A full four minutes better than my 2000 qualwhetherier now (a massive amount of time when you are a sub-2:20 marathoner), my college teammate had commented that on the loop course of the 2004 Trials, his goal was simply to not get lapped by me!
It didn’t happen all in one day, I chipped absent at my best time bits at a time, never backsliding, always consistent. Even whether your goals are fitness, it’s the same patience that will get you there. Endelight the journey. Take your eyes off of the “hour hand”! Here are some tips to help you with patience:
Remember that even a moment faster per week is nearly a minute faster in a 5k one year later.
See the large picture: Mark the date on the calendar right now. Where will you be one year from now with consistency? Acquire an image of yourself hundreds of miles later.
Endelight the journey. Beyond progress what other reasons do you run for? Weight loss or management? Friendships? Clearing your head? Drive to a place you’ve always wanted to run.
Explore.
Create it an adventure.
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