Progress and Perspective
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greenolivetree
Posts: 1,282 Member
Okay, so as some of you may know, I have previously been guilty (like most newbies) of running too fast and too hard all the time and wanting every run to be a PR.
July 4 is about to roll around, which just happens to be my "runniversary" because July 4, 2014 is when I accidentally became a runner :-p My first run that day was 2 miles in which I ran 1/10th mile, walked 1/10th mile, etc and it took me about 24 mins.
A year later on July 4, 2015, I ran that same route and cut my 2 mile time down from 24 mins to 16.
Now here I am wrapping up my second year of running (although the first 18 months was rocky with time off for various reasons and injuries). And so I'm pondering what progress have I made? In the past 2 years? Past 1 year? Past 6 months? And the past 6 months is where I really get confused.
My goal starting in January, after a nasty 2 month injury recovery, was to just slow down and quit chasing PRs and stay injury free. So 6 months has gone by. Goal accomplished. I started in January with an average pace of 9:30 and here I am 6 months later with an average pace of 9:30. I honestly don't feel I could go out and run 2 miles in 16 mins like I could last July 4.
So this is why I'm starting to wonder what progress I'm making. Have I become a more consistent runner? Absolutely! I often ran only 2 days a week in those first 18 months of being a runner. Now 4 days a week is the norm. I would pretty much bet you I've run as many miles this past 6 months as the previous 18 months (a lot of that is credited to this group)! Have I become a smarter runner? Yep. I take my stretching and foam rolling more seriously and listen to my body so little pains don't become big injuries. I warm up with a slower mile or two and run negative splits instead of just running all out until I burn out. But am I any faster? No.
I don't intend to stop running slower/easier paces. But how do I decide when and how much to push myself to improve and not let my running just go stale?
How do YOU measure progress? I don't do races so I don't have that to look at. I'm just looking back over 2 years and thinking I'm right where I've always been. I know that once the weather cools off I'll probably start seeing that all the "slow" miles I've put in this year have paid off. I'm just starting to doubt the process and get anxious. Especially because I know I actually was running faster a year ago.
Part of me wants to go out on July 4 and see if I can beat my 2 mile PR of 16 min :-/ Except now since I'm a lot less stupid, I'd warm up first!
July 4 is about to roll around, which just happens to be my "runniversary" because July 4, 2014 is when I accidentally became a runner :-p My first run that day was 2 miles in which I ran 1/10th mile, walked 1/10th mile, etc and it took me about 24 mins.
A year later on July 4, 2015, I ran that same route and cut my 2 mile time down from 24 mins to 16.
Now here I am wrapping up my second year of running (although the first 18 months was rocky with time off for various reasons and injuries). And so I'm pondering what progress have I made? In the past 2 years? Past 1 year? Past 6 months? And the past 6 months is where I really get confused.
My goal starting in January, after a nasty 2 month injury recovery, was to just slow down and quit chasing PRs and stay injury free. So 6 months has gone by. Goal accomplished. I started in January with an average pace of 9:30 and here I am 6 months later with an average pace of 9:30. I honestly don't feel I could go out and run 2 miles in 16 mins like I could last July 4.
So this is why I'm starting to wonder what progress I'm making. Have I become a more consistent runner? Absolutely! I often ran only 2 days a week in those first 18 months of being a runner. Now 4 days a week is the norm. I would pretty much bet you I've run as many miles this past 6 months as the previous 18 months (a lot of that is credited to this group)! Have I become a smarter runner? Yep. I take my stretching and foam rolling more seriously and listen to my body so little pains don't become big injuries. I warm up with a slower mile or two and run negative splits instead of just running all out until I burn out. But am I any faster? No.
I don't intend to stop running slower/easier paces. But how do I decide when and how much to push myself to improve and not let my running just go stale?
How do YOU measure progress? I don't do races so I don't have that to look at. I'm just looking back over 2 years and thinking I'm right where I've always been. I know that once the weather cools off I'll probably start seeing that all the "slow" miles I've put in this year have paid off. I'm just starting to doubt the process and get anxious. Especially because I know I actually was running faster a year ago.
Part of me wants to go out on July 4 and see if I can beat my 2 mile PR of 16 min :-/ Except now since I'm a lot less stupid, I'd warm up first!
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Replies
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Congratulations on the runniversary!
I think races are a great way to judge progress. That's pretty much how I do it. If I go run on my own , I never am able to push race conditions. I've run with a group a few time- that's an excellent way to push your pace and get faster.
I measure my progress made mostly by miles in the month challenge. If I'm able to hold or increase, I'm getting it. Early on I'd dig up my Garmin data and compare. Strava has that thing you've run this route 100 times and you are improving" with a plot graph too. I have been using a training journal the last 18ish months and can flip back to one week and see how I was doing. I never read through more than the one week, because I'm trying to assess improvement and if I go looking at all of it it defeats the self pat on the back.
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greenolivetree wrote: »
Part of me wants to go out on July 4 and see if I can beat my 2 mile PR of 16 min :-/ Except now since I'm a lot less stupid, I'd warm up first!
I bet you will be surprised. Just because you haven't been running that fast, doesn't mean you can't. Once we start forcing ourselves to go slower, sometimes we get so used to it, we forget what it feels like to go faster. Running at that pace might push you out of you comfort zone, but chances are you will be no less comfortable than you were when you ran that PR last year, you just forget what it feels like to run at that pace. Base building is great and necessary, but even when I am not "training" I still like to shake things up with a tempo run every now and again, just to remind myself what I am capable of.
Congrats on your runniversary! Celebrate by running fast and setting an even better PR (I'll bet you can!)1 -
@Elise4270 I do get notices on Strava for certain segments. Mostly I have hilly segments marked out. Last Wednesday I set PRs on my hill repeats. Or like yesterday I did a fast finish and got a 400m PR at a 7:47 pace so that was exciting. But overall I'm not seeing my any improvements on like 5k or 10k times.
@lporter229 That's just how I feel - that I've gotten so used to slowing down that I've forgotten how to run faster.
Thanks for listening ladies
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i've just started running again and joined my local park run. So what i plan on doing is do my normal 5km run 3 times a week(by myself) and then do 1 or 2 park runs a month as i would be running with others and wouldn't wanna be the last - just joking - just to spur me on and run faster and hopefully get better times and improve for the next month.0
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That's a great plan @foomsy 0
