2,015 in 2015 Change Hounds progress: Nancy: 615.6 Aaron: 373.3 (b: 338.6; w: 34.7) Elly: 127 Total: 1115.9
Okay, so, yesterday, I had a conversation with a running friend who told me she is ready to take on an Ultra (totally bypassing the ol' marathon distance), while, this morning, virtual running partner extraordinaire, Mary Kate, sent me a message letting me know her legs feel like lead when she's running but that she keeps plugging away.
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| Daphne. Giving it her all. |
I'm kind of with Mary Kate right now. (thumbs up!)
My whole point is that we all need to simply do the very best we can do at the time we are doing it. I've embraced that philosophy from the get-go of this running gig, and it's exactly what keeps me going. Were I to pressure on myself to run a certain pace or a certain distance all the time, I would hate running because I can't control every, single factor that plays into my runs. I prefer to have a life that involves running, not have running as my life.
Within the conversation with my future-Ultra runner friend, I did some reflecting on my Half Marathon times. I can't help but look at those times and see a whole story within the numbers. Those times reflect a great deal more than how I ran that day; they encompass 3-4 months of how my life was at that time. And, the next race time reflects another chunk of life. You might see now why I don't use my times against each other for the next race: I'm simply not comparing apples to apples when factoring in the entirety of what went into that stretch of training.
I'm proud of every one of the times I've turned in -- even the ones I don't particularly like I'm proud of. They all say more than how speedy I was or wasn't on a certain day.
I'm not a fan of comparison in general. Not my own races against themselves. Not one runner vs. another. Not my effort as compared to someone else's and vice versa. It's just not helpful. It's most likely unreasonable when factoring in, you know, life.
I think I was channeling Mary Kate this morning as I set out for my run. My legs, too, felt a lot like lead. My main motivation to keep going was that I'm not scheduled to run tomorrow! That and I knew that no matter how the run goes, it always ends up feeling better to do so.
I saw some cool weeds, by the way:
But, when I got home, I also wanted to show off my little zinnia patch!
I didn't expect to log as few miles as I have this Summer, but I'm okay with it. Not especially thrilled, but I also don't look back over the days feeling like I could have done better. Frankly, I couldn't have. Every minute of this Summer so far has overflown. I'm happy to have gotten it what I have!
I'll also be happy to rest up tomorrow for a strong weekend run with my girl! Take any pressure off you've put on yourself (as we tend to do that to ourselves, don't we?!), and I'll check in tomorrow!
Love when you channel me. Actually love when you inspire me! Which you do. All the time.
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