In one of my blogs I spoke about my encounter with a woman who broke down after her 5k performance and how she put a huge amount of pressure on herself because she’d done well in her first three 5k events. She expected to go out and do well in each event and when she didn’t, her mood and her confidence were completely shattered. I talked about getting back to just going out there and just run and to forget the times but I seem to be better at giving advice than taking it.
After writing that blog, I got trapped in the same syndrome of having a few races that I expected to do well in but I came up short of my expectations and instead of letting it go and moving on, I focused on my bad performances and sure enough, it carried into my next race. The week after the Keep LA running where I had the encounter with that woman, I was scheduled to do a duathlon but for those who read my previous blog about my swimming nightmare experience know that I dropped out of the swimming portion of the race and decided to do the non-competitive 5k race but of course I expected to still do well given my performance in the 5k the week performance. This would be the easy race that I could go out, run a an easy 22 or 21 minutes but it did not work out that way. I was miserable that entire race. I ran 23:07, which was one minute slower than the time I got in the 5k the week before. I then ran the Filipinotown 5k, which has a killer course where the last mile and a half is uphill. I expected to run well regardless and I bonked big time grabbing another 23 minutes and some change.
Upset and frustrated, I tried to figure out what was going wrong. Was it my training, the lack of training, or over-training? Then I realized. I’d been putting so much pressure on myself to go out and run these events and perform well and if I didn’t, I considered the event a complete failure. I forgot about going out there and just having fun and stop worrying about the time. I too got caught up in thinking about when and where was the next 5k so I could sign up and try to redeem my previous bad performance when I should have been trying to focus on the good things I did and try to focus on how to improve and get back to running an all around better race.
I took a week off from running and just relaxed and when I went out for my first run, I realized one of things I got away from was running. For the last six to seven months, I’d been focusing clearly on cross training; bike riding, stairs, hiking, and swimming. All good things but one thing that is important in running, is the running. I was running less and cross training more and when the running events came along, I expected to just go out and run well but I did not have the same burst and efficiency that I did before. I remember an article in Runner’s World titled “shut up and run” and that’s what I did.
I went out a week ago and ran the Jet to the Jetty 5k and ran 22:11 and grabbed second place in my division. I didn’t expect to win my division and I really did not focus on achieving a certain time. I was super excited and stoked to pick up a medal to and hear my name being called out. Ironically, I ran the Jet to the Jetty last year and came in 3rd in my age division so I actually improved.
It’s easy to get yourself in a rut but getting out can be difficult. I just had to remember to get back to the basics and remember the reasons why I run and that is to enjoy it and to have as much fun as possible. With that formula you cannot lose.
Runner’s can be as complex as complex carbs but we keep going back for more…
