I had a rough start to the morning. It began at 3.45am with a random phone call - an hour before my alarm. Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for the morning's run. When I arrived at training I realize that in my brain fog I forgot to bring my Garmin watch. My Garmin watch! What to do if I can't see all those numbers before me?
I like the numbers that tell me exactly how far I've gone, so I know exactly how far I have to go. (720m down in a 1k rep? Only 280m left - time to push it!).
I like the numbers that tell me my pace, so I know how fast I'm going (a 5.40 pace on a 2k rep? I can go faster!).
So the prospect of running without numbers made me feel a little forlorn. How would I know if I was not pushing it enough? How would I know if I could go faster? I decided to suck it up - since I had no choice. Today we had 1k reps with a 500m recovery. As it turned out, if I ran just as fast as I could go for that 1k rep, I wound up right alongside a friend. And guess who was wearing his stopwatch?
This made it fantastic in two ways. First, I couldn't see how fast I was actually going so I just had to push myself as hard & fast as I could for the 1k rep. This was easy, as keeping up with my friend was really pushing me to my limit! Second, I got to hear my time at the end of the rep, just so that little self-analysing part of me could mentally compare my times.
My friend & I played well off each other - some reps he "won", and others I "won". I struggled to match his pace and at other times managed to squeeze out in front. But we always recovered together.
5 reps, 1k each. And every single one of those reps I was under the magic 5.00minutes. Yep, the worst time I ran it in (approximately) was 4min 54sec and the best time 4min 38 sec. A 10-second pb down from last week! ... okay, so I really do like those numbers! If every effort is my best effort, how else can I track any improvement?
I wonder - if I'd used my watch - if I would have gone as fast, or if I would have mentally told myself that a 4.50 was the fastest I could manage, and thus not pushed any harder.
But I know it's also about more than the numbers. Today I did well not because I forgot my watch with all its fancy stats, but because I had an awesome runner to train beside, who pushed me all the way.
Just love your blogs. Many have good insights into life in general. It is hard to believe that reading about running can be so interesting, but it is. Always enjoy them.... Mum
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