Posted results from yesterday's race |
Today's workout: Post race rest day
I know I sometimes get too caught up in the metrics of running and miss seeing the forest for the trees. However, I know that capturing, aggregating and analyzing performance data helps motivate me to run every chance that I get. Yesterday I was prepared to end up with a middling overall race pace once I passed the mile 1 checkpoint at 9:29. That was disappointing because I always look forward to races providing a 20-30 second per mile improvement over training paces. When I passed mile 2 I heard the race official calling out times in the 17:00's and knew I was making my way back to goal pace. When I heard "25 minutes!" shortly before the race-ending hill I was convinced I'd end up well below expectations. Ultimately, I did fine. Compared to the paces I've run recently, 8:41 is darn good. But it didn't seem so at the time.
I know running is about health, community, experience and fun. How fast you go depends upon your physical abilities and your conditioning. But a race is really about speed and competition. Some people take a different approach and view races as an opportunity for a shared experience. Their pace and finish times don't matter. For them, it's about the journey, not the destination. I sometimes wish it didn't matter whether I broke 8:30 or if I ended up in the 9:00 minute range. I know myself well enough that if it weren't for goals, targets and PR hopes I wouldn't work as hard to prepare for races. The health benefits I get from running come from all that work. All the same, I still enjoy a long, easy, slow run on a cool Sunday morning as much as anyone. But on race day, for me, it's all about the numbers.