Personal best
How does one know when one does one's personal best ?
My Kung Fu sensai used to say, "You are only in competition with yourself". Hmm. Those are some tough words. It's so much easier to be in competition with someone else. Setting your own standard requires knowing your own standard. I've found that my sense of self preservation (or its various cousins of laziness) are in direct conflict with my sense of competition.
After a rough training session over the last 3 months, I ran my third half marathon today. I beat my previous best time by 1min and 1sec. It's a PR (personal record), but not a personal best. Judging by how quickly I recovered, I figured that I hadn't put in quite as much as I could have.
On the other hand, I had a running partner whom I had trained with. And I ran with him for most of the way. Having trained with him and having committed to running together, the "Team" came before the "I". When you put in your best effort, it's also necessarily a lonely effort. I wasn't even focussed on my own best until Mile 10 of 13. At that point I began to remember the number of Saturdays that my darling husband had given me, by taking care of our toddler, and I felt I owed it to all three of us.
Labor / delivery has been my biggest endurance event yet, despite the rough training for today. I was able to stop in less than 1/4 mile, which leads me to believe that I could have pushed much harder (the first time around I could not stop for nearly 2 miles). My sense of self preservation was in higher balance than my sense of competition. Which also means that yet again my mind was talking louder than my body. I wonder if that is a gender bias, or simply part of who I am.
Still, I feel great about my performance especially given all the setbacks. And I feel good about the fitness level it has brought me up to. Now the challenge is to keep it up.
A personal record definitely feels good. But a positive, and good hearted team feels even better. I feel lucky to have run with the people I did today. Team Asha St. Louis is a wonderful set of people and I'm glad to have this day to share with them.
My Kung Fu sensai used to say, "You are only in competition with yourself". Hmm. Those are some tough words. It's so much easier to be in competition with someone else. Setting your own standard requires knowing your own standard. I've found that my sense of self preservation (or its various cousins of laziness) are in direct conflict with my sense of competition.
After a rough training session over the last 3 months, I ran my third half marathon today. I beat my previous best time by 1min and 1sec. It's a PR (personal record), but not a personal best. Judging by how quickly I recovered, I figured that I hadn't put in quite as much as I could have.
On the other hand, I had a running partner whom I had trained with. And I ran with him for most of the way. Having trained with him and having committed to running together, the "Team" came before the "I". When you put in your best effort, it's also necessarily a lonely effort. I wasn't even focussed on my own best until Mile 10 of 13. At that point I began to remember the number of Saturdays that my darling husband had given me, by taking care of our toddler, and I felt I owed it to all three of us.
Labor / delivery has been my biggest endurance event yet, despite the rough training for today. I was able to stop in less than 1/4 mile, which leads me to believe that I could have pushed much harder (the first time around I could not stop for nearly 2 miles). My sense of self preservation was in higher balance than my sense of competition. Which also means that yet again my mind was talking louder than my body. I wonder if that is a gender bias, or simply part of who I am.
Still, I feel great about my performance especially given all the setbacks. And I feel good about the fitness level it has brought me up to. Now the challenge is to keep it up.
A personal record definitely feels good. But a positive, and good hearted team feels even better. I feel lucky to have run with the people I did today. Team Asha St. Louis is a wonderful set of people and I'm glad to have this day to share with them.