Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A run like Jamoosh! Finally!

Share I'm guessing many of you follow Jamoosh over at the The Last Mile Lounge and it seems that all of his latest posts have been about how wonderful his runs have been.

 To quote:
 "I was a well-oiled machine, moving easily and fluidly and may as well been at the altar of the Running Gods (apparently small animal sacrifices are paying off)." 


He has a way with words that Jamoosh and I've been wanting a run like this and haven't seen one of these runs for several weeks/months.  Until today.


The schedule said it was to be a 4 mile tempo run at 10 min. per mile pace.  I realize this is a warm up for a lot of folks out there but I know my limits.  My life allows me to run 3 times a week and my race that I'm training for is "just" a half marathon but I'm okay with that.  I really am.  I'm not going to let my ego talk me into doing something that really is out of reach right now and then end up maxed out at all ends and forgetting why I run in the first place.  This will be my 1st official half marathon as opposed to my unofficial half marathon and after today I'm excited.


I borrowed my husbands Garmin again and realized I'm starting to like these things.  I'm realizing  that I really need to listen to Coach Dean's advice and stop mixing up my expectations with my goals because I AM reaching my goals and yet even then will somehow tell myself "it's not good enough" because somehow my expectation wasn't met. 

Goals can be measured and expectations usually cannot.  
Example of Expectation:  "I want to have a good run" ---How do you measure this?
Example of a Goal:  "I want to run 4 miles and maintain a 10 minute per mile pace or faster"--Easily measured.


It's obvious this is a lesson I learn and relearn over and over, and over and over.
Run ended with a 39:27 for a 9:52 pace.  Which is my fastest 4 miler in a while.  Yay me.
Do you confuse your expectations with your goals?  Something to think about.
Happy Running 
NRR

7 comments:

  1. Wow - great point. I do get my expectations and goals all mixed up. Great job on the 4 miler today - that is awesome!!

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  2. You shouldn't try to compare your pace to others. It goes both ways, I know plenty of guys who would kill for a 10:00 pace tempo run. They are out there, throwing down 12:00's for 20 miles/week. You're doing an awesome job, and you should know it.

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  3. There is no "just" for half marathon's. These are hard races that require training to do well regardless of your speed. You should be proud of that! Someone I know said it well. Do not judge the race you ran by your time, judge it by how you feel after the race. That is a real judge of how well you did. Good luck!

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  4. I tried small animal sacrifices and they didn't work for me. Next up (according to the gospel of Jamoosh) should be to sample some microbrews. All for the pursuit of pace.....

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  5. My brain hurts - such complex philosophical insights in the post. I expect to reach my goal. Is that right or wrong? Maybe it just is. All I know is that you rocked it. Yay you.

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  6. Great run, well done! I set many goals and I usually reach them all. I'm not really concerned how I reach them, as long as I feel good and happy. I'm kind of a "happy 200% of the time" person.

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