Yesterday Runner’s World posted this on facebook:
Racing this weekend? Set realistic goals and avoid race-day heartbreak! Plug a recent race time into our training calculator to get projected finish times for other distances:
Training Calculator for Runners
Why yes, RW, I am racing this weekend! I can’t resist this sort of thing.
Based on a 10k time from November, my time for tomorrow’s half marathon would be around 2:05:27.
However, based on a 3 mile run from this week, my finishing time would be 1:56:53.
That would be the difference between meeting my goal and not meeting my goal of running a sub two hour half marathon. So, do you go with the more recent time? Or the time from a longer run? Or decide it’s probably crazy to base a projected time on something generalizing?
This is why I have a love/hate relationship with races. I teeter between obsessing over and relishing in them. I put a lot of pressure on myself to meet arbitrary expectations, sometimes painfully. Sometimes inhibitive-ly.
To overcome this I thought it best to consult my The Zen of Running book, and this is what it said:
there are no standards
and no possible victories except
the joy you are living
while dancing your run.
in any life
joy is only known
in this moment — now!so feel the flow
of your dance
and know
you are not running
for some future reward –
the real reward is now!
–Fred Rohé
Thanks Fred.
Happy running. And even happier racing.
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