You run hard and regularly, but slowly. All your acquaintances, who started later, have already overtaken you for a long time. Despite your desire, it is difficult for you to blend in with the running crowd: even the easy pace on group runs is too fast for you and certainly does not contribute to casual chatter. You do not dare to register for the race because you are afraid of being the last one. By the time you reach the finish line, everyone has eaten, drunk, and is about to blow up the finish arch. And this is a favorite post-finish question that someone will surely ask: "What time is it?".
Are we familiar? Welcome to the club. As a well-deserved turtle with 4 years of experience, I have something to say about this.
What if you are a slow runner?
1. "What's so slow?"
If you're competing, score/time/place questions are inevitable and make you feel like a loser every time at a shameful rate. Depending on the tact of the person who is interested and how much he is in the topic, the wording may be different, but the idea is the same: success and the degree of coolness are measured by numbers.
However, if you think about it, it turns out a funny thing: we are all in the same boat, from slow-moving amateurs to elite professionals. That's how I imagine how people in Kipchoza disappointedly ask: "Why is it so slow, not the world record, but only 2:04?". And he begins to worry that the insoles are a rotten excuse, and he should have trained more and endured better.
Of course, this is creative hyperbole, but the truth is that no matter how fast you run, there will always be someone faster, and people who think that your result is not cool enough and that you could have tried better.
The winners have already finished and are drinking a second beer (while you crawl here)
In this matter, you should focus not on them, but on your own feelings: only you can judge whether your result is good or bad in specific conditions, based on your current form and well-being.
2. What's the point of straining if a decent result still doesn't shine?
You won't win, so why all this?
You can't jump higher than your head, so what's the point of straining and forcing yourself to leave your comfort zone for the sake of progress that is ridiculous by other people's standards? Familiar line of reasoning?
The beauty of running is precisely that it is the same for everyone, regardless of speed. It doesn't matter if you managed to run a marathon for the first time with 3 or 5 hours, the emotions of your achievement will be equally cool. And the feeling of satisfaction when you successfully finish a hard workout is no different at different paces either. As well as discouragement if something doesn't work out and you've given up.
When something that seemed unreal a year ago becomes possible, it is an incredible motivation to keep moving, growing and developing. This works very well in running, but can actually be applied to many things in life.
3. Everyone who started later has already overtaken me
Someone you've been trying to recruit for a long time, you've been running together for a while, and then you don't have time to look back, and the novice runner is already in a completely different speed group. Someone trains irregularly and without any system, but at the same time easily and effortlessly overtakes you, who does not miss any training and works with a trainer. Someone doesn't train at all, stupidly runs a half-marathon "weakly", and noticeably faster than your personal record after several years of training. Demotivating?
For lovers, there is no point in comparing themselves to each other. Unlike professionals, who are optimally imprisoned for running both genetically and due to training, we have very different weekends. This applies to age, and health, and physical characteristics that make a person more or less prone to certain sports, lifestyle with workers and family burdens, and a million other factors.
Yes, there is always a measurable result in running, but for a lover of numbers, it is only one of the visual tools for comparing the self of the past with the self of the present. Evaluating your progress makes sense only in relation to yourself.
If it is so difficult to refrain from comparisons, I suggest counting how many of your non-running friends are able to run at least 5 km. So? Even the slowest runner is much faster than those lying on the couch.
Even Confucius was aware
4. I run and run, but there is no progress
Normal people progress according to the scheme "2 steps forward, 1 step back", and turtles - "1/2 step forward, 1/3 step back", periodically diluting it by stomping at home. And sometimes it seems that this very progress has gone backwards, and suddenly you feel like you are on your first run, barely dragging your feet and out of breath.
I have a particularly remarkable experience in this point :-), so I had to properly search for the advantages of such a feature:
- firstly, slow progress contributes to the development of the useful in life skill of systematic digging. We know how to work regularly and disciplinedly, distribute our forces and persistently move towards the goal. For long-distance running (and a bunch of other tasks) - that's it. Murakami writes about this well in his book "What I'm Talking About When I Talk About Running."
- secondly, we are less prone to injuries due to the gradualness and absence of sudden jumps in development, when the musculoskeletal system does not keep up with the cardiovascular system. Whether you like it or not, in this case you have to create a strong base - it will not work quickly and quickly.
- thirdly, you learn to rejoice at even the smallest progress and appreciate the improvements that many do not even notice.
Slow development has its advantages
A good therapeutic effect for slowly progressing runners is keeping a detailed training diary: you look at old records and it turns out that you are already ugh compared to what was before.
5. What if I run last?
If you're reading this, I'm not the last
When you are overtaken by grandparents, grandmothers and aunts, the feelings are, of course, interesting. But the idea that it is a shame to finish in the last ranks seems to have remained only in the post-Soviet areas.
At foreign starts, the slow finishers got all the glory and the most passionate support of the audience. Because those who run at the end, often for various reasons, have the most difficulty, and this requires much more willpower and self-control.
If you don't register for a race for fear of finishing last, you should at least try it once. There are always official time limits for the landmark - if you fit into them, you are fast enough to take part in the start.
6. What will they think about me?
Feeling and reality
Every turtle is perfectly aware that, even if it feels like a floating Kenyan, it looks something like the second picture. At best, from the side it looks like a health pensioner. And suddenly it looks ridiculous in the eyes of others, and they think something like "So I, an athlete, can barely stretch"?
In reality, most people are too preoccupied with themselves and their thoughts on what others will think of them to pay attention to you for more than a few seconds. Some will probably think: "Eh, we should finally start running." Everything, next Monday for sure!". Or: "They have nothing to do, they run here instead of working." At the same time, if you are brightly dressed and look good, you will definitely be noticed by members of the opposite sex. Someone will make a silly joke or ask another question about Dynamo. At the same time, the reaction depends little on whether you run for 4 minutes or 7.
Your pace will be appreciated only by the same amateur runner, if he is not too busy with his own patience. A normal person will simply be happy to meet a colleague out of admiration and will think approvingly that you are well done, regardless of the speed of your movement.
7. I am too slow to run with anyone
You are shy about participating in group runs and joining a running club. And suddenly the pace will turn out to be too fast, and you will have to die in the tail, unsuccessfully trying to catch up with the rest? What if I fall behind and get lost? Or even worse: will there be an honest person who will have to take patronage over me and crawl almost at a step?
If you think that it is difficult for a slow runner to fit into a running group, you are upset about this and feel isolated, then you are very wrong. In fact, everything is not so complicated and dramatic?
It is easier for a slow runner to find a running company than for a fast one
At any running club, there's a company for you: beginners, slow oldies, or those recovering from an injury. If desired, you can sometimes run with faster ones, which also include runs at a low heart rate and a recovery jog. This option is especially good for tempo training - when an experienced runner sets a steady pace and at the same time entertains you with conversations (although the answers will be monosyllabic). The main thing is to agree in advance on the pace and tasks for everyone.
Want to join the general run? Feel free to openly state your "embarrassing" numbers - you will be surprised, but there will be many willing to run at this slow pace, who have been silent and sitting back, worried that they will not fit into the format.
In short, if you have a desire to communicate and run in the company, then only the cockroaches in your head can become an obstacle to this, and not the speed of your running.