In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he lays out the theory that in order to become an expert in a field you need to devote 10,000 hours of practice. Some people may quibble that practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Regardless, I think everyone will acknowledge that the more you do something, the better you’re going to get at it.
This past week I crossed 5,000 hours running in my training log. It’s taken me almost 13 years to devote this much time to my passion and it kinda boggles my mind that I’m only halfway to becoming an expert at running. Now in reality I also have another 1,800 hours of hiking/walking in my training log. Add in the amount of time I’ve spent reading, writing, and thinking about running and I’m probably not too far off the 10,000 hour mark. Maybe it’s imposter syndrome, but I still feel like I’m quite a ways off from expert level knowledge about running. There’s just so much that’s still out there for me to learn. It’s a great place to be though as the continued quest for improvements keeps me interested and engaged in this hobby.
For those that are interested, I’m now just over 27,400 miles running or an average pace of 10:57 minutes/mile.