I mean, that’s the excuse, right? Sure I could do X. Anybody could do X. I just don’t want to. This is something we learn at a young age as a way to push back against our shortcomings. It’s also a nice lie we tell ourselves to boost our self esteem. It’s not that I can’t do it. I’m just focused on this other stuff right now. I’m sure I could do that if I put my mind to it.
Sure I Could Run Fast. . .
It’s been so long since I’ve run fast (last 5K race was Thanksgiving 2019!) that I stopped telling myself this lie years ago. I’ve been perfectly content to be a slow runner with what constitutes fast steadily creeping up as I move well past my 50th birthday. I don’t especially enjoy gasping for breath with every step when I run so it’s fine not to be fast. Just not my thing. I’m totally cool with my chill paces: 9-10 minute average pace on roads/trails with +/- 100 feet of elevation gain/loss per mile. I’ll dip into the 8 minute pace range for some miles here and there. Maybe once or twice a year I’ll log a mile with a seven handle. Make that a high seven handle. Not like there’s anything wrong with that. We all age and that really only impacts our fitness in one direction.
Well, it turns out that I can still run fast (for my definition of fast).
Last Friday, the temperatures were perfect in the mid-50s. The prior day was almost a complete rest day for me. I was just back to 100% after ES100. If I wanted a fast workout, this was the time. I didn’t start out with the goal of blazing away to a 7:58 average pace on my 5 mile road course. Here’s how it went down:
- Mile 1 (8:24, 94ft ascent) – Saw my early pace was much faster than normal and stayed with it.
- Mile 2 (8:40, 136ft ascent) – Little slower, but still relatively quick considering the hills.
- Mile 3 (8:45, 116ft ascent) – More hills plus my turnaround, didn’t fall off too much.
- Mile 4 (7:30, 67ft ascent) – Obviously ramping up the effort now; felt really good.
- Mile 5 (6:28, 36ft ascent) – Oh, it’s on! My math skillz had me sub7 pace with half mile to go and I just kept pushing.
Let’s add some context for fun. Since January 2020, I’ve run 14,613 miles over 2,060 days. Only three days have seen a run with an average pace under 8 minutes with one of those last Friday. None of those 14k+ miles were under 7 minutes. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Closest was 7:06. So to say mile 5 was a statistical outlier would be underselling just how unlikely a split it was for me. I’m not even going to sit here and try and qualify it (road, net downhill, whatever). Sometimes you need to celebrate your random training achievements (self high five!).
So for all those things in your life were you tell yourself that you could if you really wanted to . . . yeah, well you really can!