Day 18: Becoming a Slave to the Watch
7 miles, 48:58 - 6:59 pace (7:32, 7:02, 7:01, 6:49, 6:46, 7:05, 6:43)
So now that it has been over 2 weeks and I have my running legs back under me, I feel my expectations coming back and a sense that I need to hit certain times for my run to be successful. This is not good! Previous to this, I was just happy to finish the run. My pace was secondary, just a side note on the blog. But here I am, a mere 18 days into this whole thing, and I find myself looking at my watch practically every quarter mile to check my pace. I'm already judging myself against my previous runs. This doesn't make running fun; it makes it formulaic. Once again, this is not good!
In running, it's important to listen to let your body and let it control the pace. If not, you're fighting your body and asking it to do something unnatural. If you continually try to out do your previous run, you may find some big short term improvements, but ultimately you will break down. Training for a marathon is like running a marathon - you need to be patient, you need to be smart, you need to pace yourself.
Tomorrow, I'm going to make a point to check my watch no more than once a mile. If I can't regulate that, I will run without a watch for a few days and see how things change.
