Train yourself to be happy
Work to become who you want to become
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday
When I started running in August 2020 I was happy to have stared something that I could do by myself and not be in competition with anyone. I’ve spent most of my life doing martial arts an even regular training sessions necessitate a sort of competition with others (even though sparring is not in itself a competition). When I run, it’s just me, the distance, and the time.
The longer I run however, the more and more ambitious my goals are getting. I sometimes (not often) win minor races or place in a decent position when factors like my age bracket are considered. None of this really matters in the grand scheme of things, but I do sometimes think it’s cool that I once came third place in an ultramarathon…in my age category.
But ultimately, I always try to improve upon what I’ve done previously. There are times when I come 1st place overall in pretty minor races, but on those days one of the main reasons I come in 1st is because people who I know are faster than me didn’t show up. To me, it’s disappointing to win a race with a time I would consider mediocre on any other day, but it’s glorious to place low in the ranking but get a PERSONAL BEST.
I end up in conversations with people online where some people tell me that I’m fast or running at a level they might consider to be unattainable. My advice is always to never compare yourself to me. Always compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today. Five years ago I would have considered my current level unattainable, but here I am. There are many people I know who are performing at a much higher level than me who I look up to, but if I tried to ‘beat them at their own game’ I might end up in a cycle of feeling inadequate, despite the fact that my current personal bests were likely their past personal bests.
The best can teach you where your strength is
Last year I started taking part in beach sprinting sessions that were started by an elite runner who I am now privileged enough to call a friend. These sprint sessions are quite well regarded and as such sometimes other elite runners (and even elite athletes from other disciplines like volleyball, tennis, and boxing) take part.
Last week a professional middle distance runner (S-San), who has a 5K time of 13 minutes 31 seconds, took part in the event.
S-San is one of those runners who is absolute poetry in motion. He made running look effortless and was pretty much totally unhindered by the unevenness of the sand. Between sprints he gave some running advice which focused on staying tall and keeping a strong core, which was very reminiscent of some of the advice I heard from The Lost Art of Running by By Shane Benzie and Tim Major (which is a fantastic book, by the way).
On the cool down after the sprint session I jogged back to the start with S-San and had a chat with him about training. There is always a lot you can learn from people who are at the top of their game. But when he asked me about the kind of running I do I mentioned that I like ultrarunning and that I’m currently training for 100 km plus races.
As a middle distance runner, S-San thought he would not be comfortable running those distances. He mentioned the possibility of injury and the fact that running for so long would be mentally exhausting. But to me, there’s a lot of charm in building yourself up to be able to physically and mentally withstand the punishment of an ultra run.
And this may be one of the main reasons why I’m not faster at middle distances races.
Train to be who you want to be
“I want to be a good runner,” is a fine goal, but it lacks definition. Because what is a good runner? There are some fantastic sprinters out there that focus only on sprinting and never run marathons. There are some fantastic marathon runners out there that never run ultras. There are fantastic ultra runners that never sprint.
I like trail running and I want to get into it more after my experience last year with the Izu Trail Journey (my first trail ultramarathon). But although a trail ultramarathon and a 100 meter sprint are both forms of running, an elite trail ultrarunner and an elite sprinter are very different kinds of athlete.
It’s going to be almost impossible to be elite at all kinds of running. I’d guess an elite trail ultrarunner would be faster than most if they were asked to sprint on a track, but they would not be able to compete with elite sprinters.
For me personally, I sprint, I run a lot of 5K races, I run trails, I run marathons, and I run ultras. I also practice karate and iaidō. My time and energy is split between a lot of running disciplines, plus martial arts. Some people might consider what I am doing biting off more than I can chew, but it’s not my goal to be super elite at everything. I want to be good at a lot of things. Not the best at one thing. This is my balance.
If you want to be an elite 5K runner, you’ve got to train with 5Ks as your goal. Any time you spend swinging a sword or practicing punches is going to take away from your ability to be an elite 5K runner.
So what do I want to be?
I just want to be happy.
And I’m happy when I split my time between different running challenges, karate, and iaidō. I know I’m not going to be the best of the best in any of these disciplines. But I’m going to do everything with a smile on my face.
Take home messages
While it is fine to compare yourself to others, you shouldn’t use that as the main metric to judge yourself. We all live our own lives and have our own challenges. You can win a race and still be a disappointment to yourself. If I jog a 5K and come in first place, that’s not an achievement.
People who are good at things are able to teach you a lot. Including letting you know that you are not as weak as you think you are. I’m not going to run a 13 minute 31 second 5K even with a pitbull dragging me along. But I know that I can run for more than 14 hours and I still haven’t found my limit yet.
Consider what you want to do with your life. If you want to do one thing really well, go all in on that thing. Don’t waste your time on things that will hinder you achieving that goal. But if doing a lot of things makes you happy, train to do a lot of things.
Training to be happy is not wasted time.
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Okay. I'm jealous in one respect only. I can't run with my dog because he is far too reactive to other dogs and cats and rabbits. Oh the list goes on. I did try a few times but when he was able to run without distraction he shot off like a rocket and was exhausted before we reached 2k. He's worse at pacing himself than I am. Great article by the way.