ZeroGrav – October 2018 – Celebrating Failure

ZeroGrav – October 2018 – Celebrating Failure

As you might know from prior posts I am big on setting, adjusting/fine-tuning, and working towards goals each year. For 2018 I have a couple of goals related to running, both of which I have failed on miserably year-to-date!

One is to run a 5k in less than 25 minutes, the other is to complete a half-marathon. In isolation, both are not too distant goals, however combine them with a bunch of other objectives and things going on (like needing to work for a living, etc.), it has been a challenge to make progress on either.

The 5k goal in particular is what prompted this post. To level-set, 5k under 25 mins is not very fast at all, it is basically an 8 minute mile. Average runner would likely be around 27 – 30 minutes. Fast would be a 5k in 18 – 20 minutes. So it is a slightly above average pace, nothing more than that. More so, I used to run these races under 25 mins no problem at all just a few years ago!

So I am building back to my pace and ran a 5k race this summer, and missed my goal by around 10 seconds. Ugh! Close but no cigar!! So I said OK I will keep doing my thing, should be easily achievable next time I try, I will just give it a little more push. Recently I ran the same distance around my neighborhood, and again missed the target by 10 seconds. What! Again?!! It takes a lot of energy to go running so I may have dropped some explicits, and was ready to move on to other things in life.

After mulling it over, I cannot give up that easily though. And I am also thinking I have a secret weapon – I have been running in very hilly areas, which is tougher and probably slowing down my pace. If I go on a flat course then 25 minutes should be a piece of cake!

I went out today, weather is not great, I am really not all that pumped up, however I just want to get this done, so I can then focus solely on the half-marathon goal. During my run I was thinking oh I can celebrate this success afterwards, do some social media posts, message my running friends, etc. I plotted my route to avoid the hills as well, just a a nice flat jog through the neighborhood. Aaannnddd…….. AGAIN MISSED BY ~10 seconds!!! :() Crazy to be so close but literally just not be there. Tried sprinting the last minute and simply was not physically ready.

We are close to the end of the year, so I am immediately thinking the 5k and half are both going to get pushed back to 2019 goals. And it is getting cold out and three attempts all resulting in failure is defunct, depressing, disheartening.

Or is it!?

I am choosing to Celebrate Failure. Granted it feels good to succeed anywhere, at work, home or the gym, you get a sense of accomplishment, a reward, maybe a bonus, certainly a joyful feeling. What do we truly learn from succeeding though? And don’t we always want more?

By failing at this running goal, I am learning about myself. Maybe I should run more often, or train differently (sprint intervals?), or stop drinking heinekens on the weekend (haha), or stop the huge ice coffees every single day, or eat healthier, or run slower the first mile and launch it the last two miles, or run later in the day, or earlier in the day, or any other number of variables. And learning is growth, and isn’t personal growth the greatest success of all?

There is a stigma that failure is bad. It is a misconception. As long as a person learns from what they could have done differently or better, failure is in so many ways an excellent teacher.

I am choosing to embrace my epic fails. I am going to hit the 5k goal in 2018, even if it takes several more attempts. The half-marathon goal might be tabled until 2019, as I am sure that will be a unique learning experience as well.

And I am probably not yet ready (or willing) to learn that heinekens and iced coffee is only slowing me down ( ha ha ha haaaaa.)

later,

Zero grav