Happy Sunday Everyone:
I say I run, it’s probably more of a jog. I just looked up the definition-Jogging is a form of running at a slow or leisurely pace. Probably fits what I’m doing. Although it’s not how I feel when I’m doing it, I’m sure it’s what I look like. I seem to average 10.5-minute miles when outside. If I go on the treadmill, I typically plug in 5.5 MPH and go for 45 minutes. This is what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years on auto pilot.
Friday morning, I went out for a run. I was listening to a podcast I liked, challenging the concept of going through the motions vs. pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Trust me this wasn’t a Rocky Balboa scene, and I was not intentionally trying to run faster, but I was. I came back home and realized I had averaged 10-minute miles. When I’ve run 10.5-minute miles for 2 years, you take notice. At 49, it almost seems silly that I could listen to something, feel motivated, and take that type of time off of a single run. Yesterday morning, it was raining, I went to the gym and started on the treadmill. I plugged in 5.5 mph as always. 5 minutes in I’m thinking I can do better, I moved it 5.8, few minutes later 6.2, few minutes later 6.7. I ran the rest of the time at 6.7. I ended up with a 45-minute run averaging a 9.5-minute mile. Last 10 minutes were freaking hard but holy crap did I feel good when it was done.
From Friday to Saturday to today, I’ve been thinking about the broader picture of my personal experience. On the good side, I go out for jogs/runs consistently, on the bad side I handicap myself on a 10.5-minute mile to stay in my comfort zone when I’m in fact capable of more. I do believe anything we do bleeds into everything we do. The old adage, “how you do anything is how you do everything”. This somewhat random experience has me thinking about so many areas in my life where I can and should take it up a notch, past the point of comfort. It also reminds me of how important it is to measure. Without measuring you have no concept of progress and it’s all based on individual progress. To a runner, a 9.5 min mile is a joke, to someone who doesn’t run at all, it seems impossible, to me it’s improvement from where I was. I did a call for our division on daily metrics a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been sending my daily metrics out to our group since. To some it’s probably easy, to others it seems impossible, the only thing that matters is your personal progress and your mindset.
10.5 is in my head now. 10.5 represents going through the motions. 10.5 is sitting on the couch with Thomas, 9.5 is playing golf with him. 10.5 is sitting on my phone looking at emails while talking to Kim, 9.5 is shutting it down and giving her my full attention. 10.5 is sending an email thanking someone for something, 9.5 is picking up the phone and telling them. 10.5 is showing up to work hoping the phone rings, 9.5 is making the phone ring with your activity.
The bottom line is you can’t improve anything doing what you’ve always done. You might consider the 10.5’s in your life.