Over the weekend, the hubs and I talked about my running goals. I had the realization last week that I was putting pressure on myself based on what I was seeing other people do. I was comparing my mileage, my workouts and my paces to other people's on social media. Especially other people training for Boston.
I was beginning to wonder if I should change up my training plan or if I needed to push myself harder on my "easy" runs.
Then I stopped looking. Stopped comparing. Because the surest way to fail, whether it means I get injured or that I stand at the starting line in Boston over trained and exhausted, is by comparing myself to others and messing up my training as a result.
Instead, I pulled out my training log from 2013 when I trained for both a spring and a fall marathon injury free and first achieved my goal of qualifying for Boston. I have modified my training plan for the next 55 days to closely mirror what I did in the weeks leading up to the fall marathon I ran that year. And I'm sticking to it.
I also talked about my goals with my husband and am focusing on the fact that they are MY goals. The only other people who matter when it comes to my effort to achieve them are the three original members of Team I Have Run. Because without them, I couldn't reach any of my goals.
There's a reason for all those cliches out there:
Run your own race.
Run the mile you're in.
No one can run it for you.
Running, at its very base, is an individual endeavor. Only YOU can determine what you can do. You decide how far, how fast, how often, how hard. If you want to succeed as a runner, make those decisions BASED on you. Not on others.