Comparing Workouts

On Wednesday, I did one of my favorite track workouts. The sun wasn’t yet up and the track was quiet with the earliest of walkers and runners. I ran well. I felt good. 

I was walking the last couple blocks home when I looked at my interval splits. It had been a while since I’d run this exact workout so I found myself scrolling back through my app to compare. Specifically, I wanted to compare the workout I did two weeks before the Richmond Marathon last November. 

I had run much faster then. 

With my runner’s high immediately halted, I felt momentarily discouraged. I started to comfort myself. I knew I had lost fitness due to a foot injury and in the recovery period that followed. But still. 

Until I thought about it for a second longer. Until I scrolled forward again to just after my foot injury, when I ran this workout again. 

I had run much faster now.

Comparison is good when it comes to not just your sport but any area in life in which you are trying to improve. But be mindful of what you are comparing. Progress isn’t linear and achievement looks different for everyone. 

Sometimes all the stats and the data and the comparisons and the records are just that. Information. 

And information doesn’t define us.