Yesterday was the first time in this summer's training that at a track workout I was not one of the first one or two people to the end of each interval run. Last night, in contrast, I was near the front but not in the front. For once, I had the patience to run the target time to really try to get the feel for the pace I'm supposed to run next Saturday.
At the end, my running buddy and sometimes coach asked if I was hitting the times right on. I commented that I was, and he admitted that, in contrast, he and the others in the very front last night were impatient. What can impatience lead to?
Well, it can lead to being imprecise, inconsistent, or incomplete among other things. Reaching a goal in a marathon is not always going to result from my going as fast as I can from the start. Sometimes, reaching a goal in a marathon (or any extended activity in life) requires a slow start while building up and waiting for the appropriate time to accelerate and maintain a high level rather than trying to start at a high level.
I learned that lesson a few weeks ago on the track. I seem to re-learn the lesson every Saturday on the long slow runs. The key question now is whether in 10 days I can apply that lesson to a race situation.
We shall see!
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