Distance, Not Speed

As I am thinking more and more about trajectory, and listening to advice from people a few years older than me the thought that I need to plan for longevity, not for quickness keeps coming up.

I was thinking about this as I was running this evening and suddenly realized that I was running too fast. I need to slow down. I need to slow way down, I can feel that this is a seven minute mile pace. Maybe faster. I can run this fast for maybe a mile, then I get worn out.

Then I realized how many other places in my life the idea of slowing down to be able to achieve distance applies. This is one of my favorite things about running; everything I think and feel about running is a lesson for the rest of my life. In running, I become my own teacher. I realize what does and does not work. I make adjustments for my failures, I try again after miserable runs and I celebrate after great speed or distance runs. These things are all relevant in the rest of my life.

“Distance, not speed,” is a thing I say to myself, quietly in my head, when I am running alone. When I am running with people, this is less of a problem. One running friend always says “I can’t keep up with this pace,” another says “I think I want to do a bit slower pace” and yet another always says “If you don’t slow down you’re going to hurt yourself.” Or similar things to those.

When I look at the rest of my life, I feel that February is a month that could completely change my finances from slightly in credit-card debt to mostly out of credit card debt. February is a month that has few plans, which means lots of time to cook well, eat well, workout, run and generally take care of myself.

February could be the foundational stone to the rest of the year, the month that sets me in a good place.

But I have to be disciplined and practiced, which, on my own, is not a thing I am particularly good at.

I just need to remember; Distance, Not Speed.