Runner Commandment #5: Keep promises, especially ones made to yourself.

fitness

By Paul Pajo

Just it case you’re wondering what I’m doing with all this writing, I’ll let you in on it – I’m annotating Joe Kelly’s 53 Runner Commandments – hopefully if I annotate all 53 of them I’ll be able to compile all 53 of my annotations into a book one of these days. I’ve always been inspired by Jose Rizal who went all the way to the British Museum and copied by hand Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las islas Filipinas (1609). He then proceeded to annotate it and then published this for a generation that was more than two hundred years after Morga’s death. Runner Commandment #5 is perfect if you’re starting a New Year and you’re looking forward to new goals and new targets for you running. The great thing with running is that if you’re not an elite runner who measures achievement in terms of podium finishes or even medals is that we do have our own measure of success which is the PR or the personal record. At the end of the day, we’re competing with ourselves and not anybody else so it’s good to maintain some integrity and work on fulfilling the promises that me make to ourselves. What kind of promises are you making to yourself for the New Year? Here’s some;

1. Run injury free – probably one of the hardest promises to keep especially if you’re pushing yourself all the time. If you’ve made this promise, you’ll probably not engage in other sports that might lead to an injury that will stop you from running. If you’re concentrating on running, make sure that you don’t add more than a 10% increase every two weeks in your mileage.

2. Train for a PR – the one clear indicator if you’ve been pushing yourself enough during training is if you’re getting PRs for every race you join. You can actually set your training to go beyond your current PR.

3. Volunteer in more races – after every three or four races, it might be worthwhile for you to volunteer for races. Not only is this probably good for your soul but there’s nothing like combing your favorite sport, running; with volunteerism

4. Lower your heart rate – you’ve probably kept promising yourself that you need a lower heart rate. You goal is to get a heart rate of 180 minus your age and to be able to run without going beyond that threshold during your training runs and races.

5. Cross – train – you’ve probably anticipated that with your current training load that you need to cross-train so that you won’t get burned out. Now’s the time to bring some cross-training into your programs.

6. Run a distance that you’ve never ran before – want to go beyond 5K? Try the 10K, Want something different? If you’re a long distance runner you might want to consider the short distances.

7. Run at a race or route you’ve not tried before – have you tried the Vertical marathon? A night run? An obstacle course? Find a race you’ve never done before and try to race it.

8. Train more consistently – maybe you never logged in your miles or you’ve not been measuring the mileage that you’ve been covering during training runs. Maybe it’s time you log your mileage online or even in a notebook so you can see how consistent you are to stick to a running schedule.

9. Run in a different country or a different city – of course this can turn into a logistic nightmare if not planned very well but obviously there’s no better way to see a foreign country or city by running it. Putting this off just means you’ll have less cities to visit in your lifetime.

10. Run a full marathon – so you’ve been inching your way from 3K and 5K runs to 10K, 15K and even 21K runs. You even race every month or so but you realize that many of your friends are “levelling up” by joining a full marathon for the first time in their lives. You’re now wondering when you’ll be able to run your first full mary – well if this year is not the time, then when? and if ‘s not you, then who? Yes, that’s right – it’s you! What are you waiting for? Stop procrastinating and start keep the promises that you made to yourself this year,