potential
This post was inspired by a conversation on Richard’s blog where we briefly discussed striving for goals and realizing one’s potential. Here’s the comment from Richard that got me thinking:
“After talking with some coaches and more experienced runners, I believe that most people have a lot more potential than they give themselves credit for.”
The quote got me asking a lot of questions of myself (I have way more questions than answers on this subject):
What is my potential as a runner? Am I at or somewhere near my potential? Assuming I haven’t reached my potential, what will it take to get there?
The first question is, of course, the most difficult one to answer. I’ve been training hard for marathons for about four years now and I think I’ve trained harder and smarter with each successive marathon. Evidence of this is that my personal record was achieved in my last marathon where I had a finishing time of 3:42 - roughly an 8:30 minute per mile pace over 26.2 miles.
I am convinced (maybe arrogantly) that on the day of my PR I ran what was, at that point in time, a perfect race under perfect conditions. The weather was perfect - perfect temperature for running with no wind or rain to contend with. I “left it all out on the course” and was completely spent by the end of the marathon. In other words, I don’t THINK I could have run faster for that distance. My mind conquered the pain and successfully pushed through the wall right to the end of the marathon.
But knowing these things doesn’t really answer any of my questions - in fact it just leaves me with more:
Through training and diet, could I further improve my fitness and conditioning and become a better runner and, if so, how much harder and smarter would I have to train and how much time would be taken off my PR by doing so?
Another question; Are limitations I’ve created in my own mind preventing me from reaching a higher potential? Today, I have the belief that with proper training and perfect running conditions I have the potential to run a 3:30 marathon but I have to admit this belief is just a hunch based only on experiences I’ve had until now. Is this hunch cheating me from doing better? Is it possible I have the potential to run a 3:15 Boston Marathon qualifying time? Are my past experiences unduly influencing the chances of achieving my real potential?
To be sure, my experience with marathons is that improving one’s PR by even 5 or 10 minutes is a very very difficult thing to do but maybe I’m just under-confident or maybe there are other factors…uh-oh looks like it’s time for still more questions…
Throughout most of my training I’ve had small children at home which has meant I rarely get a good nights sleep. Christopher is now at the age where he should start sleeping through the night so I wonder if getting good amounts of rest will help?
Although I am very slim and don’t have a gut hangin’ over my belt, I have very weak core muscles. I recently spent an hour in the gym with Aaron learning some leg exercises where I found out that I have very little strength in that area as well. Okay okay - the total admission is that I’m in some serious need of total body strength training. Aaron has even said I might be a force to be reckoned with if I spent some time in the gym. I wonder…if I spent a few hours a week in the gym how much I might improve?
I’m not sure exactly what I’ve learned about myself from asking these questions. Perhaps it’s simply that I need to keep working on improving myself as Sean would say - “one step at a time” and that as I do so, my potential will reveal itself. I guess asking these questions has also shed light on some places to start the journey…
…running is so much like life don’t you think?
Comment by Sean
Saturday May 29, 2004 @
Very thoughtful post.
I often think about the what-ifs of running. What if I trained more, trained harder, lifted more, or raced more? These what-ifs are fine. In fact, doing something about them can help us improve as runners. That said, I think about them too much. Inevitably reality sets in. For me it’s my job, my wife, my old house, and my dog. I simply do not have the kind of time I had in high school and college to focus all my free attention on running. So I have to make compromises–missing weekly goals occasionally, cutting down (or out) on gym time, and so forth. I sometimes wish that I could make running the only thing I do with my true free time, but I can’t. I also need reading and playing music to round out my life. So much of life is prioritizing and compromising. Running is just one thing I have to balance into that equation. Now, if I could quit my job, then I’d start dreaming about the Olympics. Alas, I am stuck taking it one step at a time, figuring out where and when that next step will be and completely looking forward to all of it!