Making Progress: it's the journey to the breakthrough performance that matters

5k progress

Last weekend I ran a 5K that ended up being short. I was hoping to update my 5K time on an "honest" course since the Hollis Fast 5K I ran last month was downhill and not necessarily an "honest" course. I was a little disappointed when the course came up as 2.9 and I tried to "calculate" what I would have run had the course been accurate.

I figured out that I probably would have run that extra .2 of a mile in about 1:20 since my most recent 400m times on the track were around 1:24. That would have put me across the finish line in 19:17. It would have still been a PR effort, but not the sub 19 time I'm chasing. I felt discouraged.

But then I realized I have absolutely NOTHING to be discouraged about. I'm 14 months postpartum and the improvements I've seen in the last 14 months are pretty strong. I decided to take a look back at the 5K times I've posted over the last year and see how they compared:

October 18, 2015 CHaD Hero 5k 21:08

November 11, 2015 5K Time Trial on the track (alone) 20:34

January 20, 2016 5k Time Trial on the indoor track (alone) 19:37 (new PR by 5 seconds)

March 19, 2016 Holy Grail 5K 19:42 (new road PR by 4 seconds)

June 9, 2016 Hollis Fast 5K 18:38 (new road PR, but on a downhill course)

June 25 Rib Run 5K* 17:57 (course measured 2.9)

Over the course of the 8 months my 5K time has dropped by almost 2 minutes. There's been a lot of hard work and effort in to gaining back my pre-pregnancy fitness and now it is safe to say that I have surpassed where I was in 2014.

Sometimes when you're striving for a breakthrough performance or a new PR you forget to look back and see how far you have come.

I'm grateful that my body carries me as fast as it does and responds to the training that I put it through. Ultimately, it's the journey to these times that excites me. It's the hard work and the dedication it takes to keep at it even in the face of set backs and discouragement. My goal is still to break 19 minutes in the 5K this summer, but I'm having more fun getting there than anything else.

Do you ever get discouraged and then have to reassess your progress and realize you've come so far?

--Sarah

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