This coming Saturday, I am going to be facing quite the conundrum. My training schedule indicates that I should run/walk for 8 miles, which is the longest I’ve ever done – I just did six miles the last 2 weeks in a row. A two mile leap is a pretty big one. I was nervous about jumping from five miles to six. I’m really nervous about jumping (or limping, as the case may be) from 6-8.
But here’s the real complex thing about all of this training. You have to make a choice every time you go out about how you are going to approach your run. You can test your endurance by trying to run at a steady pace for as long as possible. You can try to just get through the distance you want to reach at whatever pace you can. Of course, you can also try to go as fast as possible. Now, I’d like to say that I try option 1 or option 2, but I run with my RunKeeper app going on my Iphone, and that persistent voice tells me what my average pace per mile is, and I have to admit, I get competitive with myself. However, with 8 miles looming before me, I’m thinking speed may not be what to strive for.
Two years into blogging
My friend Nancy Davis is going to be celebrating her one-year anniversary soon, and while I was cheering for her, I remembered my anniversary is coming up soon (April 18th, in fact). Two years seems like both a long time and a short time. A lot has happened in the last two years, that’s for sure. I mean, heck, how many platforms have I used in 24 months? That’s dizzying in and of itself.
But looking back, I can see that when you start a blog, it’s very much like starting to train for a marathon. When I started out, I decided I would try for endurance. I was going to do a blog post every day for 100 days in a row. I think I got to about 27, for what it’s worth. My posts were not very good, as I look back on them. I don’t know that I was getting much out of writing – I was dipping my toe in and seeing what it would be like to write a post every day.
After a while of trying that, I decided that I would just sort of go at my own pace. But then I noticed a lot of bloggers I admired were pumping out two posts a day. This was the speed part of my training. I would try to publish one post at around 3 AM and another at around 3 PM. This was, just like going for speed in marathon training, a very swift way to reach burn-out mode.
Now, I’m kind of lollygagging my way through blogging. When I have an idea, I march on over and type it up. If I don’t have an idea for a day or three, I don’t get all sweaty like I used to. The world, as it turns out, can do pretty okay without a blog post from me. You see, I’m still running the blog-a-thon. I’m still here. But I no longer care about the speed or even the day-to-day endurance. I just care that I keep going, keep reaching milestones, and continue to stay in the game.
I’m thinking that might be how I approach my 8 miles on Saturday. Getting it done without serious pain is the ultimate goal. In the end, if you’re not super competitive, it doesn’t matter as much how long it took you to finish the marathon. It just matters that you cross the finish line. The finish line might not be so evident in the blogging world, but you have goals. You have milestones you want to reach. When you reach those, no matter how long it takes, you have experienced success.
Or am I just trying to be a running slacker? What do you think?
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eleftheriag/357396442/ via Creative Commons