Overhearing a couple of conversations at the end of my local parkrun, there were a couple of conversations that stuck with me on my cycle home.
One was three guys talking about what PB’s they smashed (or rather they didn’t smash…only one of them was marginally quicker than his previous time).
The other was some chap talking to some lady on the route around saying “nah, it’s not really a PB day for me today”. My immediate reaction was to say “we’ll get off your arse and run quicker” using my inside voice of course. I think I actually just smiled and ran on past him, but either way, there seemed to be this pressure on them both to do better.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to share the stoke if I achieved a PB. At the Brighton Triathlon, I hit a PB on the swim bike and run and of course I told the world about it!
I’ve written a blog before asking if we are over digitising and over measuring everything we do. Remember (from books…not living memory of course) that the Romans completed their first marathon in sandals and some form of loin cloth.
They didn’t have £700 worth of shoes, compression socks, compression pants, compression tops, arm compression, watches, iPhones, and they didn’t measure every step count or lap time. Ok, so they only really won or lost (and maybe got fed to the lions if they lost?;), but my point is, should we stop worrying about PB’s and just enjoy being out and doing some excercise?
Back to my earlier point, my inside voice is having this debate with itself at the moment, I’m playing my own devils advocate here… I’m now averaging 1.5minutes quicker per kilometre than I was running a year and a half ago, and I couldn’t be more stoked! But there seems to be this unwritten pressure that every time you go out you should be smashing your PB’s. I see it on a lot of forums, in the magazines or commentary such as what I overheard yesterday.
Now everyone has a goal I’m sure. Some may be just to be outdoors. Some want to improve on their time last year (that’s the camp I fall into) and some are pushing to reach their age group jersey. Whatever it is, that’s great. You go for it.
For me, I set a goal that I wanted to be able to run more quickly, having only taken up the sport 1.5 years ago. And it’s working. Awesome.
The only pressure you have when out running / cycling / swimming is that pressure you out on yourself.
But sometimes, I think we all need to remember to chill out and just enjoy it.
That’s my 2 cents anyway 😄