{"id":4791,"date":"2014-10-27T19:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T02:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/?p=4791"},"modified":"2014-10-27T19:31:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T02:31:55","slug":"managing-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/2014\/10\/27\/managing-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went on a “training run” this weekend. Training run is\u00a0in quotes because it was only<\/em> 3 miles, or rather about\u00a03 miles short of my intended distance, or two miles short of my at least try to go this far<\/em>\u00a0mileage. I have only myself to blame for my laziness, too. I couldn’t blame the weather because it was finally tolerable! It was cool\u00a0enough to\u00a0wear a long-sleeved compression shirt as a base-layer, there weren’t any crazy Las Vegas valley winds, and the sun shone brightly. However\u00a0in my usual old ways, I \u00a0managed to find an excuse for only\u00a0trudging on for 3 miles — I forgot to put on some face\u00a0sunscreen. The hat I wore\u00a0didn’t provide enough coverage for the sides of my face which already have signs of sun damage. I imagined the sun spots growing darker and larger as I took each step! If I had stayed to\u00a0run longer, that would have meant irreparable damage! AHHHH! (Vanity).<\/p>\n

My concern for premature ageing aside (read: wrinkles),\u00a0I figured even if I had had put sunscreen on, I might have found another excuse to stop\u00a0at\u00a0three miles: My legs felt heavy.\u00a0I didn’t bring any water. I started late, it\u00a0was getting warmer…<\/p>\n

Which brings me to the topic of my post — managing expectations. \u00a0Maybe I thought that just because I had done a race the weekend before — a supposedly\u00a0eyeopening\u00a0and\u00a0slightly painful half marathon — that I would suddenly have the fitness level\u00a0of someone who had been running for\u00a0weeks, or even months. But\u00a0as my friend, Kara Goucher<\/a>, had been quoted in an article recently, “You can’t do in a race what you haven’t prepared for.” So finishing\u00a0a race wouldn’t magically elevate my fitness either. >_< Delusion erased.<\/p>\n

I’ve finally accepted that I have a long way to go to return (or get close enough) to the same level of fitness I had a year ago — where I broke 3 of my 4 personal bests. I should also expect myself to start out slow again and just be patient with my progress. This means getting the thought of any\u00a0personal bests for the remainder of the year out of my head. Instead, my goal should<\/del>\u00a0will be to finish strong and injury-free. I’ll look at the two trail runs, and LV half as events that will contribute to my\u00a0fitness bank, as I focus on training once more for the LA Marathon. And since 2015 is my 10 year runniversary, <\/em>I’ll need to\u00a0hash out a realistic plan on signing up for, training, and running\u00a0the race\u00a0that started it all…\u00a0the Chicago Marathon.<\/p>\n

I leave you now (and myself) with another quote; this time from author Robert H. Lauer. “Nothing\u00a0worthwhile ever happens quickly and easily. You achieve only as you are determined to achieve… and as you keep at it until you have achieved.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went on a “training run” this weekend. Training run is\u00a0in quotes because it was only 3 miles, or rather about\u00a03 miles short of my intended distance, or two miles short of my at least try to go this far\u00a0mileage. I have only myself to blame for my laziness, too. I couldn’t blame the weather read more »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[514,512,513,120,515],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4791"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4852,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791\/revisions\/4852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}