Goal: 4 miles – Reality: 4.33 miles / The Art of Compromise (aka Doing it My Way)

I went into my run tonight with a plan for compromise. I was going to compromise on my training plan this week. Tonight I would run my 4 miles my way, but Thursday I would compromise and do it the coach’s way. I would run the same route, and the same 4 miles, but with the coach’s instruction of adding walk breaks every 10 minutes. Then I could compare the two runs to see how the pace, time, etc, all compared. It made sense. It was a good plan.

But there was one glaring problem with my plan. I’m not very good at compromise.

See, I’m just not very good at doing things “their” way. Who are “they” anyway? OK, sometimes they’re experts in their areas of training (ahem, my coaches…) but still. I’m just not very good at listening to others when I think that my way is the best way. And I have to be honest – I very often think my way is the best way (just ask my poor husband).

I can’t help it. It’s the only child in me! I like things how I like them, when I like them, the way I like them. I like to do things my way – whatever way that may me. And in my mind, my way is usually the “right” way, even when it’s most likely, sometimes even most definitely, NOT “right.”

I spent most of my 4 mile run tonight pondering this very issue as I continued my internal debate about adding walk breaks into my training. Why can’t I just follow the coach’s instruction? Do I have some horribly self destructive side to me? Do I have some issue with authority that I have to rally against? I really don’t think so. I really don’t want to hurt myself at all, and most of the bosses I’ve worked for over the years would be quick to tell you I’m pretty easy to work with. So I really don’t think it’s an authority issue.

I just like doing things MY way.

I like running. I like training harder than ever before. I like the challenge of hitting miles I’ve never hit before. I like feeling confident when I beat a new personal best – running farther than ever before, running faster than ever before, crushing that hill that used to crush me. These are the small accomplishments that make me want to get out there and go farther and push faster again, setting new goals along the way. I’ve had a lot of challenges in life lately, many that have been completely out of my control. But this one – this challenge is one I can control. Conquering this goal is completely in my hands.

And I plan to conquer it MY way.

And right now, I want to run. I don’t want to walk when I don’t have to. If I’m gasping, cramping, on the verge of passing out, yes, I’ll walk. I’m not crazy. I don’t have a death wish. I just want to run, and I want to run hard. I ran the entire run tonight and it felt great. It felt strong. It felt better than ever before. I conquered 4 miles with relative ease tonight, in the blaring 90+ degree heat. I felt too good to stop and walk. So I ran. And I just kept running. And when Thursday’s run comes, I’m going to run again.

I’m going to run the 4 miles MY way.

Saturday’s run will be a more challenging 5 miles with the coach pushing me to train HIS way, so I really don’t know what Saturday will bring in my training or how I’ll run that day. But right now Saturday doesn’t matter. Today matters.

And today I am happy, because today I did it MY way.

Keep on running!