Embrace the hobgoblin

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

Last Sunday I took a look at my running history on Garmin Connect. This dataset goes back to February '09, when I got my first Forerunner watch, the FR50. Although my modern running history starts a few months before that, the 750 recorded runs represent a statistically significant performance database. I ran a report of all my street runs and discovered that the pace and distances I ran in January 2012 are almost exactly the same as my all-time average.

I was happy to know this because it shows that my pace hasn't degraded in the three-plus years since I returned to running. A deeper look at the numbers confirmed that my paces in early 2009 were similar to today's, so this average isn't merely 1.5 early years of fast running, followed by 1.5 years of slowness.

This morning I had a slow start to my run, owing to my chronic pain above my right heel that may or may not be my Achilles tendon. The burning I feel when I start off tends to go away once I've warmed up a bit. The pain isn't bad. It's just that it's always there at the start.  Due to this, my first mile was slow -- over 10 minutes -- but I picked up the pace and finished with a time only 40 seconds longer than yesterday's.

Today's run and Sunday's performance review both reinforced the fact that, most of the time, I run about the same, regardless of what I think at the time. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "...consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." That may be true, but I think consistency, when it comes to running, is a great way to validate your efforts.