I run a few times per week through the parks near my house. A few weeks back, I was doing a 1-4 session after being off the track for over 2 months. A 1-4 session means I was jogging 1 minute for every 5 minutes I was out in the park. 1 minute jog, 4 minutes walk. This is my starting point when I haven’t been doing my normal routine for so long. I use the day after to provide the feedback I need to tell me if I’ve pushed too much (sore legs) or not enough (no soreness).
And then there was that little voice inside my head that said, “Raise Your BAR!” I thought about my 1-4 strategy again and decided I was quite happy that I was pushing myself sufficiently after 2 months.
“Raise Your BAR!” it said again. Don’t you hate it when it does that? Nag, nag, nag!
So, how could I raise my bar with my session without changing my timing? I could run farther or I could take on 1 more hill. There’s a hill at the end of my route that I’ve always walked up. It is my end point, even though it wasn’t at the end. I justified it by calling it the start of my ‘cool down’ point.
“Raise Your BAR!” Jeez. Shut up already! Okay, so I’ll switch my end point and include 1 more hill. The internal voice was obviously happy with this plan because it finally fell silent.
Or maybe I just couldn’t hear it through the huffing & puffing up the last hill.
It doesn’t really matter. The hill is now part of the run route instead of part of the ‘cool down’ section. I will then increase my jogging up to 3-2 sessions (3 minute jog, 2 minute walk) next week and then up to a full jog after that.
Each week I go running, I look for ways to Raise My BAR just one notch. It keeps the voices in my head happy! (me too)
Leave a Reply