Good morning (or afternoon or whenever you're reading this..)
Today's tip is one of my favorites as I am a bit of "tracking and trending" fanatic. I love following progress whether it's running, guitar playing (something I do but don't blog about), weight loss and just about anything. I'm a total junkie for seeing measured progress. I guess this may stem from working in finance (it sounds very glamorous to say Wall Street but I technically never worked on Wall Street). Anyway, you're always tracking trends for businesses, stocks etc. And that was the part I thought was interesting.
I am kind of fascinated with seeing how something progresses and the ingredients that went into it. For example, if you have a business where sales are growing, what are you doing differently that's contributing to that? Is it new salespeople, new training, more foot traffic near a store - the list goes on. Or, hopefully some of our teen runners are reading this - - if you're grades are getting better, what are you doing differently? Was your ipod completely turned off when you studied for the test you just got an A in and before you were shuffling songs? Was getting some sleep the way you're father recommended - and yes, I am a father and yes, this happens with me- the ticket when you finally cracked the physics code you wanted to.
It really is the simplest rule in the world: Find out what works for you and then (surprise, surprise) REPEAT. REPEAT. REPEAT. REPEAT. And, while I am lousy at physics (my daughter is infinitely wiser here), if what you're doing isn't working (bigger surprise) STOP! Reverse course and review what was working.
OK, I'm making a big deal out of it. But it's worth it because too many times, runners, athletes, and all kinds of other people - and I am guilty as charged - live by the grass is greener rule. If you just get another or better pair of running shoes. If you just change you're stride. If you just.....Now I'm not saying down experiment in the beginning. By all means, do.
But (and the point of all this is) TRACK YOU RUNNING FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Know what was going on when you had that run that finally made you say "yea, this isn't that bad" or better yet "this is actually pretty cool". What was your pace? What was the weather like? Were you by yourself or with a partner? After you've gotten to the place where you're enjoying it, then start thinking about little tweaks. BUT YOU HAVE TO START BY KEEPING A RUNNING LOG.
By the way, so you know that I am sincere here, I will share that I keep all my runs logged on a sight called LogARun.com
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