Comparison is the devil. Well, maybe that's a bit extreme, but I rarely find comparisons helpful in my line of work.
When I raise the issue of comparison with people you often see wry smiles and subtle nodding of heads. Everybody does it but yet most people feel worse because of it. The problem is that its addictive. We can’t help ourselves!
As runners we seem to be obsessed with comparing ourselves to last weeks parkrun, our old training times, our fitness levels when we were 18 or even worse, other people’s weekly training k’s or race times. We then get really frustrated when we can’t beat those times or continue our running progression on a beautifully straight upward trajectory. Hey, I’ve been there and now as a coach I see and hear this frustration A LOT.
I remember a while ago, I asked over 200 runners on the GoRun mailing list about the #1 biggest challenge that they had with their running. This issue of ‘comparison' shone through. Check out these two examples...
My issue is “apparently I'm getting older and can't do the km's anymore that I used to do”
My issue is "comparing my pace / runs to previous training blocks or just a previous run and getting discouraged that I'm not as fast as I was.”
Can you feel the frustration?? Have you ever uttered these words??
The problem is that comparing directly to past paces, distances and numbers can be really deceiving. It doesn’t take into account the wider, current CONTEXT.
Let’s try a little experiment….
What if I was to tell you that according to a study of 34,680,750 results from 28,732 different races, that 5km, 10km, half marathon and marathon times in America HAVE NEVER BEEN SLOWER.
Yes, your read that right, “never been slower.” Average times across all 4 distances are getting slower each year, with 2016 the slowest of all time.
Now you want to know how slow the times are, so you can compare, right?
Ok then…
Average US Marathon times 2016
Male: 4:22:07
Female: 4:47:40
Average US Half Marathon times 2016
Male: 2:05:15
Female: 2:23:48
So, now that you’ve compared, how do you feel now? Better? Worse? Relieved?
Either way, you are no fitter, healthier or less capable of a runner than you were 30 seconds ago. You just have a new piece of information in your mind to compare to and a new context as a result.
The mind games we play and the mental battles we fight as runners are so important in determining how we run and how we feel about our running. Its about time we realise that many of those mind games are caused by the comparisons we make. Choose your comparisons wisely.
So... what or who do you compare to?