Don’t Waste Good Time
When you’re fit, follow these four rules to give yourself the best chance to PR
There’s nothing like being in PR shape. It’s not just the watch that says you’re faster than ever — you feel it on almost every run, how you’re capable in new ways. Sure, you can get tired. In fact, you can push yourself like never before. But you do so with an exquisite sense of control. You’ve reached a new level, and it’s hard to believe that it’s anything but the new normal. The future is full of opportunities to PR.
Except it isn’t. This phase is fleeting. You need to acknowledge that and act accordingly. For all of you chasing PRs in 2016, here’s a cautionary tale from a quarter-century ago.
On September 20, 1992, I ran a 10K road race in 30:48, a personal record. The time had particular meaning to me, because ten years after struggling to break 5:00 for the mile in high school, a decade of hard work made me able to run more than six times that far at sub-5:00 pace.
The month before, I’d run a PR of 51:01 for 10 miles. I felt even fitter heading into the 10K, and uncharacteristically allowed myself to make a big gamble. I went out with the leaders, guys who customarily beat me by 30 or more seconds at the distance. I rigged badly in the final mile, but held on for a 9-second PR. I had another 10K scheduled for the following week, on a flat course where I’d run my previous best. I figured with more intelligent pacing next time around I was good for 30:30.
That afternoon I celebrated by running eight miles with a friend. I would have been better off having eight beers. That would have lessened the odds I’d amass 23 miles for the day, and then run six miles before work and 10 after work the next day. I finished the week with 93 miles.
In my follow-up 10K, the other leaders and I passed the mile in 5:03, about 10 seconds slower than I wanted. I picked it up to get us on 30:30 pace. Or at least I thought I did — we passed 2 miles in 10:05. So I turned up the effort more, and led us through 3 miles in….15:10. Soon after, a couple guys really surged and I was dropped. I kept plugging away, but never got under 5:00 pace, much less the 4:55s I thought I’d average. I finished exasperated and perplexed in 31:31.
Oh well, I told myself while running that afternoon, 10K isn’t really your thing anyway. I had a 10-miler lined up for both October and November, and was sure I’d PR in one of them.
Instead, both races were a longer version of that second 10K. I didn’t feel bad, but never felt great. I was more watching myself from the outside than engaged while running 51:39 and 51:43. After the November 10-miler, I called it a season.
In reviewing my logs, I concluded I’d gotten cocky and had disregarded the difference between being able to do something and that something being the right thing to do. After a summer of 115-mile weeks, running 90 for the week between 10Ks didn’t feel like overdoing it, just like randomly popping back into the 110s one week in October seemed fine. And that’s the thing — it was fine, but far from ideal. I was too flat to make use of my fitness. It wasn’t that I was afraid to rest. I was simply wrong about how much I needed to rest to optimally draw deposits on race day.
For the next two years I kept chasing the times I knew I was capable of. But things kept happening. I lost a couple weeks to an Achilles issue; my girlfriend dumped me; I moved from Maryland, where I had a great group of friends to train with, to Connecticut, where I knew nobody; I left a low-pressure nonprofit job for a demanding editorial position at Running Times. At the end of 1994, I had almost 5,000 miles for the year, but no new PRs.
As it turned out, that 30:48 10K was the last PR I ever set. I erred in thinking myself more impervious to slight drains on resources than I was, and in thinking the present time would extend indefinitely. Here’s some avuncular guidance stemming from my experience for those of you in the enviable PR-chasing stage of your running life:
At the end of 1994, I had almost 5,000 miles for the year, but no new PRs. As it turned out, that 30:48 10K was the last PR I ever set.
Don’t waste good time
Give yourself the chance to make use of the fitness you worked so hard to build. Yes, you can keep training hard and race well. But ultimately, what are you training for? To be in great shape for training? Or to try to run faster than you ever have? I cut back from 115 miles a week to 60 the week before my 51:01 10-miler, and with two days to go was bursting out of my skin with bring-it-on eagerness. I should have tapered similarly for my other key races that season.
There’s a second aspect to not wasting good time: get out there and race! You might think you’re going to be in this kind of shape for the foreseeable future. Odds are you aren’t. Don’t miss opportunities while waiting for the perfect alignment of VO2 max, competitive zest, fast course and salutary weather. Go carpe some diems while you can.
Savor every PR
Unless you quit the sport at your peak, for most of your running life you’re not going to be in PR shape. So when you run faster than you ever have, celebrate however suits you (except maybe a race-day second run of eight miles). No downplaying your accomplishment, no telling yourself how much your new PR sucks compared to so-and-so’s, no obsessing that you didn’t run two seconds faster to have a smaller numeral at the front of your mark. This is what you worked for. Allow yourself to enjoy it. For all you know, it could be your last one.
Keep pushing for more
The flip side of savoring every PR is to not accept that new personal best as your limit. Rare is the runner who reflects on a race and thinks, “Everything was absolutely perfect — I couldn’t have run a fraction of a second faster.” This doesn’t necessarily mean work harder. Your PR race itself will have advanced your fitness. It’s your mind that needs the most work at this stage.
Take a mental selfie of your PR self
Even though the summer and fall of 1992 was the aberration in my 37 years of running, that’s the me I see when my mind’s eye calls up “Scott the runner” — that feeling of all the gears meshing perfectly, of the strings on the puppet at the perfect tension, of what William James called the “yes” function in life. I head out every day now hoping for another taste of what was briefly the norm many years ago.
From now until until August 31, if you run a PR in Tracksmith apparel, Tracksmith will pay you a $250 PR Bonus in the form of store credit — all you need to do is run a race of 800m or more and record a time faster than you’ve ever run before. Easy, right? You can find out all the details on the PR Bonus at Tracksmith.com.
