Breaking Patterns for Better Results

How I upped my game with pattern interrupts

My bib number for my first 10km race since 2015; I brought my proper mug and coffee in the taxi with me because some patterns, such as the home coffee ritual, really don’t want to be interrupted. (Photo by me)

We all have patterns in our lives — things that happen over and over. Some serve us well, others not so much. As I’ve pointed out before, as in running, so too in life. The (ahem) pattern holds with the technique known as a pattern interrupting, too.

I tested this idea over the weekend during my first 10km race since 2015 — and it worked. I finished 10th among the 68 women who competed, with a third-place finish in my age/gender group, having had a physically brutal week before. There’s more I could say about pattern interrupts in my day job, but here I’ll focus on my race results because this embodies the point. Literally.

These are the top 10 women finishers in the 2023 Défi Hivernal on Montréal’s Bizard Island. Including me :-)

The race, known as the Défi Hivernal de L’Île Bizard, (“The Winter Challenge of Bizard Island”) is one of the oldest winter races in Quebec. It hosts a small field of runners, but it was indeed a challenge, complete with bitterly cold temperatures and icy footing. I feel good about my showing and attribute it in no small part to breaking two patterns that have plagued me on race days past.

“Pattern Interrupt” as I understand it