Maybe this is general life advice but I wanted to share it because I just wrote a post for Club HillRunner.com members that evolved as I was writing it for one simple reason.
I started off with an objective: explaining a way to measure your level of consistency because I think it’s better to be consistent even with a slightly slower PR than inconsistent even if your PR is a little faster.
However, maybe that’s not for everyone. Heck, earlier in my life, I had a bit of a different perspective. There were times when I felt my best choice entering a race was to “swing for the fences” even if it meant I might strike out. I even had races where I did strike out and still walked away not regretting the aggressive strategy.
So, while I do believe there is value in consistency, I also believe there are times when we might not want to strive for too much consistency. There are times when we are willing to take a chance of blowing up, of not being that reliable good runner, because we want to strive for something even better.
If we’re ready to say the positive of having a great race outweighs the negative of having a bad race, then maybe taking that chance is the right thing. And, if we are in that position, who is someone else to tell us otherwise?
While I still believe there is value in not going off the deep end, in avoiding high risk activities such as training that is likely to get us hurt or race strategies that are very likely to blow up in our faces, some level of risk might be worth the potential reward as long as it’s responsibly considered and thought out.
I’m sure there are many other ways in which similar paradigm shifts can send us off in different directions. This is one that comes to mind because I was just writing about it before I started writing this post. However, whatever the topic, don’t fall into preconceived notions of what is “better” or “worse”. Keep an open mind. Keep in mind that different people might value different things. The right answer for one person might not be right for another person. In fact, what’s right for one person now might not be right for that same person next year or a decade from now. It all might depend on your values and circumstances, in this example what level of risk you are willing to take for the potential reward.
As long as you’re being honest with yourself about the risks and rewards and what you value most, whatever answer you come up with will probably be the right answer for you. Even if it isn’t the right answer for me or someone else.