It’s amusing sometimes to think about the nature of competition, whether it’s in sports, business or life, versus the concept of participating in an activity for the sheer joy of it. We are told to compete from an early stage of life. You should get the best grades. Win the race. Take first place in your team’s conference.
Those concepts are ingrained. There is something inside of us that wants to be the best. We take on a challenge and we want to come out on top. That’s human nature.
But, we also have this need to commune and enjoy an activity just because. That might be doing math equations, Sudoku or a crossword puzzle. You could enjoy playing “Words with Friends” on your smart phone solely to challenge yourself or stay in touch with a buddy. You don’t want to win. You want to participate. You still want to do your best, but it isn’t about finishing number one.
You can go into an event with an easy-going mindset and it is possible to keep yourself even-keeled – like playing golf with your friends. Sometimes that doesn’t work. Your competitive instincts take over regardless of your intentions.
That happened to me this the past year, and I can’t figure out if it’s a good thing or not. Last January, I ran a road race for the first time in probably 15 years. I’d taken up light jogging again and prepared to run a 5K, a little over three miles. It wasn’t long, so my only goal was to keep moving the entire distance.
Crossing the finish line, I looked at the time, and saw I broke 30 minutes, so less than 10 minutes a mile, which seemed good for my advanced age. Another local race came up in a few weeks, and I got in that one, and improved my time by 3 minutes.
That got me started thinking, “Hmm, I wonder how fast I can go. Can I run a six mile race?” I quickly moved from the enjoyment of participating in a race to challenging myself to see how fast I could go.
This became part of my fantasy life. I envisioned training to be competitive with other men in my age bracket, looking up their best times on Google. Immediately it became apparent those were dreams and would not become reality. But the information didn’t fully dissuade me from training in different ways to increase my speed.
It’s amazing how you start to think competitively about “how fast can I go.” There are many more physical limitations on my body than there were when I was 35, but being smart, you can minimize injuries and keep building up.
There is a human desire to improve and accomplish things, and I think this phase I’m going through ties into that. I want to see how much better I can get at running, and what is my best competitive event.
I haven’t figured it all out yet, and probably never will fully since life is always a work in progress. But I’ve quizzed our three kids, who are all excellent runners, about what I should compete in given my running style – size, leg stride, stamina, weight, speed burst ability.
There is no magic distance. Too long, and the skinny guys will rip me. Too short and the guys with better fast twitch fiber will crush me.
There’s a balance somewhere, perhaps the 800 meter run, we’ll see. Avoiding injuries and building the proper stamina will be telling. Then we’ll find out if the competitive instinct takes over.
Those concepts are ingrained. There is something inside of us that wants to be the best. We take on a challenge and we want to come out on top. That’s human nature.
But, we also have this need to commune and enjoy an activity just because. That might be doing math equations, Sudoku or a crossword puzzle. You could enjoy playing “Words with Friends” on your smart phone solely to challenge yourself or stay in touch with a buddy. You don’t want to win. You want to participate. You still want to do your best, but it isn’t about finishing number one.
You can go into an event with an easy-going mindset and it is possible to keep yourself even-keeled – like playing golf with your friends. Sometimes that doesn’t work. Your competitive instincts take over regardless of your intentions.
That happened to me this the past year, and I can’t figure out if it’s a good thing or not. Last January, I ran a road race for the first time in probably 15 years. I’d taken up light jogging again and prepared to run a 5K, a little over three miles. It wasn’t long, so my only goal was to keep moving the entire distance.
Crossing the finish line, I looked at the time, and saw I broke 30 minutes, so less than 10 minutes a mile, which seemed good for my advanced age. Another local race came up in a few weeks, and I got in that one, and improved my time by 3 minutes.
That got me started thinking, “Hmm, I wonder how fast I can go. Can I run a six mile race?” I quickly moved from the enjoyment of participating in a race to challenging myself to see how fast I could go.
This became part of my fantasy life. I envisioned training to be competitive with other men in my age bracket, looking up their best times on Google. Immediately it became apparent those were dreams and would not become reality. But the information didn’t fully dissuade me from training in different ways to increase my speed.
It’s amazing how you start to think competitively about “how fast can I go.” There are many more physical limitations on my body than there were when I was 35, but being smart, you can minimize injuries and keep building up.
There is a human desire to improve and accomplish things, and I think this phase I’m going through ties into that. I want to see how much better I can get at running, and what is my best competitive event.
I haven’t figured it all out yet, and probably never will fully since life is always a work in progress. But I’ve quizzed our three kids, who are all excellent runners, about what I should compete in given my running style – size, leg stride, stamina, weight, speed burst ability.
There is no magic distance. Too long, and the skinny guys will rip me. Too short and the guys with better fast twitch fiber will crush me.
There’s a balance somewhere, perhaps the 800 meter run, we’ll see. Avoiding injuries and building the proper stamina will be telling. Then we’ll find out if the competitive instinct takes over.
