Yesterday, I was coaching at the CrossFit gym, and I ended up running an accidental mile. One of my athletes asked me about how to pace herself during the mile run portion of the workout, and after giving her a few tips, I said I’d run with her because my pacing tends to be pretty good. She wanted to run about a 9:00 mile. So the class starts the workout and we take off. In my head, I was aiming for an 8:30-8:45 minute mile, to give her a little wiggle room. I’ve been sick the last week or so, and although I’m feeling better, my lungs have still been struggling. So as I calculated my pace, I took that into account. I also figured that the fastest runner in the class would run at about 7:30 (turns out I was wrong about that) so I tried to finish about a minute off from her pace. I kept us going strong but made sure I was feeling fine; I was confident we would finish between 8:30 and 9:00.
We came in from the mile run at 7:47.
I had accidentally made this athlete run the fastest mile of her life.
“Oh, wow. My bad,” I said, as we entered the gym and she had to continue her workout.
She’s from the East Coast so her immediate response was, “@#$% you, Ash.”
I’m also from the East Coast, so I said, “Yeah, that’s fair.”
And then we moved on with our lives.
But over the next few hours, I kept thinking about it. I just accidentally ran a 7:47-minute mile. What the heck?!
For reference, my fastest mile on record is 7:38. And that was tough.
This is the point at which I would normally write a caveat about how I’m not trying to brag, and my editor would read it and tell me, “It’s not necessary, we know you’re not trying to brag. Don’t make it awkward.” So I’m not going to tell you that.
What I am going to tell you is this: the only praise I deserve for this is about consistency.
I’ve been consistently going to the gym. (Not even as consistently as I’d like, honestly, but I have been putting in the work.) I’ve been consistently trying to eat well. I’ve been working on mobility. For months. When I quit my previous job last July, I became about 5% more serious about getting to the gym. 5% feels like nothing. But over a year? 5% more serious over a year means an accidental mile at 7:47.
So. If you are doing 5% every day, or even 1% four days a week, and you’re sticking to it? It matters. Don’t give up. Consistency works. Whether it’s learning a language, getting more flexible, losing weight, practicing gratitude, carrying less stress, or being more kind to yourself, whatever it is you are working on, keep at it. Consistency makes a difference, even when you don’t see the difference along the way.
A year from now you might just end up running an accidental mile.
I’d love to know: what are you working on and how do you keep it consistent?
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