You see kids, it's good to keep an eye on the long game, spend too much time absorbed in the moment and you can end up miles down a path you had no intention of being on.
That analogy fits in nicely with the run I had this morning. I set off in overcast and warm conditions with the aim of running along the Icknield Way trail, a prehistoric footpath which runs right behind our house.
In total the trail is 110 miles long and finishes near where we live, I've been running on it as long as I've been running. Anyway, I set off along the trail looking for little markers like the one above, after an hour or so I started heading back. My mind was clearing and was starting to work through some possible goals for the next 12-24 months and I was in that nice trance like state that you get on some runs.
My running meditation was broken by an angry man waving his arms at me from about 50 metres away, while I was on a footpath by a farmers field by a derelict farmhouse.
The conversation went like this.
AngryMan. You're running in my garden.
Me. Oh, it's very nice.
AngryMan. Well it's not good enough. You're the wrong side of the hedge.
Me. Ok, sorry I didn't see the sign. I've not run this way before.
AngryMan. You did, you ran up the hill twenty minutes ago.
Me. I've apologised what else do you want.
The conversation was boring and realising from his last comment that I was on for a negative split, I carried on running, but my mind was preoccupied. I'd taken my eyes off the signs along the way and ended up down a path I shouldn't have been on.
The goal was to run and clear my mind but I'd lost focus and got it wrong.
Goals are like that, you need to know the long ones before you can think medium term. And you need to know these to set and adjust your short term goals.
An injury for a runner doesn't mean the end of long term goals, it means adjusting the short and medium term ones to arrive at the same place. Finding yourself going slower than you'd like just means adjusting the training to find the missing pace.
Now this is important kids, so read this bit slowly. Don't sweat having to change your goals, just keep an eye on the long term ones and go with the flow on the short term ones.
After reflecting on todays run, I've set some new goals for the next 2 years, they'll affect my short term goals to help me meet them.
I'm going to delay my multi day event to 2015. I'm looking to do the Desert floor race, but I want to prioritise my time with family and have a decent summer holiday next year and finish my personal training course so it'll wait. Instead I'm going to start planning a 110 mile run along the Icknield Way trail next summer, enjoy shorter ultras for the remainder of this year and enjoy trail races locally.
You never regret a run and today's one was great, the pace was off, I was a little hungover and the farmer annoyed me for a while, but it helped me clear my mind and get that bigger view.
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