How I Accidentally Ran a 10k
Working out while traveling is always difficult for me. I’m out of my comfort zone and routine, so I typically treat any trip as a fitness vacation. But today I decided to break that streak and go for a run (mostly because my AirBnB doesn’t have a gym). There was a time when I was running 4-5 miles a day, but that was a few years ago. While I’m in pretty good shape, it mostly comes from lifting weights three times a week and trying not to eat like college-Marshall. Running hasn’t been in my playbook for a while. However, I’m staying in a new part of Brooklyn and thought my run would be a good way to explore the area.
When I set out on my jog, I opened up my Nike Run app and planned to run 3 miles. I figured that was a reasonable goal given the lack of cardio in my life. I’m pretty good at goal setting. Every year I sit down and come up with a list of ambitious goals I want to achieve over the following twelve months. It keeps me focused and moving forward. Generally when I think of a goal, I think of a destination at some point in the future. Something I don’t and can’t have for an extended period of time. Even with my small 3-mile goal I was 30-minutes away from it. So for the next half-hour I knew I wouldn’t be where I was trying to get. I approach life the same way. Whether it’s my career or personal life, the goals I set are always far off in the distance. And every moment I’m not there, I feel significant guilt if I’m not on my way to the goal in the fastest, most efficient way. It’s an impossible standard, and it causes a lot of struggle with depression in my life. Because if I’m not moving as fast as I can toward the goal, I’m failing.
A few blocks into my run today I realized my Nike App wasn’t talking to me. No voice indications tracking my progress. Thankfully I had my TED Radio Hour podcast to keep me company. But without a way to track the progress toward my metrical goal, it made me rethink my goal-setting method. So instead of sticking with my destination-based goal, I picked a journey-based goal instead. I wanted to explore Brooklyn and run along the water. I have a decent enough sense of direction that I knew I wouldn’t get too lost, so I decided to embrace this new philosophy. Almost immediately something interesting happened – I was achieving my goal. My attention wasn’t focused on some distant point in the future. It was focused on the architecture, people, and sites around me. I was engulfed by the beauty of that and started making route decisions based on what I wanted to see in the moment, not what was going to get me to the end most efficiently.
I wasn’t thinking about running, I was thinking about how great it felt to be achieving my goal in each moment. So I kept going. And going. And going. Had I stuck with my 3-mile goal and tracked it, I guarantee you I would have started getting tired right around 2 miles. Then I would have had to push myself to stick it out for the last mile. All for the fleeting moment of glory when I reached my goal. A moment that would pass as quickly as any other. Instead, because of my journey-based goal, I experienced an hour of the joy brought about by achieving a goal. It was happening every second. By the time my run had taken me back to streets who’s names I recognized, signaling I was only a few blocks from home, I immediately sensed by body becoming tired. Prior to that, I felt no physical restrictions at all. It was only once I knew I was close to the end that I began to fade. But that’s a blog post for another time.
As I approached the stoop of the brownstone where I’m staying, I pulled out my phone to end the run. 6.2 miles. I had just accidentally run a 10k. A destination-based goal I would have initially thought preposterous. Sometimes I set preposterous goals on purpose. Sometimes I achieve them. But nothing feels as fulfilling as the journey-based goal. Try it. You’ll be surprised by what you can achieve when your goal is the moment.
As for me, I wish I hadn’t seen a street sign I recognized. I probably would have accidentally run a half-marathon :)
