January: History

   You can't run from your past. This makes a runner’s log a scold. The new year urges you to review last year's accomplishments, and there, glaring at you in silent reproach, are those blank log pages - weeks, sometimes months, of them - in which goals were not met, training was abandoned, and ambition foundered.

   Runners will always see missed opportunity in the workout not taken. Yet as you look back over the previous year (in the pages of a log or just in memory), lapses in training tell you very little. All runners slide into slumps. The flu, demands at work, boredom, household diversions, and troubled romances will hijack discipline and desire. There's no fighting these things. More significant than the things that throw you off a training program are the things that bring you back, because these reveal who you are as a runner.

   The impetus for change arrives mysteriously, perhaps from several sources. Whether it's because you're packing on pounds and feeling sluggish or because you see a marathon date approaching and want to reconnect with old running buddies, the moment you're moved to take action deserves your attention. It holds rich information about the satisfaction you get from running. It also says a lot about your character.

   Here's another reason your history matters: You are a different runner this year than you were last, certainly in the changes that training has brought to your abilities, but also in your ambitions and desires. Your goals should change accordingly. The better you get as a runner, the less room you have to improve. Sooner or later you'll run into the limitations imposed by your abilities and age. When this happens, you must seek finer measures of accomplishment. Be willing to cut two, not twenty, minutes from a marathon. Add one mile, not three, to your weekly run. Learn to treasure the value in this.

   At the same time, any improvement is information. It reveals opportunity; it stokes hope. It’s an affirmation of the work you've done and the motivations that brought you there.

   Over years, your goals should vary according to the work you've done and the person you've become. One useful way to do this is to let your workouts inform your goals, not the other way around. This sounds counterintuitive, but if you can think back to periods in your training - even specific workouts - that brought great strides in improvement or intense gratification, you'll see in clear relief what you do best as a runner. It only makes sense that your goals should follow from these.

   Of course we all have to work on weaknesses, however unpleasant the effort. No one is off the hook for interval training, even if you hate it. When a race date looms, fun workouts won't necessarily get you to the starting line. Good training programs incorporate variety. Not all of it will be fun. Still, pleasure is what brought many of us to running in the first place. This too, is a part of your history.