Competitive Edge

On foggy mornings, it’s sometimes a challenge to find the motivation to start my 5km run, but once I get moving my body doesn’t have a problem completing that distance. 5kms is just enough of run to give me a good dose of endorphins where I feel great at the end of the workout. For me, running 10km is really pushing my body out of it’s comfort zone, especially in my neighborhood that is surrounded by hills.

It’s been a year since I started running and 5 months since I attempted 10kms for the first time. Last night I decided that today would be a 10km run, for no reason other than it had been awhile since I felt the exhaustion of a run. To my delight I managed to shave 3 mins and 26 seconds off my 10km time from April. This morning I ran 10km in 58 mins and 2 seconds.

I’m definitely not going to win any races at this speed BUT I’ve come to accept that it’s more productive for me to race against myself then others. We have no control over how fast or hard others can work their bodies, but we definitely can improve our own performance by competing against ourselves. Each time I set out for my run, I set my timer and try to go faster then I did the day before. Most of my life I didn’t have this competitive edge in regards to exercise… but finding it and using it as a tool to help myself become a stronger athlete is what has helped me to succeed.

It is without a doubt that exercise gives you a competitive edge not just in your workouts but also for life in general. Once you start to enjoy the adrenaline of winning, getting stronger or faster (even if it’s competing against yourself)… you start to strive for this feeling in different areas of your life too… like your career!