Some lessons wot I've learned...

...if I declare them publicly, I may be more likely to act on them myself!

Running should be good for both mind and body - it can be a social hobby and has intrinsic merits. Chasing PBs and prizes will help drive you on, but it is dangerous to let these totally dominate your motivation - unless you want your running habit to burn brightly but briefly. Eventually, we all reach a point where further improvement is limited either by one’s innate potential, the ageing process, or the amount of time and energy we can commit to further improvement (or even standing still). Therefore, in order to keep running, you do need to enjoy the activity for its own sake and be inspired, but not obsessed by, any goals you set yourself.

Training sessions are designed to prepare you for a future race. The paces you train at should be such as to maximise the likelihood of performing well in that race. You need to run at paces optimal to stimulate the required physiological adaptations for your target race – no more and no less. Speed-work in a group should help the required pace feel easier, but you are not racing your training partners. Save your competitive instincts for a race – they will serve you better there. You will perform better if you train in training and race in races!! If you’ve ever wondered why you can ‘compete’ with certain runners in training, but not in races, you now have an answer!

If you do take improvement seriously, beware! You will likely find it easy to push yourself to run harder and further than most, but not so easy to take to take regular rest. This is hard, because you need to take this rest before you feel the need for it - not after! When you are running well, you just don’t want to stop as you feel on fire, but if you don’t reign yourself in, your body surely will.

You can get a great buzz from taking part in races, but you don’t have to treat them all as full-out efforts, especially if you like to do a lot of them. Running to the point of exhaustion, which is what you will need to do to achieve your full potential on any given day, is an investment that should be strictly rationed. Therefore, if you are unable to reign yourself in, you’d better curb your enthusiasm to enter races. The alternative is regular and de-motivating under-par performances, and eventually burn-out and/or injury.