I just started running again for the first time in one month (let’s say one month for my ego’s sake). My legs were heavy on the pavement since I was so far out of practice and I may as well have been walking because my fit self could run two miles and then some in the time I ran yesterday (I’ll also leave out that time for my self esteem).
Frustrated, I dragged my feed inside and murmured zombie when my mom asked me how my run went. It’s amazing how seriously you take your times when nothing is at stake. When there no longer is competition to push you, you become your own competition, which in my opinion is more challenging and harder on yourself.
My goal is to get my time back down to what it used to me, and my dad made an annoying, yet good point. “You can’t do that right now. Not when you haven’t been training for so long. You’ll get there in time, once you’ve run a bit more.”
Workouts are a lot like many college graduates in the job search. Just like we want to become fit and lose weight right after the first workout, we graduate and expect to be in our dream job, or something close to it, right away. When we do get a job, we want immediate advancement and grow impatient. We grow tired and that alone is discouraging and makes us wondering if we should keep running or keep looking for our dream job. When you haven’t been running for an extended period of time, you fall out of shape. Similarly, when you slow down or give up on your job search, you lose steam and it takes an aggressive approach to reentry to yield success in another round of job searches.
The more you put off running or the job search, the harder it will be to maintain your stamina, pace, and patience. If you make running and the job search a part of your routine, you are more likely to have more continual progress.
