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Until a few years ago, I basically never ran unless I was playing trashcan ball or some other sport. Then all of a sudden, something clicked and I found a new hobby that also happens to make me healthier. I'm especially happy that I got into running since it's so convenient. I can grab my keys, step outside, and go for a run without any equipment. I don't need a gym and I don't have to find other people to get a game going. And of course, it's still beautiful outside where I live (even if it's super hot). I track all of my runs on my Apple Watch, and the main things I'm looking for are consistency and progress. I don't need to be faster on every single run, but I always want the trend to be that my pace gets faster over time. Sometimes, my pace gets faster because I'm training really hard, or because I change things up to focus on a specific distance. But sometimes weird things happen and I see big drops in my times that are unexpected. A few Springs ago, I ran a 10k training run (a little more than 6 miles) in just under 50 minutes. That's slightly faster than a pace of 8:00 minutes per mile. Then I stopped running more than 5 miles at a time and started training for shorter distances (like a mile) and just trying to get through the miserable Florida summer. Then the first signs of Fall arrived, meaning race season was coming up and I needed to start training for longer distances if I wanted to run a half marathon I had scheduled for the end of the year. So, after training shorter distances for several months, I decided to try a 10k training run to see how it felt. I ran the same route as I had earlier in the year, but this time was significantly faster: It only took me about 48:30, which is a pace of 7:44 per mile. Ninety seconds is a pretty big improvement considering I hadn't run that far in six months. That was even a big improvement over my previous personal best, and it felt great to run such a good time. Can you guess what I did differently to run so much faster this time? Think about it for a second, then scroll down to see the answer. ... ... ... ... ... Spoiler below! Are you ready? The answer is: Nothing. I'm pretty sure the difference was the temperature. When I ran that 10k in the Spring, it was 79 degrees outside. When I ran that 10k run later in the year, it was only 72 degrees. There are lots of studies showing that race times improve as temperatures drop (to an extent, of course). So it felt good to run a personal best, but most of the improvement was just the lower temperature. My job was to train hard enough that I could finally take advantage of the improved running conditions once the weather cooled off. Sometimes, the conditions just aren't right to get the result you want. But as long as you keep preparing and putting in the work, you can make sure you're ready to capitalize once the conditions are right. Here are some other examples that come to mind:
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