Trends

There are multiple moments in my life, that I can clearly identify, that my expectations and life's realities are dissimilar if not diametric.  One of those circumstances, as it relates to this blog is progress.  Before I launch into my usual self-absorbed dialogue, allow me a short preface:  I completely understand that my proverbial glasses are rose-colored and my vision of the fantasy world  which I inhabit (much like a hermit) is just that, a fantasy where no person could live, except in their own minds.  I also freely admit that although completely impossible, I actually do live there and quite happily at that.  It is only when the "reality" of the rest of the world invades my fantasy land, do I find it difficult to cope with the inconsistencies.  This post will address one of these inconsistencies in my vision of my fantasy world and "reality".

Progress.  This graph clearly demonstrates my vision of progress.  This is how it SHOULD be.  This is what I would expect to see given a level of effort and time.  As the level of effort increases, and the time that effort is emplaced, the output, the progression, the level of success increases AT LEAST linearly.


Of course, I also recognize there are times when you're not able to participate at 100%, so I can see that there may well be plateaus in the progression.  It makes sense to me that after you see a marked gain, you would potentially and likely see a plateau.  This plateau may be an area where rest is needed or time to rebuild.   I see no reason for a decline.


Ideally, I would look for the above progression, the S-curve wave... small areas of plateaus, then continued growth.
I could even buy the below progression.... bursts of progress with only a slight dip below peak performance, continued effort, and then another burst of progress.



I also envision that if one were to step back from this graph, that is zoom out, they would see what appeared to be a linear progression as in the first graph.  These things make sense to me in my little fantasy world.

Now the disconnect comes when I evaluate actual performance.  The above graphs are what I envision, what I expect to see.  Below is a graph that displays what I will call "alternative reality", that is a "reality" that is another alternative to my reality.  This may be what everyone else sees as "reality", but is dramatically different than what I expect to see in Fantasy Land.



There is no rhyme or reason to this set of data points.  There is no clear progression, plateau, growth period, rest period.  I see only random, scattered successes and failures that follow no discernible pattern that would lead one to no method to evaluate progress well enough to train for repeatable successes.  The only positive that I can see in this graph is a positive progression from start to finish, but this may only be attributable to the time-frame that was chosen.  Imagine the next data point on the graph may well "end" below the level of the starting point and remain there.

Even though my fantasy world exists only in my mind, there is significantly more logic in my world.  So much more that this graph could not exist in my rose-colored fantasy world.  Thus the disconnect.

If I were to evaluate my races thus far, with the exception of one data point, there has been a nice linear progression.  It is a small progression, but a linear progression none the less.

1:49
1:47
1:43
(I have omitted the aberrant race to show the linear progression I am talking about)... and now that I think of it, I could just as easily merge my version of reality with the "alternative reality" (the reality that shows the documented times) simply by ignoring the races that don't comply... hmmm.  Something to think about.  As it stands, there is no logical place in my graph for a 2:11 finish time.

All of this may seem unimportant to most of you, but as I evaluate the races and my day to day training performances, I feel as if I need something objective to evaluate.  Subjectively, today and yesterday I did not perform well in my training runs, but I recognize that every training session does not have to be longer and faster in order for me to have growth.  I figure each time I am out training, I am strengthening my muscles and conditioning my heart and lungs and mind, so each training session could be beneficial as long as I am not over working and breaking down instead of building.  And the truth is, I am not so sure I can tell the difference.  So, the only way that I can foresee evaluating my progress is by evaluating the objective data of the race times... especially when they are linearly progressing.  -- I know, I know, it is a fantasy.  I am delusional, and I like it here.  Thank you.

Its is absolutely no consolation that this fantasy thought process is in no way limited to running for me, or even in sports.  Most every aspect of my life, in my mind, follows a similar linear progression.  As I consider this more deeply, I can say that is actually a true statement and I often ensure the validity of this statement by quitting those activities that are not progressing appropriately, effectively deleting the "aberrant" data point.  Welcome to my world... isn't it fun here?

The next race is NOLA Feb 5.  I have not yet set a goal for this race.  As you could imagine, having read this far down the page, my goal will likely be faster than 1:43, but I have not had an opportunity to train while I am healthy in order to evaluate a practical and attainable goal. -- 'cause practical and attainable is clearly what I all about.  LOL!