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Always running at the same pace can prevent you from understanding the state of your body’s fitness.
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To understand what it really is, it is appropriate to step out of the comfort zone.
Think of it as a test, not a way to improve yourself by pushing your limits. -
Small changes in training can make all the difference.
You don’t have to completely disrupt your routine, just introduce small changes to get a more accurate assessment.
I usuallyalways run at the same speed.
It’s a habit or, and I’m comfortable with it: every time I go out for a run I put it on autopilot and go.
I don’t intervals, I don’t follow particularly intense workouts, and every time I run, I feel like I’m doing “pretty good.”
A few days ago, I thought something that made me reconsider my typical training.
I realized that by always training in the warmth of my comfort zone, I can never really understand what physical state I am in.
This state of comfort or, at the very least, controlled discomfort makes you somewhat blind to your real state, besides the fact that it has a habit of “shifting” in parameters-I bet my current comfort zone is far slower than it was 10 years ago.
In short, I experience nothing new: no extra effort, no challenge.
And without challenges, there is no way to tell if my physical condition is improving, getting worse, or remaining stable.
When you run in the comfort zone, you always seem to be “fit enough.” But is this really the case?
The comfort zone is not a limitation, it is a test
This thought led me to reconsider the idea of getting out of the comfort zone.
People often talk about doing it to improve performance, to become faster or stronger.
But I have instead begun to see it differently: not so much as a means to push your limits, but rather as a tool to test them.
When you push yourself beyond that safe boundary, especially if you usually train normally quietly, you’re not doing it to break a personal record, you’re doing it to see how you’re doing.
Are you improving from a few months ago?
Or maybe you find that you have remained stable, or even gotten worse?
It’s hard to know if you always run at the same pace, over the same distance, with the same feelings.
Actual evidence
I’m not talking about doing grueling workouts or disrupting your routine every time.
All it takes is a small change, a more intense run than usual, a few intervals or a different route.
It’s these little tests that give you a real snapshot of your physical state.
I, for example, have one in particular: every year I run in the mountains on a very specific route that allows me to see if, 12 months down the road, I have gotten worse or better.
The longer the time intervals, the easier it is to notice changes but the suggestion is to consider yourself as the subject of an experiment: you are trying to evaluate your performance and the easiest way is d measure it under stress, even if for a short time.
In fact, only by getting out of your comfort zone can you find out where you really are in your physical state.
You don’t need to do this all the time, but every so often, challenging yourself a little bit is essential to make an honest and accurate assessment.
I still think that training within the comfort zone is enjoyable and reassuring, and I will continue to do so.
However, one must also be aware that one risks missing the opportunity to see how we really are.
Getting out of it is not only a way to improve, but to test yourself.
It is a physical and mental check-up.
And sometimes, that’s what we need: not to go faster or farther, but to understand how we really are.