Devin Kelly is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. Something about his style and depth of description pulls me in, often times not wanting his articles to end.

His article titled The Time in the Front is the Time in the Back is a wonderful account of so many aspects of running that seem to come with the territory, but don’t necessarily have to.

This article is so well-written, it’s hard to try and pluck out a line from it to highlight. The one I chose below actually isn’t really what the article is about, but something I see quite a bit as a coach, as well as life in general throughout society and worth honing in on:

“In this burgeoning era of analytics, there is always a new data point to track some metric of who you are, to determine all the ways in which you are improving, and all the ways in which you are not.”

As a numbers-person, one might think I would be all about heart rate, VO2 max, exact stride length, oxygen levels, and pacing. However, in my experience both as a runner and as a coach, the biggest fitness/performance gains have occurred when those advanced metrics are thrown out the window and instead the focus is placed on perceived effort, with an emphasis on ACTUALLY ENJOYING GOING FOR A RUN. If you are having fun running, you are more likely to stick with it and experience more of the benefits that only consistent, long-term training can provide.

I also see people being too hard on themselves because of said metrics above, even while they are making great progress. Honing in on one specific metric without taking into account the full picture with something as complex as personal fitness (so many variables go into it) can be a dangerous game, and actually reduce happiness, which is the opposite of what the end goal should be.

Ok, that little sidebar is over. The bottom-line is, I highly recommend reading Devin’s article in its entirety as it will most likely provide a useful nugget, insight, or other light-bulb moment that could affect your own training/life. Enjoy!