Tuesday 8 February 2011

Shifting Focus

Having been away last week, I'm a bit behind on my emails (personal and work!) - I'm ploughing my way through them. As you know, I'm feeling a bit disheartened after my disastrous long run at the weekend, but I've just read last week's Fetch newsletter and wanted to share a few statistics (I'm a bit of a stats geek!) with you that has helped perk me up a bit:

"The Office for National Statistics have discovered that the most popular pastime for 85% of the people in the UK is watching telly. So if running is what you concentrate on the most, you're already in the top 15% of people, in terms of getting-off-your-bum-and-doing-something."

Watching TV is the UK's most popular pastime (source)

"Only 51% of people listed exercise as a pastime, which must make you all the more special. They go on to look at the sporting activities of those who have managed to crowbar their backsides off the sofa - and only 8% of men and 5% of women have listed running."

Sometimes it's just about getting out there (source)

"Compare this to a weighty 12% of men who list snooker, and 5% who list darts as their method of keeping fit, and you hopefully start to see that getting out for a few runs each week puts you into a pretty strong position. In fact, the average person exercises twice a week, for 25 minutes at a time, and there are literally thousands of you who have already busted your way past that."

Its very true how our perception of what is 'normal' shifts as we become friends with and read more about runners, ultra-runners, very fast runners, people who've completed dozens of marathons, have sub-20 5k times etc, and its easy to forget that actually, just going for a run is an achievement in itself. Its not always about being the fastest or running the furthest. So in an effort to re-motivate myself, my mantra for now is:

"Completing a marathon was the original goal, regardless of time, and the time it takes won't detract from the achievement"

3 comments:

  1. I'm in the top 15% of people!? How cool is that :D

    You're so right though that it's easy to lose perspective. I mean, never mind how the session goes once you get out there; the fact is we drag ourselves out there in the first place, 3, 4, 5 times a week. That's badass in itself! From thereon in it's all just a matter of degree :)

    And good mantra. Tbh, I think getting through the training alone deserves a medal!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is very good to run and take a walk on the surroundings to breathe the fresh air and meet the nature.Good health depends on the daily exercises too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah thanks for reminding me ... I find it easy to avoid running, but when I really think about all the good things it does for me it's a no-brainer. Exercise is so good for long-term mental health too - yay!

    ReplyDelete