Comparison is the Thief of Joy

I love training by heart rate.  I love my training plan and my Facebook group.  But yesterday?  Yesterday was hard.  My interaction with other runners on social media has drastically increased over the last couple of weeks, and I've joined several new groups on Strava and Facebook.  It's hard not to compare myself to them.  It's hard not see you yourself at the bottom of the lists in your Strava groups and feel inadequate.  It's hard not to wonder why you aren't as fast as them.  But, as so many people in my training group reminded me, "Comparison is the thief of joy."  I'm on different running journey, I can't compare myself to them, especially since I have no idea where they are at on their journey or how long it's taken them to get there.  I've seen amazing improvements from my training plan.  I'm running about an hour a day, 5-6 days a week and I feel amazing.  I'm not tired.  I'm not sore.  I don't dread running anymore, I love it!  I might still be slower than I'd like, but in the 6 weeks I've been training I've gone from a 22 min/mile with an average heart rate under 140 to under a 15 min/mile keeping my heart rate under 140.  That's huge!  Add that to all the other changes I'm seeing, and I definitely have reason to be excited.

So, I'm no longer letting comparison rob me of joy, instead I'm finding joy in the journey.  Joy in running, joy in progress, and joy in how I feel.