Phoenix,
Great job to everyone who ran down at the distance challenge this past week.
I noticed a few times on Friday something that I've seen hundreds of times before, but it has me thinking about it again. It is something that I'm almost certain has happened to each of you, probably this year, and if not yet, then at some point in the past. Ofttimes when you finish a race, your teammates, friends, or family will tell you what a great job you did. That's totally normal and common, and is generally meant as a way of encouraging you and wanting you to feel satisfied with your performance. When you've just run a PR or otherwise personally-impressive race, it's easy to say thank you and accept the compliment. What is interesting is when someone tells you "good job!" but you feel dissatisfied with your race, probably because it wasn't a PR or something. When that happens, the runner generally says "thanks" half-heartedly, with a decrescendo, because you don't feel like you did a "nice job" so it's hard to accept the compliment.
So that's my observation of human behavior for the day. I'm sharing this because I want to reframe the way that you accept these compliments, and allow yourself to be satisfied even when you have an underwhelming performance.
First, we need to understand that the value of your performance isn't in the PR or the time relative to the competition. The value is in your effort during the race and in your preparation. It is very common for a new runner who doesn't seriously train to have a PR in a race, simply because at the beginning level experience alone is enough to lead to improvement. However, the value of a PR without effort leading up to it is essentially meaningless. On the other hand, it is very common for experienced runners to have temporary plateaus, or even regressions, before seeing their next breakthrough. And when that breakthrough comes it is especially meaningful because of the work that it took to get to that point. Every "bad" race (defined by not being a PR, in this case) before that actually adds to the value of the breakthrough, so in a way, you should be glad you had them (they also give you learning experience which helps inform your race strategy and training plans, but we'll stick with the philosophical for a moment).
When you have a race that isn't your best, and someone tells you "nice job" or something like that, what they are really praising is your effort during the race, but even more than that, your effort over the past week, month, year, or years. If you can say that you did the best you could during the race and in the time since your last race, then you should take the compliment and accept it sincerely. If you haven't given your best effort at practices or in races, then you should consider how you can be better in that regard. Ultimately, using the term good or bad to define a race isn't really very useful. We should use more descriptive language to identify what happened in the race, which will then inform us going forward on how to best get to a new PR.
In conclusion, don't be afraid to accept a compliment even after a race that wasn't a PR. The most important thing is your effort, and if that is there on a consistent basis, then accept the compliment and then let's figure out what the next step is, objectively, without assigning a label of good/bad to it, which immediately clouds judgement.
Clothing order
If you would like to order something from our team store, please do so! It will close on Thursday, so take the time to order it now before you forget (which happens literally every time we have a store). This is a good way to get you and your parents some FHS gear for the track season.
Simplot
The Simplot games are this weekend. We are taking down a few sprinters, hurdlers, and slew of distance runners, and 2 medley relay teams. If you are going to the meet, will you email me or message me your event so I know where to expect you?
Medley teams: we need to practice hand-offs, preferably every day this week, so be sure to be at practice each day.
Sophomore orientation
Tonight is sophomore orientation for current 9th graders. We are going to have a table set up from 5-6:30 in the commons. Many of you have said you'd like to come help advertise, which I really appreciate. If more of you would like to come you are all welcome.
Looking forward to a great week. Let me know if you have any questions.
Coach Jacobson
