Others help you run better (literally)

I’ve been doing a lot of exploring around accountability, teamwork and culture. One of the things I have been fascinated by is how external accountability works. In my experience, I am far more likely to let myself down versus another person. Everything I’ve read is that this experience is not unique to me.

Over on the rTraction Blog I wrote a post about how I (accidentally) used good goal setting technique to achieve a goal to be able to run 5k at a pace that would at least be a workout for my wife (should she want to run with me).

At my starting level of fitness this was a fairly significant challenge. I think I would be envious of a turtle’s split time. My rTraction post outlines the process from setting the intention of the goal to be actually running the 5k.

In this post I wanted to highlight a weird quirk I uncovered in the process. I have a competitive nature so I always try my best to beat my previous time. I will tell you at the end of each run that I went as hard as I could. And yet…

When my wife and I run together I’m significantly faster - which does not correlate to my sworn statement that I had previously run as fast and as hard as I could.

Consider the following runs, two days apart:

Can you guess which one I had a running partner along side? The pace was almost 10% faster. My best personal solo effort to date was 3 weeks later and I still have not beat that 5k time (although I am getting close!)

I believe there are several factors at play here. I think when I run solo I tend to be a bit distracted and in my own head, thinking about whatever task is ahead for the day vs. focusing on running.

More importantly I think there’s a shared accountability and desire to push each other a little faster. I can sense when my partner’s holding back her pace and there’s a motivation to match that pace. By having someone else enrolled and impacted by my pace there’s that extra 10% effort.

Consider the times at the 8k mark:

Weirdly enough, the same 10% faster pattern emerges.

The data presented herein is a far cry from a scientific study, however, it confirms what I believe to be true. You will see better results if you enrol in a journey with other people and have folks external to you pushing you to do better.

I look forward to the times when my wife and I can run together for two reasons.

One is that it’s a nice way to spend time together (and something we could not have done previously due to my fitness levels). The second is that I know I will post a fast time, which gives me a benchmark for the next run.