The Next Goal
– Sota Maehara
Words by Sota Maehara • Photos by Natalie Wong
Workouts are tough. In the past it would be the one run of the week I look forward to, however a series of persistent overuse injuries left me apprehensive to ever do it again and was forced to take some time off running. During my gradual comeback, I sacrificed my top-end speed and tried to fall in love with the fundamentals of the sport once again - the aerobic base-building phase. It gave me a fresh start and opened up new doors for new connections. It allowed me to take my mind off the numbers and to focus on being present in the moment. Most importantly, it probably saved me from completely abandoning the sport that’s given me so much.
With a more slow and steady approach to building back my fitness - twelve weeks to be exact, I finally decided to incorporate workouts back into my weekly routine. Running fast is never easy, whether you’re fit or not, but that’s the beauty of this sport. The whole spectrum of athletes, whether recreational or elite, have to go through set-backs and resistance to get better.
Right now I’m training to run a sub 16 minute 5k - an arbitrary goal that suddenly started having a much deeper meaning after failing to achieve it in 2020 due to a series of unlucky races and injuries. This goal is no longer to do with the numbers or the title of being a “Sub 16 5k runner”, it’s an end goal to prove to myself and hopefully others that an amateur runner with no talent can achieve a monumental task through consistency and resilience.
The last thing I’d like to touch on in this short article is the law of hedonic adaptations. Every event in your life set’s a new standard of normal, and it’s important to realise that breaking a personal best or even winning the lottery is not going to give you a long term sense of fulfilment. As humans, we are always striving for the next goal, and if you’re living life properly, you’ll never be satisfied. After I break 16 minutes in the 5k, my next goal is to simply ‘become fitter while enjoying what this sport has to offer, whether internal or external.