One of the most important parts of feeling accomplished in this world is by achieving a goal, but before you can achieve a goal you have to first set a goal- it’s kind of the most important part of achievement. There are a lot of different ideas about setting goals, memorable acronyms like SMART goals for instance (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-specific), or ideas about visualizing what the goal will look like when completed, and all these are important and valuable. In my high school coaching, I often will break goals down to one or two more basic questions: “What time are you looking for?” or “Where do you think you want to finish?”
Let’s take a look at the purpose for these two questions. “What time are you looking for?” As runners, pretty much everything we do comes down to what the watch says at the end of the race. One of my former coaches, current mentor, and forever friend Coach Rich Airey used to say to us “The clock don’t lie boys!” So we should always have an idea in our minds about what time would make us happy. For some of my athletes, finishing a hilly 5k course, like Holmdel Park, in 21:00 would be incredible! For others, 21:00 for a 5k is slower than their every day easy run pace, so for a runner like that maybe breaking 17:00 would be the goal. A goal should be relative to your current situation; I once ran a 16:14 5k, and I sure would love to do that again one day, but at this point in my journey, getting back under 18:36 (6:00/mile) would be incredible. If I base all of my current goals as an early-30’s full time teacher, parent, husband, and part-time coach off the times I was running as a 21 year old college athlete I would be setting myself up for failure. SO my first step in goal setting is simply identifying what makes sense for a finish time for my current ability level.
Sometimes there are races where time does not matter nearly as much. There was one year not that long ago where the Monmouth County Cross Country Championship meet was held on a day in October that felt like a mid-August day. It was over 80 degrees and the humidity was through the roof. On a day like that sometimes your finish time is less important than the way you compete. We cannot control the weather, we can only control the way we prepare and how we respond to the weather. Maybe for your local 5k on a rough weather day instead of specifically picking a finish time goal you choose a relative goal. “I am going to finish in the top 5 of my age group,” “I am going to place top-20 overall,” or “I am going to pass ten people in the last mile.” The possibilities are endless, but you have to do the work to consider the possibilities for your goals.
Here’s a few tips I give my athletes:
Be specific with what you want
I want to run a _____________ in this amount of time ___________.
Have a short term goal, and a long term goal
This month I will complete _______; By the end of the year I will ________
Remind yourself of your goals, but do not be consumed by them
Stress can make things more difficult than they have to be
HAVE FUN along the way
Keeping it fun can reduce the stress and yield better results
Create a finish goal, and a process goal
My end result will be __________
In order to accomplish this goal, I will do ________________
Be honest with yourself
Look at your current situation, be honest, and keep yourself honest along the way
I’ll have lots of great tips coming over the next couple of weeks and months, so keep checking in! If you are looking for help setting goals and reaching them from the mile on up to a marathon, please leave me a comment, send me an email, or stop by my FaceBook page (BDT Endurance) and let me know!
Happy Trails!!