Tag Archive for "PR" -

New Goals for the New Year

New goals for the new year? A lot of people I’ve talked to lately seem to have given up on resolutions and goals. They tell me that resolutions are a waste of time because they are so quickly forgotten. Other people rattle off goals they’ve had for years but are no closer to accomplishing. I’ve written about SMART goals before, but it’s needed again.
A SMART goal meets the following criteria:
SPECIFIC: Your goal must be as specific as possible. What race do you want to run? When do you want to run it? How will you prepare?
MEASURABLE: This means that the goal must have quantifiable parameters. Instead of saying,”I want to run faster, longer, or smoother,” your goal must have something to measure. Choose a time you want to run for a specific distance, for example. This gives you a measuring stick, so you’ll know when you’ve accomplished your goal.
ATTAINABLE: Make sure your goal is attainable. Running a four-minute mile is not achievable for most of us. This isn’t to say your goal should be easy. It should be challenging enough to be worth the effort. There are some great calculators out there that can predict performances at various distances based on races you have recently run. Use one of these to figure out which PR you should attack and how fast you could possible run. This one allows you to compare times now to times when you were younger.
RELEVANT: Basically, this means that your goal must be important to you. If you don’t really care about your 8-k time, you’re not going to train for it.
TIME-BOUND: Your goal must have a deadline. For years, I said I wanted to run a marathon. It didn’t happen until I paid the registration fee and gave myself a deadline.

Follow these guidelines to create a SMART goal. It is also really helpful to make yourself accountable to someone. Share your goals with someone you know will question you. These are my smart goals for the year:
1. I will do at least 125 sessions of core workouts this year.
2. I will do at least 30 swim workouts this year.
3. I will run at least 5 new races this year.

What kinds of new goals are you going to create this year? Feel free to share them here.

6th January 2010

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Showing up at the start line

This summer I completed my first triathlon. I half-heartedly participated in the TriZelle triathlon training program in anticipation of the sprint triathlon I identified as my end-goal event. Note: “in anticipation of” not “in preparation for.” I am confident the program would have prepared me well for that event had I actually followed the training schedules and advice of my coaches. I intended to prepare for that triathlon but that’s not what actually happened.

I’ve been running for many years. Some of those years I ran competitively for a team or in pursuit of age group placement. Other times I ran for stress relief, fun or general fitness. I’ve competed and participated in many road races of varying distances. It wouldn’t be a big deal for me to show up at the start line of a running race unprepared. I wouldn’t recommend it nor consider it “smart” but it’s doable. I can get through the race and pick up some ice on the way home to treat the soreness that will surely follow.

To show up at a triathlon without preparation or training, that’s a new level of stupidity for even me. As I packed my transition bag and drove to the race site, my mind was racing (pardon the pun): “What was I thinking?”

The good news is that when you do your first event of any sort, it’s a PR. You have no previous splits or finish times to which compare it. When I’m coaching run groups, I advise beginners to not set time goals for the first half-marathon or the first-marathon. Just experience the event and enjoy it for what it is, I tell them. That so easy to say but for some of us, difficult to follow. But when you go to your first triathlon without adequate training, it’s time to be humble and experience the event and enjoy it for what it is.

I made it through the swim without assistance from lifeguards, had a fun time on the bike and survived the run. And hey, I got a PR!

4th September 2009

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This is BigDaddy enjoying the moments before the Green Bay Marathon.

As a high school teacher, I get to experience graduation season every year. Every year, I see many seniors acting excited to reach the end of their high school journey. I also see many of these graduates hiding fear of this same ending. Many of my kids say, “I can’t believe this is the end. Can you believe this is our last (fill in the blank with any high school memory).” This year, I started listening to students talking about they are excited about. No more essays. No more stupid school rules. No more teacher’s prying questions. These are the most common responses. It made me wonder: why do we so often focus on what is ending and lose focus on what is to come? Even better, let’s enjoy where we are.

Runners would enjoy running infinitely more if they dwelt in the present instead of the past. In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert gives numerous examples of how our minds are faulty at recording past events and horrible at predicting our future. Yet, we define ourselves by personal bests set in the past. Every race I run is instantly compared to my previous best efforts.Yesterday, I did the Panther Prowlat West Ottawa High School. It was a small 5k, no prizes, about 130 runners total. I was aware that John “MadDog” Donnelly would be running, so I knew I would be pushed in the race. Before the race began, I was thinking about the last time I ran this race. I set a PR, but Donnelly beat me by ten seconds. This time, I started hard and led through the first mile. Instead of the enjoying the race, though, I thought about another 5k that I raced with the MadDog. I passed him at the two mile mark only to be re-passed in the last quarter of a mile. Rather than enjoying the first race that I led, I was thinking about the past. I continued dwelling on history through the end of the race. During the last 100 meters, I realized that I was going to win. I have never outright won a race. I did it! I won! Oh, but my time was not as good as last time (on a different course). Immediately, my first outright win was compared to my previous PR. My wonderful wife helped me to realize that this is ridiculous. Even if I didn’t win. Even if my time was 20 minutes slower instead of 10 seconds slower. How could focusing on the past be worthwhile? I should have been celebrating where I was at the moment.

All too often, the moment is lost in plans for the future, too. Too often, I have finished a race only to be looking at Marathonguide.com or Michigan Runnerto find my next race. This robs the present. We need to savor the races we’re running. I run marathons. Training schedules dominate my days to race once or twice a year. I should enjoy the marathon when I’m running it. During those 16-, 18- or 20-week training schedules, we need to live in today’s Interval or Fartlek. If you’re always thinking about the next race, why are you running the current one?

So that’s my lesson for the weekend. Enjoy TODAY’S run. Savor TODAY’S race. Live in TODAY. And graduates, be nice to your parents and teachers.

31st May 2009

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