I remember a couple of years ago when I started jogging I mentioned this to a colleague. He was an avid runner and said something along the lines of "That's great! What are your goals?"
Goals? My only goal in taking up running was not to drop dead of a heart attack at age 40. Other than that I was just doing an activity I mostly despised for the sake of getting it over with.
I wasn't until a couple of years later when I started road biking, and specifically when I got a cycling computer, that I started to see the value in setting goals. The computer let me see distance covered and time, and soon it become fun to try to beat personal bests. I had a few routes around my house that were 20, 30, or 40 km. I'd set target times and try to hit them, and it felt great when it happened. This not only drove me to get out on the bike more, but drove me to ride harder and increase my fitness.
And this is essentially what got me into triathlon. Having an event in which to compete provided another, bigger, longer term goal to work towards, which in turn drove me to exercise and train even harder.
So now I always have goals in mind when training. There's good goals and maybe not-so-good goals. The good goals are the solid measurable ones that are within your control: time. For example at my second tri of this season, I set two specific time-based goals: run the 5km under 25min and complete the full tri under 1:10. Both were realistic and attainable - I knew what I should get in the swim and bike portions, had a rough idea of transition times, but was not confident in my run, hence the generous target. I knew if I raced my race it would come down to the run and if I hit my run target I'd hit my overall target. And I did.
I have a few long term goals in mind too (run a sub-20min 5km, bike 40km under an hour, swim a sub-24 1500m). The not-so-good goals are the ones you don't have any control over. Specifically, where you place in a race. Totally depends on who else shows up and how they perform. I could have a great race, hit PBs in all 3 sports, and finish way back, or have a crappy race when nothing goes right, and still end up near the front of the pack. It's a common caveat not to set goals relative to others' performances.
But it is a good motivator. I had a goal for the year that I wanted to get an Age Group podium spot. That motivated me as much as any time based goals to train hard. Getting the AG win in my first event and a top 10 overall finish made me revise my goals.
Which brings me to the rest of my season. I had originally wanted to do two sprint distance and two olympic distance. And I'm confident now that I can complete an Oly, but the two races I wanted to complete at that distance are 2 weeks apart. Realistically, I don't think two weeks is enough recovery to be in peak condition for that second race. So I'm going to do race #1 as a sprint, sort of a tune-up to get my body ready for the main event 2 weeks later, which will be my one and only Oly this year, my main goal, and my A race. I'll have some time-based goals for each, and for better or worse, some placing-based goals too (I can't help myself).
No comments:
Post a Comment