Goals & Expectations
There is something magical about the flipping of the calendar… A fresh start, a reboot, a chance to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year and prepare to forge a new path in the new year! That new path may be a familiar path, or one never travelled, either way we often set a framework of goals and expectations around the journey. When it comes to fitness, race or physical performance goals we tend to set very specific time goals related to our activities, however we often set these goals without a plan that we can execute that will give us a legitimate shot of achieving them.
A very common goal I hear is… “I want to do my [insert local century ride here] in 5:30 hours or less (I wasn’t satisfied with last year’s 6:20 performance)”. This is great on so many levels. Many of these events benefit local charities, allow the chance to connect with other cyclists and is a great fitness accomplishment. However, it is a terrible goal! This type of goal setting is very popular, easy to set, and very difficult or impossible for most to follow through with. What if its windy? What if your friends drop out and you ride it solo? What if it rains? What if the course changes? This type of goal setting sets you up for failure and leaves you hoping and praying for a magical day on the bike, which never comes. This can leave us with a profound sense of failure that can crush motivation and reaffirms the belief that progress is unattainable “since I don’t have all day to ride and train”. This type of goal is made without examining what it takes to achieve it. Did you change your training program? Did you even evaluate how you would measure improvement? In this example, this person would need to increase their average speed from 15.8 to 18.2 mph to hit the 5:30 goal? Does your current training program even force you to deal with efforts of this magnitude? There is nothing in this goal that places any emphasis on the steps you must take to get there and therefore is an arbitrary goal that will likely end in shortfall, disappointment and lack of interest going forward resulting in decreased motivation to try again or even keep training.
There is a place for this level of goal setting, but one must understand that this type of goal only focuses on the outcome and places no value or consideration on the process behind the action. Outcomes are wonderful, making outcome oriented goals can be a slippery slope and they overlook the many “wins” along the journey! I believe there are 3 key steps to establishing realistic, effective, and attainable goals.
COMMIT! The first step is easy. Commit to change. Commit to fitness and everything that comes with it. That means committing to discomfort, it also means committing to feeling better and being healthy and making health oriented decisions. Commit to making a difference in you!
PLAN! This is a very difficult and often underestimated step! First, you need to understand what your daily process is going to look like for you? How many days can you commit to training? What if its cold and dark? What if your boss throws an unexpected work trip your way? Having a plan for all the surprises life can throw at you is critical, otherwise you will always be too busy to train. Secondly, you need to understand what the actual program will look like. Too many people announce the end goal of “going faster” but then do absolutely nothing to get there. Just running, or just riding with a group of friends to a coffee shop is NOT going to give you the fitness you need to hit the time goal you are dreaming about, nor will it achieve the weight loss goal, or the general health goal you may have.
EXECUTE! You’ve committed, you’ve planned properly… all that is left is to execute the workout plan. A good plan should have a nice building progression over the week with balanced workloads, repeatable efforts that are crafted to your current ability. Each workout should give the body various stresses across multiple cardiovascular zones forcing it to grow. At SHIFT Endurance we provide our athletes a well-balanced, progressive program designed specifically for you, built from well proven testing methods so that you can “win” each workout! Execution leads to education, confidence and understanding exactly what your body can do and more importantly… how long it can do it. Why does this matter? Knowing what your body can do and for how long it can do it allows you to make outcome oriented goals that are within reach… and even beyond what you thought possible!