Have you been feeling a little “meh” lately?
What are you working on – your goals for your running and life?
My question for you today is: How focused are you on your goals??
Currently, I am training for the Twin Cities Marathon in October, which is also the USATF Master’s National Marathon Championships. Earlier this summer, to escape the heat, run with others, and so I could run next year’s Boston Marathon with friends, I was looking for a marathon to run in place of a 24-mile long run.
I had somewhat decided on the flat course and cool conditions of a marathon in Edmonton, Canada. But then I saw another marathon in… Reykjavik, Iceland.
Now this seems like a no-brainer to those that know my love of travel. Iceland… right?
However I had to drill down to what I really wanted, and recall the power of focus. Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors of the 20th century, believes a person is best served by completing only goals that really matter. Ignore those that are not as important. Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple also agree that focus is a key to success.
Many times when it comes to run training, it can come to what we want, or what we want right now. Do you want to stay in bed when it’s cold outside and sleep an extra half hour (or hour…) or get up and get your marathon training run in?
It can be what you want, over what you want right now.
The goals I set for 2015, on which I needed to continue concentrating, include:
- Consistently run 100+ miles per week
- Get to my optimal race weight
- Run a 3:12 or faster marathon
What it comes down to is that reaching goals takes a commitment.
So to me, it was also a matter of character. What kind of person would I be if I randomly went somewhere and jeopardized my goals? And so, I resolved to keep them.
And yet as some of my friends brought up, traveling and running can be done together. Heck, I set three world records for running marathons on all seven continents.
But there is a difference when you set a goal to run, versus perform at the best level you can. Weight loss, as well, can be confounded by international travel. Traveling also can make sleep and training schedules hard to follow. And success in running, as well as weight loss and in life, often demands consistency.
So I found another race in the much closer Wisconsin, and though the hot conditions and hilly course were subpar for a decent time, I was optimistic that I could still BQ decently.
And the weather can be part of your training.
If my marathon in October is on a hot day, I will then be better prepared. I also felt like this would be motivation to push myself a bit harder. It’s a feeling you have to train like a muscle – to keep going even when things are hard.
Moreover, I could then continue following my yearly goals with fewer interruptions of my schedule. As well I’d spend a lot less $$!!
Wisconsin is not the most exciting choice over Iceland, or even Canada. But as I said, it’s a choice.
As Meb Keflezighi says in his book, “Meb for Mortals,” he and fellow elite runner Deena Kastor like to think of things others label sacrifices as choices.
Making this choice now enables long-term goals to come through. And you can still have your cake and eat it too… for example, I can go travel where I want in my off season, when I don’t have simultaneous goals I am trying to achieve.
Another words: “Don’t sacrifice what you want most for what you want now.”
If you need more help in this area, I assist people with the key aspects that improve their performance every day – contact me for more information!
Keep Running with Life – Amie
