Category Archives: My Goals

Set your own goals. Run your own race.

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I’m going through a process of goal setting at work. Funny enough, I only really set goals for myself when it comes to my running (and weight loss). As a regular reader of my blog, you may know that my goal is to run faster than 8mins/km. I’m getting there. Slowly. Two friends entered my mind as I sat at my desk, thinking about goals…

Both of them ran the Comrades marathon this year. The one friend was aiming for a silver medal while the other was running her tenth Comrades. Both had different goals, even though it was the same race. Only one was successful in reaching her goals and proudly boasts her permanent number which I’m sure she’ll wear with pride on future Comrades runs. Well done @tanyakovarsky! It’s an awesome achievement!

My other friend, unfortunately, had to pull out of the race half way. According to reports, she had headed out too fast and became ill. She still won’t talk about it and I suspect this will haunt her for quite a while especially since she came 22nd overall in 2010 and achieved a Bill Rowan medal in 2011.

In discussions with some of my other friends, some have asked why she pulled out instead of taking it easy and just finishing before the cut-off gun. She had time on her side. But as a runner, this is not what it’s about. I’ve often had people say to me, don’t worry about your running time. If you miss the 3 hour cut-off for a half marathon, it’s okay. Do it for fun. Fun?

The fact is, unless you are successful at reaching your goals, it’s not fun. If you aren’t able to reach the goals you set out for yourself, it makes no sense to deliver on someone else’s goals. The goals you set for yourself are incredibly meaningful and it’s important that you don’t allow someone else to dictate what they think is the goal post.

I know she’ll be back running soon and achieve that medal she is striving for. In the meantime she remains one of the most inspirational runners I know. In fact, she’s one of the few people who make me believe in myself. Thanks Estie!

March 2012 – Am I coming or going?

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Wow, can you believe it’s March already! It’s absolutely crazy how time just flies by so quickly.

So I thought what better time to do a quick assessment of my year and see whether or not the goals I set out for myself in January were still relevant and if I had achieved anything.

My weight. Nothing happening! I have plateaued on level FAT. Even the scale says I’m obese. *shock* As much as I try eat healthily and try not cheat, the weight stays stuck. I’m getting a little frustrated. My goal is to lose 7kgs this year and so far, since January, zero. Action plan required. STAT!

 

My work. Never been better! My new boss has turned out to be incredibly supportive. Coaching sessions have proved invaluable and I feel as if I finally understand what it is I’m meant to be doing every day. It’s a pretty powerful feeling to know that you can add great value to your team and be awesome at what you do.

 

My family & friends. This is most probably the area I’ve had most success with. Having not had anyone over to my place last year, I’ve already had our besties over for spaghetti and meatballs. I’ve also managed to make time for my close friends and made a concerted effort to meet at least once a month. I slipped a little by only seeing my niece two weeks after her birthday, but all was forgiven when we arrived with gifts. Phew…

My running. Even though I’ve been running for 4 years now, the last two months have been the most emotional for me. What a rollercoaster ride run I’ve been on! Training with a coach, speed work, pulled quad muscle, caught in the rain. It’s been pretty hectic. Ironically enough, it’s been more mentally draining than physical. I’ve changed the goal posts a few times, going from wanting to run Two Oceans in record time, to focussing on 10km races. I’ve also gone through stages of hating my running to falling in love with it again.

The next time I review my goals Two Oceans will have passed, our Easter holiday in Cape Town will be over and we’ll be launched into Winter. Brrrrrr!

It’s amazing how much can change in one’s life in such a short time. It’s worth stopping every now and then and taking it all in.

When you finally make a decision, everything else falls into place

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My parents have a rock in their garden with the following quote carved into it, “To conquer fear, you need to make a decision.”

I’m not sure why this quote popped in to my head on Saturday, but it did. You see, on Saturday I made the decision to pull out of running the Two Oceans half marathon in April.

It’s been a very difficult and tough decision to make. Trust me, I’m heart-broken! But I’ve had time to think long and hard and decide what’s best for me. 

Two Oceans blogger, Dr Ross Tucker pointed out, “Why is sometimes more powerful than how.” So I sat down and wrote out my goals and answered some tough questions I realised was long overdue. It turns out, this is what I know: I do not have a problem running 21.1kms. The distance does not put me off and I do not struggle with it either. It’s the pace where my biggest challenge lies. Due to the fact that I run so slowly, the extra stress of making a 3 hour cut-off hangs over my head causing me incredible stress making it a very unpleasant run.  

The stress comes down to the speed of my running. If I can correct this and run faster, I would not stress as much and enjoy the run more.

The training that I started with my coach in January aims to do just that – get me running faster.

Unfortunately, the training schedule I am following does not include Two Oceans or any other half marathons coming up. In fact, I have already pulled a quad muscle by running Johnson Crane too hard and trying to slip back into my training schedule a day later without resting.

In chatting to my coach, he reminded me that my goal for 2012 is speed, not Two Oceans and unfortunately this year, I can only choose one.

I’ve chosen speed.

My hope is that if I can work on running faster, and start making those cut-off times by a good half hour or so, I will in fact not stress as much and enjoy my runs. That is the end goal.

Two Oceans will be there next year. And the next…

Since having made the decision, I am at peace and have a clearer view of my running goals ahead of me. But I am sad. Very sad. Some of my running friends have tried their very best to convince me otherwise and to run the race “for fun.” But it’s not fun when I’m running my guts out and still see a man at the finish line holding a cut-off gun.

I guess the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that I was too afraid to make the decision. But the decision has to be what’s right for me, for my body, not anyone else. I kept worrying about what everyone would think. Would they all see it as quitting? 

To be honest, I’m tired (mentally and physically) of scraping through and just making it. I don’t want to run at 8mins/km anymore. I want to achieve a half marathon time of 2h40. Or 2h30. Even 2h20! I want to run faster!

That’s my goal!

I didn’t listen. I thought I knew better. But I don’t.

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One of the first instructions my running coach gave me was that I should not run any races until he tells me to. But as any runner will know, this is torture, especially when everyone around you is entering all of their favourite races.

So instead of listening to him, I entered and ran the Dischem 5km race in Bedfordview on Sunday morning. I thought, hey, it’s just a quick fun run. Surely it’s okay?

I expected to do brilliantly. I expected to shave minutes off my previous time. But I didn’t. In fact, as we drove home, I was hit by immense disappointment and irritation with myself. I had managed to run without stopping once. This was great. But I was slow and still running at 8 mins/km.So I phoned my coach, sheepishly apologising that I had “skelmpies” run a race behind his back, but also begging him for answers as to why I was not yet running faster. After he gave me a firm lecture, I finally understood exactly why he had given that instruction.

You see, running by myself on a quiet Sunday morning around my neighbourhood is a very different experience to running a race. Even if I try fool myself in to believing that it’s a “fun” run, it isn’t. And it wasn’t on Sunday.

In fact, I was pumped. I was nervous. My adrenaline was flowing. I was tense, anxious and excited. As the race started, I was already thinking I was going to do brilliantly. Thanks to a great new friend (Craig aka @biggestbossfan) who ensured I did not walk once, I landed up completing the race in 40 mins. Yip, 8 minutes per km!

I was gutted! All I could think of was what about all my speed work? What about all the extra effort of 3 weeks of training? I felt miserable and disappointed. I took my eye off the end goal and landed up feeling highly demotivated.

My coach was right. It’s a massive psychological knock which I took and doesn’t help my training much. All I could focus on after the race is that my training wasn’t helping and that I was always going to be a slow runner jogger and yet, this is so not true.

I guess the biggest lesson I’m learning from my coach is patience. I’m realising that the end goal is not Two Oceans (a race with so much hype it stresses me out tremendously).

The end goal is in fact listening to my body. Believing in my abilities and having the patience to believe that it will happen. Eventually. Because it will.

So I have my 2012 ASA number ready to be sewn on to my running kit and while I wait patiently for my first official run of the year, I will carry on training. I suspect that compared to last year, running in 2012 is going to be filled with many challenges and unexpected surprises of its own.