Setting Goals is Important

 

I am a teacher.  One of the most important skills I teach my kids is how to set small goals when you have a big one to tackle.  By creating a checklist of tasks to achieve, I show them a way for big projects to seem like many small projects which build on each other.  Take my running goals:

Big Fat Juicy Goal:  Run in the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon. (1-2 years)
1st Goal: Train 3 times a week
2nd Goal: Run in a timed 5K once a month
3rd Goal:  Once able to run a 5K without stopping, begin training for 10K.
4th Goal: Continue training 3 times a week for 10K
5th Goal: Run a 10K every other month (5Ks in off months)
6th Goal: Once able to run a 5K without stopping, begin training for 15K.
7th Goal: Train 4 times a week for 15 K
8th Goal: Run a 15K every other month (alternate 5 and 10Ks in off months)
9th Goal: Once I feel confident that I can run 3/4 of a 15K, begin training for 1/2 marathon.
10th Goal: Train 5 days a week
11th Goal: Run a 1/2 marathon every few months.

These goals may shift and change.  I teach my students to keep a calendar to keep their deadlines visual but training for a physical event is different.  If I get injured at some point that will push things back.  You never know when you will bump up against an obstacle like weather interference, mental blocks, or scheduling conflicts. 

I don't feel a rush to complete my Big Fat Juicy Goal.  It's a dream but I certainly don't want to sprint into it and feel overwhelmed.  I often get Big Fat Juicy Ideas.  I am a big picture person; an idealist; an optimist.  I tend to run full steam ahead without a care of the obstacles or consequences.  This is great when studying a new topic or wanting to experience new things (like food or cultures).  Not such a fantastic thing when the results often end in half finished projects, a messy house, and frustrated students. 

As I get older, and hopefully wiser, I am starting to realize that I should make a plan.  Look closer at the details.  Think smaller (at times).  In my training, that means run often, increase my distance and interval training as I begin to feel stronger.  Pay attention to what my body is telling me, and care for it when it needs a massage, pedicure, a steam, or a soak.

Reflection is a skill most teachers use as a professional tool to assess their success or to analyze there lessons.  We use it with our kids too.  Needless to say, it is a skill that carries over into my personal life.  I have been reflecting a lot about why I am running.  I hated running for a long time.  I came up with every excuse of why I couldn't run.  As most things, it stems back to an elementary school experience where I could not keep up with the athletic kids.  I didn't play sports.  I wasn't very fast.  I also didn't practice and wasn't pushed to be any better.  I was adequate and so that was enough. 

This is no longer acceptable.  Mediocre isn't good enough.  I don't feel the need to be THE best.  I just need to be MY best.  I've spent too much of my life making excuses that I wasn't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough.  I am enough but it doesn't mean I have to be complacent.  I am my daughter's first example of what it is to be a woman.  I don't want their self image to be self-depreciating.  I want them to be strong, independent, and healthy.  And so...I run. 

Get fit like gorilla's are chasing you?!

The Chase

My family and friends know I have been determined to become a runner for the past six months are so.  I have been set back several times by injuries and excuses.  Previous to December 6, 2012...I made it though a lot of treadmill and elliptical cardio in the gym.  But it was mindless and felt like torture.  I would see commercials with girls running.  They were the very essense of confidence and strength.  I had seen the inspirational Pinterst posts of the freedom running could bring.  I desperately wanted to feel like that.   

Don't get me wrong, my friends, I love weight lifting still.  It makes me feel powerful, strong, capable, and fierce.  But what about a sense of accomplishment, what about the high runners speak of at the end of a marathon?  What about overcoming a lifetime of telling myself, "You're not an athlete.  You've never been able to perform athletically."  It's really hard to abandoned years and years of self-doubt.

I was so tired of being afraid of everything.  Tired of telling myself my knees are weak, my shins will hurt, my back can't take it, there are no bras that will support me running.  All of these excuses of why I couldn't.  On December 6, 2012, I ran my first 5K.  I did it because I wanted help raise money for a local education foundation that supports mentorship of under privileged teens.  I didn't train before hand.  I was in horrible shape.  But I finished in under an hour.  I walked most of it but a ran some too.  I could barely move for the next four days.  That is when the chase began for me.

I got new shoes (see my previous post on show shopping). I got a new attitude.  I decided I would run and I started running.  Sometimes at the gym on the treadmill, sometimes on the track at the Y, it mostly outside on the beach and local park trails.  No excuses...just doing it.  Ad the weirdest thing happened.  Running stopped feeling like so,etching I had to get through and started being what I needed to relax my mind, distress my body, and get my creative juices flowing.

Two months later, I am signed up for two more 5Ks.  One is this coming Saturday and the other a month from now.  For the past four weeks, I have run 3 days a week using the Easy 5K with Jeff Galloway App.  I get stronger with every run.  Two days ago, I did 2.94 miles in 42:58 min.  I was outside on a park trail with small hills, some gravel paths, and a strong breeze.  I never stopped.  Afterwards...I felt amazing!  I realized I was going to be able to complete my next 5K with at least 10 minutes shaved off my time.

Gorilla Work Outs

My husband, Josh, comes to me and says, "Want to do a gorilla workout with me?"  Several mental images flashed through my mind.  Like the ones to the right.  However, he was talking about a fitness app.  Check out their info here. 

This week we started using the Gorilla Workout app.  Level 1, Day 1 was four cents of 8 squats, 4 walking lunges (right and left count as 1), 10 modified push ups.  I have never done a lot of body weight workouts.  It was a lot harder than I thought.  Every work out will be a little different and they will get progressively more challenging.  I love that we are working out together a couple nights a week now.  We have common goals that are aligned.  We will reach them at different paces but the complete support and encouragement makes the goals seem completely obtainable.