Ever find yourself setting goals that feel more like wishful thinking than concrete targets? In our latest episode, we unravel the secret to crafting SMART goals that will transform your running game.
We delve into the art of setting objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-driven, while also embracing the beauty of personal progress.
It's not just about the finish line; it's about crafting a roadmap that respects your unique journey and adapts to life's detours.
The path to running excellence isn't a straight line—it's a track with hurdles and unexpected turns. We dissect the risks of inflexible goal setting, as well and how it could lead you down a path of low self-esteem, questionable ethics, or quitting.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, we stress the value of post-race debriefs and treating each run as an experimental step toward your next personal best.
By fostering an adaptable approach to SMART goals, we aim to keep the passion for running while honing in on on successes.
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
Ever find yourself setting goals that feel more like wishful thinking than concrete targets? In our latest episode, we unravel the secret to crafting SMART goals that will transform your running game.
We delve into the art of setting objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-driven, while also embracing the beauty of personal progress.
It's not just about the finish line; it's about crafting a roadmap that respects your unique journey and adapts to life's detours.
The path to running excellence isn't a straight line—it's a track with hurdles and unexpected turns. We dissect the risks of inflexible goal setting, as well and how it could lead you down a path of low self-esteem, questionable ethics, or quitting.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, we stress the value of post-race debriefs and treating each run as an experimental step toward your next personal best.
By fostering an adaptable approach to SMART goals, we aim to keep the passion for running while honing in on on successes.
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
If you have any running-related questions, please send an email to sherry@wrinkledrunner.com…I answer every one.
Speaker 1:
Over on the YouTube channel I talked about SMART goals S-M-A-R-T and how to use them in running. Interestingly, there are some reasons that this kind of goal setting can be a bit of an issue, and I'm going to talk about the concerns some have with it today as well. If you've ever heard of SMART goals, you know it stands for Specific, measurable, attainable or Achievable, realistic and Time-Driven. In running, having specific goals can help you stay motivated and enhance your performance and for a lot of runners, having a big goal is just part of what we do and when we set goals, making them as specific as possible can help stay working towards those goals. Being vague in goal setting really doesn't give us anything concrete to shoot for. Some runners, of course, just want to run and have enough motivation or discipline. When motivation is low, to run that four days a week or whatever, and that's all they want or need and that is perfect. We have to be careful in the running community that we aren't putting our own goals on others and respect that one person's thing about running. You know whether you have goals or you run races, or you run fast or you run slow. All of that is very different than anyone else's, so we have to make sure that we aren't putting on other runners the things that we think as regard in regards to racing or goal setting and that kind of thing. But for those runners who do want to set goals, using a process such as SMART can help us whittle down and define what it is that we want to do and what we can do. Goals allow us to align our training with an outcome.
Speaker 1:
So, for myself, I adhere to my running schedule much more consistently when I have something that I'm working towards, even if it's like fake. Right now I am quote unquote training for a half marathon, but I'm not really going to end that in a race, but I'm trying to. One of the things I do as a runner is try to be half marathon ready at all times, even if I would not be ready to like race it in place. But I want to be able, distance wise, to be able to run a half marathon at any given time. So having that training written down for myself is motivating and important for me. So we're going to go over each aspect of the SMART goal model. So S stands for specific. If you are wanting to level up your running, to be competitive, say, a goal of I'm going to run three times a week needs to be enhanced a bit. A specific goal might be I want to be one of the top three at a local 5k within the next two years, which can be realistic if you're a beginning runner. A specific goal like that will require you to put in some work, planning and strategizing for how to get there.
Speaker 1:
M is for measurable, which in running some of that means that you have to jump into that running journal that I'm always trying to get you to start. The data we get from our watches is a tool for this section of the SMART goal plan. We can see how we are progressing and see what we may need to work on. Measurable can also mean we sign up for and run a race to see how we do and how we are measuring up against our competition. This section of SMART will help hold you accountable. You can see if you're not running the mileage needed or the times needed or any part of the data that you get from the watch or for your phone, or however you measure. You can see patterns that are developing. That maybe tells you you need to work on some other things. It gives you a snapshot of how you're doing versus where you want to be, which will lead us to attainable. So all this measuring is going to show you if what your outcome goal is can be achieved in the time frame that you are looking for.
Speaker 1:
If you are keeping track of where you are, you can make adjustments to your goal. This is where a lot of people, a lot of runners, get in trouble. They have the specific and they have the measurable and they even have the time-based pieces down, but they ignore the attainable and the realistic part of the SMART goals. It looks like, in theory, you're using the SMART system, but part of this is knowing when to adjust those goals. Adjusting is part of the process. We have to look at it just as a part of training, not as a failure or something that we need to quit if we're not being able to reach our goal. Adjusting is part of training. So make sure your goal is attainable and if data is telling you that it's not, then you need to adjust that. You can still have a specific goal. It just may need a bit of adjusting.
Speaker 1:
The R realistic goes hand in hand with attainable, but it's a little bit different. I may have the physical capability of running, say a sub-4-hour marathon but it may not be realistic for me at this point in time. Maybe I have to watch grandchildren a few days a week so that I can't get the runs in. Maybe I get an injury and it takes me out of running for a few weeks while I rehab that. Maybe a family member gets sick and I have to devote a lot of time to that. Whatever the reason, life sometimes makes it so that the goals aren't attainable at this time.
Speaker 1:
The realistic part of these goals may come to play at any time during the process. So you may need to adjust and realize that it is not realistic for you to get to a goal, even if the physical capability may be there, if you were to be able to train, you know, four times a week at these paces with nothing else going on. So sometimes, when we have these goals, it's necessary to reassess what our goal is, and you might want to do that on a month to month basis, every six weeks, you know something like that. Have a set time in mind for when you reassess whether these goals are going to need to be adjusted. This is where having process goals can come into play. So have some goals that are super attainable on the way to the big goal. For example, in the top three five case situation, maybe a process goal would be to be in the top three of your age group within a year before trying to go for top three overall. And you know, if you get in the top three of your age group within that year, maybe your next goal would be you know be in the top 10 overall in the next year and a half before you know your two years are up where you want to be in the top three for a local 5k.
Speaker 1:
Finally, the T stands for time based. One of my goals is to run an ultramarathon and I could conceivably shoot for that goal until the day I die, but my timeframe is before I'm 60. So that means I have three and a half years to do it in. This helps my planning and strategy to be more proactive to making that goal happen. If I keep that you know, three and a half years in mind, whether you know it's running two marathons a year or starting to run more time based, like three and a half hours, four hours at a time, to get more used to the long timeframe of an ultramarathon, going to a trail, to run in trails because a lot of ultramarathons are on trails and starting to get my body used to that which is different than running on the road. Those kinds of things can be entered into your training when you have that time goal.
Speaker 1:
Having goals can be important in keeping us motivated, confident and gives us wins along the way. But having these very specific goals can also have some cons attached to them, especially if we ignore the fact that adjustment will need to happen. If our goals are overly rigid, it can lead to disappointment if we don't attain that goal and that can lead to quitting entirely low self-esteem a bunch of outcomes that we don't want. When we try to make a goal super tight, to the exclusion of anything else, it can restrict our flexibility and that can make you kind of crazy. How many of us have had such a rigid definition of what we want to achieve that we run on icy roads in the winter? We run in dangerously hot weather, we say no to a friend for lunch because we have to get that run in? If you find yourself not being flexible with your training, you're probably ignoring the attainable slash realistic slash time frame, part of the smart equation.
Speaker 1:
Training and outcome goals almost always need to be adjusted. Like I said, it's part of training, not something to try and avoid. This is why having reassessing periods along the way is so important. Know how to check yourself for overtraining, and I'm going to link you to resources for that in the show notes. Also, know when life is telling you that a time frame might have to be moved. Know when the so-called easy runs are always feeling like an RPE of seven, that your pacing needs to be dialed back and therefore a time goal for a race might need to happen next year instead of next month. You will be so much happier if you adjust your goals along the way. It will take a lot of stress off you. You can enjoy the process of reaching the goal much more, and if you're running, workouts become a chore or a dread instead of having some fun and you're not an elite or professional runner. It might be time to rethink. It might be time to just chuck that goal for a few months and just learn to love running again, and acknowledging that can be harder than any workout. Make sure whatever your goal is, it's really what you want.
Speaker 1:
Intrinsic goals which come from inside help us in the long term Extrinsic which come from outside. Say, a friend or a parent want you to win a particular race. Those rarely keep us motivated for the right reasons for very long, so make sure that the goals that you're setting are for you. So another downfall that can happen is we overemphasize measurable metrics and we ignore the intangibles of performance. For example, stressing over exact pace it can make us miss the beauty and ability to run outside. Looking only at what we did today, and only today, from a data standpoint, instead of realizing it felt easier than the same workout a few weeks ago, can make us so that we ignore a jump in performance when we aren't aware that we actually were able to run an extra quarter mile or we did whatever workout in a faster time frame.
Speaker 1:
You can also see how being too rigid in a goal can lead to unethical behavior. We've all heard the stories of the doping, the cheating, the bib mulling, all the things that can happen to runners. And when we have a goal that's too lofty and we don't adjust them, those kinds of temptations for some people can enter into trying to get us to appear that we've hit a goal even if we really haven't, when we do fall short of a goal, we need to learn from it. Just throwing our hands up and getting frustrated doesn't do us any good, but if we can debrief the times that we don't hit that target, we may find valuable information that we can apply to next time. This is why, as a coach, I always do a debrief with my athletes. Even if they killed their goal and they did this huge PR or even went above and beyond their goal, we still do a debrief. We write it all out. We see the things that work.
Speaker 1:
Even if you do get your goal, there are also, maybe, things that still did go wrong Research how to fix it. Running is an experiment, just like in science. Failure and the 100 ways something doesn't work is what can lead to breakthrough. Figure out what went right. Keep that. Learn why something may have gone wrong and work to fix that. Keep setting goals, and keep setting smart goals, but know it can be a pitfall and realize that adjustment is always necessary. Don't be so rigid that you lose your love of running. If you keep the joy of running your number one goal, you're going to be on your way to making your goal setting smart.