Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Blessings and goals


Greetings runners,

Hope your training is going well. It's crunch time now, with only four weeks to go until race day.

At this point, a good chunk of the training is done. It's time to focus on staying injury-free (or healing those aches and pain), eating well and resting well. I don't think anyone fully understands how taxing this whole thing is until you stop training.

I thought I would share some wise advice I've received from seasoned runners.

Last year, I met a dynamo of a woman who has run upwards of 70 marathons. Yes, you read that right. She is absolutely fabulous. Her advice was to take 5 minutes and make a list. What you put on this list depends on you, here are some things to think about: why do you run, why are you training for this particular race, what are you grateful for? It will be nice to look back on it if you happen to have a bad run or feel ridiculously tired over the next few weeks.

Here is mine:

1) I am doing this because I want to, and I am healthy and lucky enough to be able to do it. In some parts of the world, women can't even step out of the house unaccompanied let alone in running gear.

2) I am really looking forward to telling people I have run marathons. Notice the "s".

3) I do this for myself. Some people don't understand and think I am punishing myself... if they only knew how much fun I've had with my running buddies over the last year.

4) I derive ridiculous amounts of pride and a huge feeling of accomplishment from my running.

5) I like having a goal and sticking to it. It's nice to have something to look forward to.

There you have it.

Another high achieving athlete who came to speak to us at the High Park Running Room in Toronto told us to publish our goals in three tiers. The first being why you're showing up in the first place, the second being a goal you'd be happy with and the third goal being the "if all the stars align goal". Once it's out there, it's easier to stay motivated :) Your goals don't have to be lofty. It could be as simple a "finishing upright", "not pissing myself on the course", "not crying", etc...
This guy holds the record for the fastest crossing of Ontario on a bike. Like 800+ kilometers in something crazy like 26 hours or whatever...

And whatever happens on race day, don't be disappointed. Race day can be a bitch. You never know. The fact you get there is an accomplishment in itself.

Here are my goals:
Tier 1 - Finish
Tier 2 - Beat my personal best time by 1hr
Tier 3 - Sub 4 hour marathon

And by the way, there is no way I can achieve the "not pissing myself on course" goal. ;)

Happy trails.

1 comment:

  1. Great post Helene. I put my reasons to run on one of Chris' posts a few weeks back but here are my goals for my half on May 30th:

    1 - Finish injury free and have fun
    2 - Beat my PB of 1:58.44
    3 - Sub 1:53.44, 5 minutes under my PB

    Cheers to us all achieving at least our tier 1 goals!

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