Setting Goals As A Way To Stay Motivated - IA staffwriter March 2004

Athletes, you need to be honest with yourselves. What are you hoping to accomplish with your training? Another way you can ask this question of yourself is: "What are my athletic goals?"

It is a great pleasure to go out at the end of the day for a 5 mile run or whatever it takes for you to relax and unwind from the hectic schedule associated with your participation in modern society. However, if are focused on the scenery or the tunes playing from your iPod, you are probably not working hard enough if your goal is to compete within your chosen arena of sport.

That's not to say we all have to compete (or that rest/recovery days shouldn't be relaxing). Many seasoned athletes have transcended the requirement of constantly comparing themselves to others or even to their younger (uninjured) selves. Regardless of where you as an individual fall on the spectrum of athleticism, your experience and the results associated with your effort will be better served if you have a measure by which to guage your progress or acheivement.

Goal setting is an effective way to stay motivated. This is sometimes a lot easier when you are on a team and there is a sense of peer pressure (or coach pressure) that keeps you coming back. However, even in this environment individual goals allow you to justify the effort on 400m #3 of 8 on a Tuesday interval session.

When you begin to consider setting some goals for your training you should think about the following:

1. Write them down - commiting a thought to paper makes it more real and is just like creating a contract with yourself. Be sure to post these goals in a place where you will see them often.

2. Create 3 sets of goals - It is important to set goals that are staged and that build upon one another. Specifically, set short term, long term and BIG DREAM goals.

* Short term goals are those that you can achieve this season. Be realistic. Take a look at your competitiion schedule, your recent performances and choose a set of events at which you will really be gunning for it.

* Long term goals are those that you should be able to achieve over a year or so. These may be more general goals such as running a marathon, entering a triathlon, or riding a former mountain stage of Le Tour while on vacation in France.

* BIG DREAM goals are exactly that. These are the ones you set with the belief that if the moons align and everything works out exactly right you will one day be able to make history. A gold medal in the Mile at the Olympics, the world's fastest marathon, a sub 8 hour Ironman. . . . Don't be shy. Dreaming something is possible is the first step to believing something is possible.

3. Track your progress - Hind sight is 20/20 and without a good set of data to remind you what you did on the path to achieving your goals it will be difficult to explain your failures or to re-create your success.

Failure is inevitable and something that should be embraced as an opportunity to learn and adjust your approach for the next attempt. Most of your failures will be in the short term and if accepted and embraced will guarantee your long term success.

The tools and applications at this site are meant to provide you with some guidance in setting and achieving your goals. Perhaps even more powerful is the site's ability to archive the results and data of your training along the way. Once you register as a member you will have access to the applications which are described by linking through to them from the menu above.

Good Luck and let us know if you have questions, advice, or interesting observations along the way.