The Road to Your Goals

Do you have problems on the road to your goals? That path that seems to meander as you try to reach your goals? Are your goals so big that the path seems to take forever.

I do….but running has taught me to be a bit more patience and to try to learn how to break it down into smaller goals. Betsy Talbot, my running buddy, reminded me of this just the other day. We were reflecting how we would never thinnk we could run the distance we need to when we start out.

As most of you know, I am again training for a half marathon at the end of September. My goal is to be able to run/walk it without injury to me. The last two I have run, I had a stress fracture on my right sesamoid bone (this is where you put all your pressure on your foot whether you walk or run) and to my left IT band (it’s a tendon that is attached to your hip bone and runs down the outer side of each leg to right under your knee cap). Both are very painful and take some time to heal. So now that I’m back to training and getting my running miles up, I play mind games on myself.

Let’s take last weekend. The goal was to run 7 miles! But the thought of running 7 miles (yes, I know I just did a 1/2 marathon and that it was 13.1 miles) was enough to want to go home and crawl back into bed. But I told myself that I had already ran 7 miles this week. Yes, I did 3 miles one day and 4 miles on another but it was 7 miles.

So off I went to start my run. Now the first mile isn’t my greatest as my stride is never comfortable, things just don’t feel right, and little aches and pains tend to pop up. They are actually saying…stop, go home, crawl back into that bed. But I keep at it.

The second mile is a bit better. I am beginning to get my stride, things feel better and those aches and pains are disappearing. So I tell myself. Yeah, I can do the third mile.

This one is easy mile 3. Everything feels fine. I feel like I could run forever. Mile 3 is the one that gives that extra push to go to mile 4.

At mile 4, I’m getting tired. Not real tired but I need to give myself a little pep talk. It goes like this…”You’ve done 4 miles, what is another 3?” Now for anyone who hasn’t run, you are probably saying “are you crazy?” But for us runners, we all do this. It’s no different than making that extra phone call to a customer. Or printing out another letter to a customer. Or writing that next line.

Now mile 5 is hard. I am tired. But I tell myself, only 2 more to go. You’ve done 5, so what is 2 more. By now, my body has started its little aches and pains. I mentally check each one to make sure it is not serious or if I can just adjust my stride, it may go away. This now becomes a mind game of that ache went away, oh another one popped up, what is that? Oh, it went away, too. And on it goes.

Mile 6 is both hard and easy. Hard becomes I am tired. My mind games are losing steam and those aches and pains are becoming more annoying.  (Please note, that if the pain or ache is too much, I do stop as I have no plans to re-injury myself. But only you can decide and your body will tell.) The easy part is I’m on mile 6 and I only have 1 more mile to go.

And finally mile 7 and I’m done! The joy of being able to run those 7 miles or whatever miles you have planned for that day are done. You now know that you can do this. And yes, you may have to re-train your mind each time but it does get easier.

Yes, I have to do 13.1 miles in September but for now the joy is being able to do the 7. This coming weekend will be 9 wth the following weekend going back down to 6. By focusing on the imediate smaller goal and taking joy that you did those, then the 13.1 miles won’t seem as daunting Also by then I would have done a 12 mile training run and it will be “so what is another 1.1 mile.”

Like in running as in life, we do hit those bumps, those roadblocks and those meanders. My bumps are the IT band and getting it stronger. My roadblock was my stress fracture. I can’t run until it healed. My meander was having to start over again slowly both times. I’ve learn that I need to do other type of training so that I can help prevent injuries.

But we also have the same in life. I’m in sales. And yes, I do have call reluctance. I admit I hate picking up that phone. I have to pysche myself up and sometimes it seems like it never works. But oh, how I love it when that person on the other line says, yes! Then I’m jumping up and down for joy. And I’m eager to make the next call.

So how do you push through when you hit those bumps, roadblocks or when the road meandars off in a different direction? We all have ways of getting ourselves back on track so please share with us.