The (not so sexy) Secret To Success in Running
The secret, as you might have guessed, isn’t all that exciting. To build into your best runner you need to first have a clear goal of what success means to you and the consistency/discipline to work at it every day.
“Vision is the bottleneck of talent…Most talent is wasted because people do not clearly know what they want. It’s not a lack of effort, but a lack of direction.”
-James Clear
That quote really sums it up, before we do anything in running, we need to really pin down what we want to achieve. Lots of runners practice the “see race…lets do it” model of planning. They want to train for a fast marathon while simultaneously training for a 5k personal best. But unless you’re a pro or a really gifted runner, you won’t be able to do both. You need to pick what will fulfill your training aspirations and stick to it until it’s done. Otherwise you build some random fitness, but never receive the payoff for your long term hard work. This isn’t easy, most people have trouble defining what goals they want and what’s realistic. If you’re stuck in a rut, try using SMART goals to define what you want and if it’s possible in the time frame you’d like to do it in.
S-specific
M-measurable
A-attainable
R-realistic
T-time bound
When thinking about which race or goal you have this coming season, weigh it against this acronym and ask yourself “is this clearly defined” and is this “attainable right now.”
If your goal is clear and passes the SMART filter, go for it! But if it’s not or maybe not realistic right now, you need to rethink what you want.
The second part of this equation is consistency. Training is like building a brick house, every day you need to lay down a brick; sometimes it’s a big one, other times it’s a small one. But no matter what you need to lay some foundation to complete your house/training. The tricky part is knowing what size to lay down sometimes; lay one too big (too much mileage, too hard a workout) and you may topple the house (injury, over train), small bricks (easy runs, good recovery, good nutrition) will never bring down your house, but if we’re following the SMART goals we set out, maybe we won’t be pushing enough to get the house built on time. This is where planning, consistency, and maybe a good coach can really help.
I know…I know, not the zen-yoda kind of advice you may be looking for. The answer to the question of how you can be your best runner really lies in you: what do you want to achieve this year or maybe next, and how committed are you to doing it. Follow the formula and you may be surprised and inspired by what you find.
Happy Running…Coach D
