What Do You Dream Of?

Lance Watson has some ideas on Goal Setting to help you achieve your dreams.

We all participate and compete for different reasons. It may be to stay fit, enjoy events, or to compete or win.

It is very motivational in the winter months to take some time to identify what makes you tick, and methodically set goals to keep you on the path towards achieving what you set out to when you started this great sport.

Long Term Goals: Dream Goals
At the top end of the goal spectrum are dream goals, or ultimate goals that push the limits of possibility. These are the goals that you work toward for most of your racing career. Dream goals go hand in hand with the physical process of peaking for your season’s most important competition. They are a great motivating factor as your body is beginning to enter peak conditioning to achieve new heights of excellence. They can help you through tough times and also serve as food for fantasy on long rides and runs. Dream, but be realistic with those dreams. Reaching goals that are realistic gives you a great sense of achievement and a renewed sense of inspiration.

Mid-Term Goals: Confidence Building Goals
Mid-term goals will often be the end-points of a training cycle. Before tackling these goals, you should have sufficiently developed important physical qualities that will make you competitive in races. A mid-term goal focuses your efforts on achieving something realistic but ambitious. For instance, someone whose dream goal is to complete an Ironman event may have the successful completion of a marathon as one of his or her mid-term goals. Reaching this goal would give that person a confidence boost that allows them to push through difficult periods coming later in their training.

Micro Goals: Action Goals
On a daily or weekly basis, it’s important to have micro goals, which create focus for each workout or week of training. These micro goals create a common thread that ties together daily workouts and mid-term goals. They provide a daily link to your dream goals. It is the constant effort of trying to reach these action goals that builds the foundation for achieving your dream goal. It is the details of your daily training that become your micro goals.

Many athletes are very good at establishing dream goals, but they get sidetracked and never reach these goals because they have turned goal setting into a static process. Daily evaluation of your action goals should be integrated into your training program. Many factors make it necessary to change daily workouts. Things change on a daily basis: races get cancelled, weather affects training, or you could get sick or injured. The only way to stay on top of the variables is to adjust goals along with them.

Having an idea of what you want to get out of a specific workout will keep you motivated and interested in the process rather than just the outcome.

Take some time to work out your goals, review your training weekly and make sure that the sessions you are doing lead to your desired end point.

“Official Ironman Coach Lance Watson of LifeSport has coached a number of Ironman, 70.3 and age-group champions. He enjoys coaching athletes of all abilities who are passionate about sport and personal excellence. Visit www.LifeSport.ca or write him at coach@LifeSport.ca for coaching enquiries.”

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