Setting Goals is Scary!

So, it’s been a hot minute since I last posted! I have more or less fully recovered from shoulder surgery (still getting working on getting strength and full ROM). I completed my first full marathon in November, and though my time was not what I had hoped when I signed up (I finished at 5 hours and 13 minutes), it was to be expected since I had to cut out 7 weeks of an 18 week training plan… Even though it was painfully slow, I finished and will most definitely be doing another full, this time following a complete training plan 🙂

Christmas was super busy as always, plus my kids were sick most of break which makes one tired momma! I had to do a few more treadmill runs than I prefer, but at least I was able to get in some much needed miles! I luckily did not catch the sickness (yet) but my husband did. Though I have kind of had a sore throat for the past 3 weeks, I feel just fine!

Now onto the point of this post, goal setting. I received a training journal for Christmas and it has asked me to set goals (doesn’t have to be just for running) and I have been spending a lot of time thinking about short term and long term goals. Let me tell you, this can be a scary process, I mean, what if I fail?!? What if I admit to others (or myself!) what I really am striving for, and I cannot get there? It would be easy to just set some easy, realistic goals that I know I will get within this year, but what about thinking down the road, 5 years? Where would I like to be, and how can I set myself up to get closer to that goal? I think it might be scarier to work towards big, far off goals that are set really high, than these shorter, not quite so high goals.

For example, some of my short term goals that will push me but I think can be attained are as follows: complete the Heartland 39.3 series (again), PR in the half with a 1:50 (this will be hard), PR in the full with a 4:30 (still hard), complete a 50 mile and possibly 100 mile bike race, and complete at least 2 triathlons.

Now this list seems daunting, but it is also doable. I may hit some this year, or they may take until next year, but I know I can obtain these at some point!

Onto the more daunting task of setting long term goals. Here they are: Complete an Ironman one day (doable but I want to be able to actually follow a legit training program for this which is A LOT of time commitment), Qualify for a big marathon (Boston?, NYC?, Chicago?)(not even sure this is possible as I am currently NOT fast, but with time maybe!), 1:30 half (again, is this even possible, time will only tell).

These are obviously goals that are specific to racing and I do have other goals that are not racing related, but for the purpose of this post these are the only ones I am sharing. It took time for me to admit some of these goals to myself, because the chances of failure are significantly higher for all of the long term ones. I want to challenge myself though. It might take me 3 years or 10 years, but I can keep striving towards these for a long time!

I challenge you to set some serious short term and long term goals for yourself this year. Make the long term ones high and hard to reach, and the short term ones can serve as steps to get there!