The importance of setting short term goals

The importance of setting short term goals

I have to admit, I have struggled more than I thought I would with training for the 70.3 that I am doing at the start of June. It's not that I have struggled physically, I know I have the distance down and despite a few different injuries and niggles along the way my body has held up well… honestly I just haven't enjoyed the process as much as I thought I would and it dawned on me yesterday why that is…

I haven't had enough micro-goals along the way. I have just ground through the training without having the check points to really show that progress. I come back to the thing I have said many times, progress is the best form of motivation. And how do we measure progress, though well planned and well thought out markers though our training plan. This weekend I cycled in an event and there were elements of it that I was really happy with and that in it's self was really motivating.

I have found myself saying multiple times to me training partner that I have found the training boring. Unsurprisingly though it turns out that I don't hate cycling or find it boring, I have just been approaching it all wrong. I have spent far too much time on the Turbo and not enough time doing sportifs, planning cool routes with great views and stopping at great café's with friends. And whilst open water swimming is difficult in the Scottish winter, could I have enjoyed it more swimming with a squad rather than just in the lanes in the morning doing my own thing? Yea more than likely.

Here's the thing. I have had to show a good amount of discipline to get to this point but it has made me realise how spoilt I have been by going to CrossFit classes. The comrade and community make it easy to get motivated to go and the consistent check point to see how well you are progressing fitness wise keeps that motivation high. It's a month away but I can't wait to get back to it. Irrespective of that, when it's done there will be other challenges and I will learn from the training mistakes I made in this one. Either way I am going to keep some things up…. A UT2 bike is a great low intensity thing to keep in. Open water swimming once a month or so is a great way to keep swimming and training exciting and of course planning more training rides with friends is 100% the way forward.

Either way the moral of the story is simple, having short terms goals planned into your programme is critical to staying motivated and to your long term success.

Andy