Goals
On Goals and Motivation
By Justin Freeman
Saab/Salomon Factory Team
Something strange happened to me this August. In the spring I had set the ambitious goal of running 14:50 or better for five kilometers. On August 14th I ran this exact time, a two second PR and the fastest ever 5 km by a 31-year-old New Hampshire resident on New Hampshire soil (yes, someone really keeps track of such statistics).
This was actually the first time since college that I had achieved my season’s big goal in such a clear-cut way. Even when I went to the Olympics (which is admittedly a slightly bigger deal than setting a single-age state record) my bigger goals – top 20 in an individual race, a good leg in the relay – turned out to be far beyond my grasp. And so when I woke up on August 15th, I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. I was not in the by now seemingly normal position of trying to figure out what went wrong or how I could fix it, or of ignoring this conundrum and just going out hard and long till I either got better or got hurt. I could simply go out, train a bit, and enjoy the feeling of success.
This good feeling, though, lasted about three days. Then for a few days I was actually adrift, unsure of my motivation, having to convince myself to get out the door and train. And then I discovered that I wanted more. I started wondering if I had set an ambitious enough goal this year, how I could improve next year, what training would be necessary to top this past summer, what other races I should jump into. I also wondered what kind of ski season I should expect after such a well-executed running season; what kind of placement should I aim for in the Eastern SuperTour races?
And then the good feeling returned; I felt motivated to rush out the door each morning. It turns out that reveling in success is no better than wallowing in defeat: in either case, the obsession with the past saps the joy of training in the present. But as I imagined solid races this winter in Stowe, in Anchorage, in Craftsbury, as I visualized bigger successes in next summer’s running races, I felt the familiar pleasure of the central struggle in athletics: to be better, not than anyone else, but than myself.
This, then, is why we set goals, and not just any goals, but goals that might seem unachievable. It is partly for the brief euphoria of getting to the date circled on the calendar and achieving the time or the placement we have written down in the training log, the locker, the diary. But mostly it is because being fit and fast, and becoming fitter and faster, is a great reward unto itself, and the goals we set for ourselves are what make our training sessions into optimistic, joyful times.
What’s your goal this season?
By Justin Freeman
Saab/Salomon Factory Team
Something strange happened to me this August. In the spring I had set the ambitious goal of running 14:50 or better for five kilometers. On August 14th I ran this exact time, a two second PR and the fastest ever 5 km by a 31-year-old New Hampshire resident on New Hampshire soil (yes, someone really keeps track of such statistics).
This was actually the first time since college that I had achieved my season’s big goal in such a clear-cut way. Even when I went to the Olympics (which is admittedly a slightly bigger deal than setting a single-age state record) my bigger goals – top 20 in an individual race, a good leg in the relay – turned out to be far beyond my grasp. And so when I woke up on August 15th, I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. I was not in the by now seemingly normal position of trying to figure out what went wrong or how I could fix it, or of ignoring this conundrum and just going out hard and long till I either got better or got hurt. I could simply go out, train a bit, and enjoy the feeling of success.
This good feeling, though, lasted about three days. Then for a few days I was actually adrift, unsure of my motivation, having to convince myself to get out the door and train. And then I discovered that I wanted more. I started wondering if I had set an ambitious enough goal this year, how I could improve next year, what training would be necessary to top this past summer, what other races I should jump into. I also wondered what kind of ski season I should expect after such a well-executed running season; what kind of placement should I aim for in the Eastern SuperTour races?
And then the good feeling returned; I felt motivated to rush out the door each morning. It turns out that reveling in success is no better than wallowing in defeat: in either case, the obsession with the past saps the joy of training in the present. But as I imagined solid races this winter in Stowe, in Anchorage, in Craftsbury, as I visualized bigger successes in next summer’s running races, I felt the familiar pleasure of the central struggle in athletics: to be better, not than anyone else, but than myself.
This, then, is why we set goals, and not just any goals, but goals that might seem unachievable. It is partly for the brief euphoria of getting to the date circled on the calendar and achieving the time or the placement we have written down in the training log, the locker, the diary. But mostly it is because being fit and fast, and becoming fitter and faster, is a great reward unto itself, and the goals we set for ourselves are what make our training sessions into optimistic, joyful times.
What’s your goal this season?
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