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Why Goal Setting Can Set You Up for Failure (and What to Do Instead)

Many runners are extremely goal oriented.  We love to put a race on the calendar and plan every run with the idea of doing better than ever on the big day.

But what if I told you that the goal that you are after might actually be harder to achieve if you focus on it too much?  Or that if done the wrong way, goal setting can even set you up for failure?

While I love big, scary goals (and I’ll tell you why in just a minute), they are kind of like a wet bar of soap; the tighter you hold on to them, the easier they can slip away.

On today’s Run to the Top, I’d like to explore better, more effective ways to set running goals that you can actually achieve rather than just circling a race date in the future and dreaming about it.

If you’ve just run a big race and you are taking some downtime to reassess where your running is going right now, this is the perfect time to reflect and plan a new running cycle where you are in control of your success each and every day.  And ironically, it can be a far better way of actually getting the results you want on race day.

Let’s start by talking about the usual way to set a running goal. I’ll use the half marathon as an example.

Let’s say you want to run faster than 2 hours in the half marathon and your last half came in around 2 hours and ten minutes.

You KNOW you can run 2 hours for the half, if you just try a little harder and have a really good training block.  Your last race was a little hot, a little hilly, your fueling might not have been perfect, and your legs definitely felt tired at the end.

But you really, really, want that sub-2 and you know you can get there if you just set your mind to it.

Positive thinking works wonders, right?

So you start off your training cycle with your first run and you are feeling determined.  Maybe you run a little faster on your easy day because you tell yourself you are fitter than before and therefore your easy runs should be faster than before.  Nevermind that your breathing is a little heavy or you feel a little extra tired when you are done.  You are getting your goal no matter what.

Then your speed days come along.  You’ve bumped up your paces to match that sub-2 goal that you want and your first workout is a killer.  But you do it.  You are super proud of yourself, but wow, that was super hard.  But hey, that’s what fast running is supposed to feel like, right?  No pain, no gain, or something like that.

Then your next easy day comes along and for some reason it just does not feel easy.  It actually feels pretty hard.  Trying to keep up the same pace that you did earlier in the week takes some real concentration.  But again, you get through it, knowing that you must be getting faster, right?  You are getting closer to that sub-2 goal for sure.  Or are you?

This pattern can repeat for days, weeks, or even months.  But inevitably at some point, something will break down.

Maybe it will be physical.  By running faster than your current fitness and not taking your easy days truly easy, you are at a high risk of overtraining and injury.

On the other hand, maybe the breakdown will be mental.  When every run you do is a struggle, the joy of running slowly slips away.  Motivation to wake up at 5am to go bang out another torture session will quickly evaporate.  You might eventually decide that it’s not worth it and give up completely.

Or perhaps, neither of these things will happen and you will make it to the starting line, convinced that you will finally get that sub 2.  You have done everything you could think of to get your prized time and you go for it.  Months and months of training have prepared you for this huge moment and…something goes wrong.  Many things go wrong, actually, and you cross the line well past 2 hours and you are devastated.

There is a better way.

And I know this because I’ve been there myself.  My big, scary goal was breaking 3 hours in the marathon and no amount of positive thinking was going to get me there.  I missed the mark over and over again and it took a complete overhaul of how I thought about goal setting to finally get me there.

Race time goals are great because they give us a north star.  Something to aim for.  But in reality, we are not entirely in control of whether we can achieve them or not.  So many things that we cannot control all play a big part of the outcome of a race, like weather, hills on the course, our shoes coming untied, logistical issues and more.

Even our physical fitness itself is not entirely up to us.  We can get sick or injured or perhaps there is something in our genetics that prevents us from adapting quickly to training.

The time you finish a race is an outcome or a result of the conditions that you encountered on race day.  Yes, certainly there are a lot of things you can control that will influence that result, but even the pros can’t tell you exactly what will happen on race day.

So go ahead and sign up for that race, circle in on the calendar, and dream of a finish time that seems a little scary, but still on the edge of realistic.

And then forget about it.

Instead, focus on the smaller process goals that will actually lead to results that are 100% in your control.

Process goals are task oriented, not results oriented.  They are the things that you do every day, the actions, not the results.

So what are the actions you need to take to get you closer to the chance of your dream result?

The metaphor that I like to use is building a house.  Start by dreaming up the beautiful house that you would like to build.  Go ahead and fill in the details of exactly what it should look like and how happy you will be once it’s done.  That’s your big result goal.

Now start thinking about all the bricks that you need to lay one by one in order to build that mansion.  Because you can’t build a house without thinking about the little actions you need to do every day to get there.

What are your bricks for getting that sub-2 half?

The first brick is consistency.  Just showing up and doing your runs is the number one way to get better at running.

The next brick is slowing down your easy runs.  You don’t prove your fitness on easy days.  Pace doesn’t matter on easy days.  It only matters to your ego.  Let it go and run slow.

Maybe the next brick is getting in your strength training.  Strong runners are faster runners and they are less injury-prone.

What about making sure that your speed days are truly challenging, but you are not redlining?  Some runners doubt their fitness or fear injury and run too slow on speed days while others swing for the fences each and every time.  The sweet spot is in the middle.

Another brick is fueling.  How are your fueling your runs before, during, and after?  Are you practicing your race plan often?

How about recovery?  Are you truly getting enough rest, sleep, and stress reduction to run your best?  What small thing can you do every day to recover better?

Setting these process goals or bricks means you have to take some time to really identify the steps it will take to actually achieve your larger result goal.   You’re not just going to chuck a bunch of bricks into a pile and hope they magically turn into a mansion.  Hopefully, you’ll get a blueprint and learn what it’s really going to take.

When laying the bricks becomes a habit, you can gradually add more bricks each day, and this is where things start to get really good.

Improvement starts to happen naturally, without it being forced.  When you lay your brick for the day, you feel a small sense of accomplishment every day, instead of saving all of that for race day.  You might even start to enjoy training for its own sake rather than for that momentary flash of excitement.

Outcome goals focus on a specific milestone that might be out of your control. The truth is even if you are a 100% dedicated to a goal, you might hit an unforeseen obstacle that stops you in your tracks.

Runners who focus on the process also tend to be able to grow and recover better mentally after a bad race.  If you view racing with a pass/fail mentality, you are missing out on the opportunity to learn from your mistakes, celebrate what you did right and improve next time.

Another benefit of process goals over outcome goals is that process goals tend to last longer.

If you want to be a runner for life, running fast in a half marathon that one time is not going to get you there.

Laying the right bricks, or understanding the importance of the process, will build the foundation to make you a life-long runner.

And, not to mention, it’s the best way to get you to your dream goals at the same time.

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