goals

6 Running Goals for 2018 That Aren’t Running a Marathon

Zoey · November 13, 2017 · Leave a Comment

I love the marathon as much as the next person, but I think it’s probably misplaced as the pinnacle of all running achievements. I firmly believe that a fast or hard 5km is just as impressive as a marathon. Or whatever distance you put your mind to. It’s easy to get sucked into the lure of the marathon when a lot of the prestige appears to be around marathons. They get bigger medals. More likely to be gold than silver. And the holy grail of many a runner seems to be qualifying for Boston, for which there is no half marathon or 10km or 5km equivalent. It’s easy for those little cues to seep into your consciousness and you believe that they make the marathon more important. But it’s only as important as you make it, and if it’s not your jam, it’s not worth pursuing.

So here are some fun things to do in 2018 instead.

The Pan Pacific Masters are on the Gold Coast. If you are over 35, embrace the masters! They have a range of running events from track events to road running events to trail running events to suit most peoples interests.

The NSW Distance Running Championships. This looks SO COOL. And if the travel didn’t seem a bit difficult for me (given I am closer to Queensland than to NSW) I’d be all over this. And I think I might make it a goal in 2019 anyway. You compete for points across five events: Orange, Bathurst, Mudgee, Dubbo and Carcoar. Cannot imagine anything more fun than travelling around the place running half marathons!

Isn’t it time you got your 50 parkrun milestone t-shirt? If you haven’t checked out your local parkrun, I guarantee there is an awesome community waiting for you, and you could be on your way to your milestone in no time.

See how far you can go in Run Down Under! You can virtually run around Australia and join clubs (like the Operation Move one!) and check out the leaderboards and have fun with friends.

Want a really ambitious goal? What about a preferred start at the Gold Coast or Melbourne next year? At the Gold Coast, women earn a priority start if they have a 1:30 half marathon or a 3:15 marathon or a 43:00 10km.

What about a multi day event? You could do a two day event like Warwick Pentath (the total kilometres you run over two days adds up to a marathon)

What ideas would you add to the list?

Five ways you might be doing New Year’s Resolutions Wrong

Zoey · December 4, 2015 · 1 Comment

Look, I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Sure it’s a convenient day to start something new and starting something new is awesome, but if you really wanted it – wouldn’t you have done it by now? When I quit smoking nearly two years ago, I did it on the 29th December. Because waiting until the 1st of January was just three days that I didn’t need to be smoking. Besides which the vast majority of resolutions tend to be a bit wishy-washy at best. Eat Better. Exercise More. Get Fit. What does that even mean? How can you tell if you are kicking ass at that goal or failing it? How much better, how fit? And when you don’t have a clear idea of what you are doing, it is really easy for things to fall by the wayside.

1) It’s not specific and it’s not measurable.

Even if you have a really big goal, you can break that down into smaller goals that are achievable and plot a clear course to get yourself there, with everything being measurable along the way. Want to start a new exercise habit? Making your goal to commit to three 30 minute sessions per week is going to serve you so much better than ‘exercise more’. Want to get fit? Well defining things you want to achieve – whether it be running 30 minutes without stopping, squatting your body weight or being able to do a push up on your toes are all goals that you can break down into a process that you can achieve. For some tips on goal setting, here’s something I wrote on 8 ways to kick some goal ass.

2) You didn’t write it down.

And I don’t mean on the computer. I mean with pen and paper and write it down. And not just your goals and your steps to those goals, write down your why as well. Because when it’s cold or humid as hell or you are tired or you just don’t feel like it, your why will get you out of bed and your goals will get you out of bed and that buzz that you get from ticking off one of your mini-goals or one of your big goals will get you out of bed. And if you do have a period where you fall off the wagon, what you’ve written down will get you back on track.

3) You have fallen down the punishment/reward rabbit hole.

This is evident in so many New Years promotions I see running about the place – either you keep your resolution or you have to pay up in cold hard cash (seriously it’s a thing!), it’s all about will power and commitment and discipline and mind over matter. But the problem with that is it doesn’t sound very fun. And eventually, it will start to feel like punishment and so you just won’t do it. It’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be joyful. Whatever you are trying to achieve with your goals or resolutions are supposed to feel like a reward. Now not every single moment of it will feel fun. Sometimes the fun part is when you finish and you have surprised yourself with what you’ve achieved. Sometimes it takes you 8km into a 12km run to get to the fun part. Sometimes the fun is just getting to be on your own in the wee hours of the morning. And sometimes it’s the little things that you know, but no one else would notice – like when you start to use the recommended weight in Crossfit workouts and you don’t have to scale as much.

4) You are ambivalent

This happened to me so many times with quitting smoking. I felt like I should quit and there where enough negative things associated with smoking that I felt like I wanted to quit. But deep down, I just didn’t want to. So I would use any reasonable excuse to relapse. I can’t quit. This situation at work is stressful. I’m sad. It’s just too hard. But what made it hard was not the act of quitting smoking, it was my ambivalence about it. And I remember once my dad saying to me, “It’s not that hard, you just stop.” which on the surface for anyone who has quit smoking and has felt like climbing out of their own skin feels dismissive. But that part is really short lived and the really hard part about quitting is that mental back and forth between the part of you that wants to quit and the part of you that wants to start. And once you are certain within yourself, that part stops and it is easy.

And I see this a lot when you are introducing new habits as well. Often times the success of a learn to run program hinges on someone really wanting it and being able to leave their doubts behind. I had all the reasons not to run: I’m so unfit. I will get beetroot red. People will look at me. I will look funny. I’m completely unathletic. And if you want it, you will ignore that. And if you don’t want it, you will listen to that. Which is also where our program comes in because we have a whole heap of voices to tip the scale in our favour.

5) You are all or nothing.

All or nothing is the easiest way to get you nowhere. Instead of thinking about your ideal scenario where you would do all the things, all the time, just work with what you’ve got. There is no this week or this month or this year. There is just today. And today you can choose to do some things that will support your goals. This week my little one had a gastro bug, I had a gastro bug, I had very important school award ceremonies to attend to and to top it all off I guess I’m just a bit run down and in need of a break as we get towards the end of the year. I didn’t get to half of my usual sessions, but I did the best with what I had and took it as a great week to rest up and take it easy so I will be all ready to go next week.

So, let’s rock this anyway.

So now you know what not to do and what to do when you are setting some goals. If you’d like some help you can sign up for Learn to Run or the Total Fitness Challenge in January. Or, I have about five spaces left in Far and Fast coaching. But the main things I want you to remember are this:

1) Get Specific
2) Write it Down
3) Focus on Progress
4) Pay attention to what you love about it
5) Get the support you need.

And remember, that you can love your body while still working on it. If you think about your body as the enemy it is an uneasy partnership for fitness. You have no idea what your body is capable of, but I do and that is what I absolutely adore about Operation Move.

Top Places To Get Some Extra Inspiration in 2015

OperationMove · February 4, 2015 · 1 Comment

At the beginning of the year a lot of us start with some great goals and as life gets in the way a little bit it can be easy to let some of those things slide more than you’d like them to. The best antitode to that is a community to keep you going but there are lots of fun places to find community and I’ve joined up with a few of them!

How many kilometres can you move in 2015?

This is an idea for anyone. Not just for runners. Walking counts, cycling counts, swimming counts. Just a place for us to share some of our moving and see how far we can go in 2015.

Operation Move on Strava with Monthly Challenges

A whole lot of us are on Strava and Strava has great monthly challenges for cycling or running that you can join in to keep you motivated. And you can keep track of all the Operation Move people in our club.

Run Down Under – Operation Move Team

Run Down Under is shaping up to be highly addictive. There is a fee to join in but you do get a singlet. And you get to see yourself moving around a map of Australia based on how many km you do. I’m on my way to Bowral, right now. There’s also an Operation Move club there.

Weekly Chat – Operation Move Forum

Want to catch up for a bit of a chat with everyone else? Forum chat is on Wednesday’s at 8pm AEST and it’s great for a bit of a laugh, a bit of inspiration and a bit of kick up the bum when you need it.

2015 is shaping up to be a great year!

8 ways to smash out your goals in 2015

OperationMove · December 17, 2014 · 3 Comments

I don’t really do New Year resolutions, but I do goals. As we get to December, I start thinking about 2015. What I want to keep. What I want to discard. What I want to build on. Here are some ideas for setting and meeting some cracking goals in 2015.

1. Decide.

This sounds really simple. But for most of us self-doubt ruins too many goals. You know that voice in your head that says ‘I couldn’t possibly do that . . .’, well you can. If you decide to. Consciously think about what is important to you and what you want and decide that is what you are going to make happen.

2. Write it down.

Things are so much more likely to get done if you commit to them by taking the first step of writing them down. Preferably where you can see them. You could create a vision board, or add it it a noticeboard on the wall or even use a notebook if you prefer, but writing them down makes them solid.

3. Break your goal down into smaller, measurable and achievable steps.

If you have a big goal, break it down into the smallest steps possible so each one doesn’t seem so intimidating. When I was looking at an ambitious half marathon time, I created a plan for consolidating a fast 5k, a fast 10k and then a fast marathon. Starting small really helped.

4. Make sure it is specific enough to be measured.

Being more fit is a great goal but you can’t really measure that. So it can be hard to know if you are improving or not. Something like wanting to go for a run three times a week is far more specific and far more measurable and a whole lot easier to feel great about yourself for getting out there and doing what you set out to do.

5. Give yourself a break

Setting a goal doesn’t mean you are always going to make decisions that are going to move you toward that goal. And that’s ok. You are going to have off days where you might opt for more doona time. The whole thing doesn’t fall apart because you miss one session. Just make sure you make the next one.

6. Find people who support your goals

You would think this would be easy, but sometimes it’s not. Finding people who are going to help you enjoy your successes and push you back out there when you need it are going to make a huge difference to whether you keep going or not.

7. Work out what your biggest obstacles are

Sometimes there is an obstacle and you don’t even recognise it. I signed up for a new Crossfit gym this year and then didn’t go to any classes for two weeks. Lee from Brightside Coaching asked me a simple question: what is the anxiety about?. And the answer was really simple I was anxious about being late because of when I dropped my daughter off at school. Once I worked out I could drop her off early, I happily went along and started. Working out those obstacles is really important because it’s often very easy to come up with a solution. But you have to know what the problem is.

8. Have fun

Let’s face it, you have to enjoy it. If your plan calls for tough workouts, then there has to be some part of you that really loves the hard. Not all of you. But some part. If it’s not fun, it will never stick.

If you want it, plan for it

OperationMove · March 13, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Hope is not a plan.

If you want something, write it down. Research shows that if you actually write down what you want or your goals, even if that’s all you do, you are far more likely to get there than if you don’t write it down. Making something real, has a way of bringing it into your reality.

Full disclosure. I’m a structured person. I don’t particularly enjoy surprises. I’m not that spontaneous. I can’t do Fartlek because what even is it? Pick some object in the distance and run fast to it. How far? And how fast? It’s impossibly confusing. I’ll let you in on a secret. There’s a reason I’m so structured. And it’s because I’m lazy. I have a lazy personality. Path of least resistance. Take the easy option. Take the way of doing the least work possible. At odds with this in my personality is the fact that I am a highly ambitious person. To get from point A to point B there are always certain non-negotiable things that need to be done. Even my lazy self recognises this. At a certain point these two aspects can come to an agreement of sorts. Ambitious person will identify the most efficient manner possible of achieving goal and Lazy person will agree to do those things because there’s simply no other way to get to point B.

The beauty of the plan

The fantastic part about a plan is that it will separate out what you want to achieve into chunks of things that are actually doable. And because it does this you have inbuilt markers for how you are tracking towards your goal. You’ve written it down which isn’t just an act of having something so you can remember it, it’s an act of intention and commitment. That act of commitment will help you get through the days when lazy person shows up and wants to sleep in because it’s a stupid freaking goal anyway and doona. The plan will get you out of bed when you are tired and whiny and have nothing resembling motivation. The plan will show you how far you have come. And the plan will stop that voice in your head that whispers seductively ‘ you could just run 5 today’, BECAUSE PLAN.

You can always change a plan, but only if you have one

It’s not to say it’s completely inflexible, it’s not. Having recently completely stripped my body of all it’s iron stores, I can’t do my normal long runs right now. I’m not going to insist that I stick to the plan there. But I change it. I sandwich medium runs on the weekend instead. And some days it isn’t the lazy person saying stay in bed, it’s your body saying I need a break and you need to listen to that too.

Reach the goal, anyway you can

No matter how you get to your goal, it takes hard work.

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo

I know myself well enough to know that without a plan I would not be capable of that hard work. I wouldn’t have a goal, I’d just have some vague wish off in the distance. With a plan my ambitious self and my lazy self can get along just well enough to agree that there are certain steps along the way that are necessary and that they will take together. Sometimes, I might need to change the plan but I will never change the goal.

You will never know your limits, until you push past them

The cool thing about writing a plan is that you can take something that looks achievable and then increase it to a level you wouldn’t think possible. Not by an insurmountable amount, just enough to test yourself. The brilliant thing is? When you get towards the end of the plan – it is within your reach. And as much as it rewards you to see it done, the ambitious person in your mind only has one word: NEXT.