The best goals are ones that you can achieve

After finishing my race on Saturday I was determined to continue my forward progression. I wanted to turn over a new leaf and really put my triathlon training at the top of my priority list. I should have know that it would turn out like it has so many times before.

Sunday was an easy 45 minute recovery ride on the trainer. I put in a movie and enjoyed the nice recovery day. I felt slightly fatigued from my race which actually made me somewhat happy. It reaffirmed that I had pushed myself to my limits on the previous day and made me feel that much better about my results. Not a bad day of training and it was a great way to spend my first day back to training. And then Monday came...

Mondays' workout was a short 1600m swim and since I have classes all day, the plan was to go with the wife to the YMCA after classes/work and get my workout in. We show up to the Y and as we pass the pool on the way to the locker rooms I noticed something different about the pool. It seemed like there was something missing, something that I'm pretty sure should have been there, it seemed somewhat empty. That's right there was no water in the pool. They had decided to clean the pool that week and needless to say thwarted my attempts to get my swim workout in. So I went to my back up plan and did a resistance workout in the gym, which wasn't a swim but at least it was something.

"Don't worry I'll make sure to do my workout tomorrow..."

Tuesday is where it all really started to go downhill. During the week I usually have to do my workouts in the evening since I have classes early in the morning and I really would prefer to not have to wake up at 3am to get a workout in. As always I struggled with getting my workout done after a long day of classes and patients, so unfortunately I ended up convincing myself that I really didn't need to get on the trainer this time. It was late and I had been at school for 12 hours straight so it seemed somewhat justified. Unfortunately this pattern continued for the next three days and the next thing I notice is that it's Friday evening and I haven't done any of my workout's all week. It's not that I wasn't overwhelmed with school and clinic stuff, and even though I had barely any free time on Friday, much less all week I was really starting to feel bad for missing an entire week of workouts. Even though I was going out of town for the weekend I packed up my bike and felt like I could still savage something out of this downward spiral of failed workouts.

Saturday morning came, my alarm went off, I get out of bed, only to find that my watch was dead. A minor thing and it shouldn't have mattered, but for some reason I felt like I would be able to get out the door later that evening. I put my watch on the charger and decided that I can just do my run in the evening right before dinner. As with the rest of my week the time to go out and run came and went and I missed yet another workout. As I laid in bed my determination to ride my bike was greater than ever. Especially since earlier that day my parents showed us the Natchez Trace Parkway in Nashville which is a great area to go ride and I was really excited to go explore.

5am comes and I hear a loud boom outside... really??? Then another boom! Yup it's raining, which means I can't go out and ride. What a horrible way to end a terrible week of training. Not only did I miss almost every single workout, but the one day I really wanted to make up for it mother nature decides that I can't ride. So needless to say this was my least productive week of training. I fell short of my goal to make my training a top priority in my life and I failed miserably at it.

This has made me think of how I make my goals and even though they are made with the truest of intents they tend to be way to lofty. I know when I make goals for patients we always start with short term goals and slowly build towards a larger goal, so why shouldn't I do the same thing in my personal life. Instead of making the bold goal of turning my life around and become a hard core triathlete I'm going to focus more on the little steps. It's an easy concept and I'm sure most people would say it's obvious that you have to set small goals first, but it's easier said than done. Sometimes we get so excited about our final goal that we forget to set those smaller goals to help us reach that final goal. So I've decided that my first short term goal is going to be a pretty straightforward one. I want to complete 3 out of my 6 workouts this week in the morning before I have to go to school or the clinic. I really like this goal since it not only gets me out of the heat but it also will help with preventing me from getting distracted from my training. If I plan on waking up early to do a workout the only thing competing with that workout is sleep. Not to say I don't love sleep but at least it's not school or clinic work. Normally I would set a goal of completing all my workouts in the morning, but the all or nothing method hasn't worked so far so I think it's time to try something a little more forgiving. So there it is. Hopefully I can slowly work at turning my training into a priority and with the right goals I should be able to reach new heights.