Setting Marathon Goals: Client Perspective

This winter in the Baltimore and Washington DC area – as well as much of the U.S. – has been especially tough for training for longer events like marathons and Ironman triathlons, as we’ve had three snow storms since December and temperatures that have stayed around the freezing mark, making riding and running outdoors difficult and sometimes impossible.

Throw in a demanding job (think “constant crisis mode”), a newborn and taking care of a dog, and you have my client, Scott, who is training for the Tampa Marathon at the end of February in the short term then an Ironman at the end of the year. Scott has an aggressive goal for the marathon in that he wants to finish under 3:00 hours, which would be a PR.

What I’ve really enjoyed about working with his Scott is his, as he calls it, “fire within” - his desire to do what he can in spite of the challenges and obstacles he faces in just getting in his workouts. In his own words: “I honestly feel like I have the fire within again, but work keeps dousing it with water on occasion.” Just as importantly, I believe is Scott’s resolve and positive attitude to keep moving forward, altering direction and making changes as needed.

Scott recently completed the exercises in my book: Training the Competitor Within: Mental Exercises for Endurance Athletes. I’d like to share some of his insights, especially in regards to goal setting. I find it extremely helpful to approach goals from several different levels (e.g. baseline and stretch) as well as to look beyond just performance goals (e.g. finish under 3:00 hours) to also include learning goals (non-outcome based goals; all about learning something new).

Here’s what Scott had to say:

After reading the Training the Competitor Within I definitely have a different approach now to my goals. I’ll try to keep this email short, but I wanted to share a couple of insights after reading it:

Baseline Performance Goals: Tampa Bay Marathon – Just have fun. Enjoy the time away from the job grind. Have fun. Enjoy the experience with my wife and daughter.

Stretch Goals: Tampa Bay – 2:59 marathon or faster. Even if I don’t get this it this time around, I’ll still work to get it this year. I just have to do it, but I’ll keep my baseline performance goals in mind if I don’t this time around. I was running in the snow and slush on Fairfax Count Parkway on Super Bowl Sunday for that 17 mile run and cars were going by spraying me with slush since there was no sidewalk. I thought, “I need to change direction and try something else since this isn’t cool at all.” I went back to side roads in the neighborhoods and ended up having one of my most enjoyable runs of the past year. Same applies to training. I may just have to try another approach if Tampa Bay doesn’t work out. I know you say not to worry about it, but I feel bad I missed so many bike sessions. That was supposed to supplement my running. Doing it again, I’d refuse to miss all those bikes.

Learning Goals: Do I really have it in me to pace myself to a sub 3:00? Do I really have the focus and drive needed? I sure hope so. I have to learn to not let work distract me like I always seem to do. Tough to do with my current job though. Easier said than done. Just a lot of daily pressures I can’t avoid.

Good luck, Scott!

Live strongly and boldly!

David, MS

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David B. Glover
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life
Triathlon Coach, Athlete and Writer
Web: enduranceworks.net

© 2010 David B. Glover