Staying Focused on the Goal

Hey gang,

A few weekends ago, I was having a discussion with the GF (shout out, omg lolz) about how you can keep your goal at the forefront of your mind, and not lose sight of it. I think that it’s really easy these days to become distracted with “shiny objects,” luring you away from what you want to achieve. Here are some keys to maintaining your focus:

For Starters, Actually have a Long Term Goal

About once a month, I always notice that fellow fit-pro Scott Rawcliffe (@ScottRawcliffe), will send out a tweet that says:

“What keeps me going is goals.”

Short, simple, and consistent. On paper this is pretty obvious in the way of:

“Yeah, that’s why I’m doing this debilitating set of X-Y-Z.”

But, stepping back and thinking about this statement objectively, the key is the simple fact that you have to have an end point to keep working towards. Without it, you are just throwing stuff at a wall and hoping it sticks. There is no way to create a plan that will get you there. Kind of like a taxi driver who doesn’t know how to get you to your destination or a even a GPS for that matter. You’ll just keep driving in circles until you lose your mind and exit the vehicle.

Let your homies know about it

When you pick your goal, make sure you don’t keep it to yourself. Share it with your closest friends and family, and use them to get you fired up like a Chili’s hot plate.

For myself, I recently ran a marathon, which I was stoked about. If you know me, you absolutely knew that I was training for this marathon. Probably because I told you and I won’t stop complaining about the training. But, it’s part of the process, and I secretly love it. I wanted people to know because I don’t want to let them or myself down. Even when I have a really crappy run or lift, that helps fuel my drive to be better the next time. The point is, make sure you are telling people about what you are doing. It will help create some accountability for yourself. This leads me to my next one:

Social Support

Super important piece of the puzzle. Having people around you and that support what you are striving for can be crucial to your success.

Let’s say you have this goal and your friend group harps on you every time you:

Order a salad

Go to bed early and don’t stay out late

Only have one drink

Choose the gym over hanging with your friends

The list goes on and on, and you get the idea. That negativity- that doubt- and that objection to your goals- will eventually influence you and your decision making. It weighs on your subconscious mind. I’m not saying that you need to cut your friends and your family out of your life (which is a little cray cray), but you need to have that line in the sand. What are your priorities?

Additionally, their goals don’t have to align with yours either. What is comes down to is whether or not they are supportive in what you are trying to achieve and making sure you have positive people around you. Maybe you even have that #gymfam to keep you motivated (shout out), which is even more awesome.

“Stay away from the light!”

Distractions. There is only so much of your attention, time, and energy you can give something.

Notice the two pyramids. On the left we have a pyramid that is thin, representing a more focused and streamlined approach. For example, you are going to crush this goal- super motivated, dialed in, nothing is getting in your way. You picked something you wanted to do, and planned a way to do it. In contrast, we have the pyramid on the right, which is spread pretty thin. This would represent a more lax approach. Maybe you let work get in the way of a few workouts, neglect your diet, or you are spending time doing things that have nothing to do with what you want to achieve. The point is, when you let yourself get caught up in all the noise around you, there is only so much you can give to a particular thing. Somewhere, something has to give, and the end result might not be the one you had hoped for.

Embrace the Uphill

This might be one of my favorite statements of all time. 

Life is hard. Goals should be hard. That’s what ultimate success is all about.

You have to be willing to fight- to grind- and to earn- what you want to achieve. You can't even think of quitting every time life throws you a curveball. That thought shouldn’t even cross your mind. Find a way around the obstacle and do the best you can. Recognize that the changes you are making take time and persistence, and that you CAN get there. Realizing this will make you unstoppable.

Best,

RY

In Defense of Running: Part 2

We’re back! In the first part of this post, we went over why the human body evolved it’s way into having many great qualities important for running. If you haven’t read it, go back and check it out. It’ll will help you frame what we’re talking about. This particular post is going to help you understand things that should be incorporated in your program to help prevent injuries. It’s frustrating to me when I hear, “Running is bad for your joints, cardio makes you lose your gainz, etc,” because that might not be the case. It might be a whole host of other things you are doing or not doing that are leading to your issues. With that said, here goes nothin’!

Stop Running Through Pain

Seriously. Stop. Anti-Nike. Don’t do it. Pain is a protective mechanism of your body. It’s telling you that something is off. Maybe it’s your form. Maybe it’s your ankle mobility. Maybe it’s your glute strength. Regardless, it's something that should be listened to. You’ll never know until you stop and figure out what going on; mainly by going to see a professional. We all get that you have an iron-clad will, but trading a single run for months of recovery doesn’t seem like a fair deal to me. If you keep trying to forget that it hurts, you’ll eventually lose that battle and end up with an injury that may never go away.

I will also recognize that running has it’s ups and downs. There will be days that you feel like you could break through PR walls, and others where you might be a little stiff and have a low energy level. It’s important to understand how your body responds to these stressors, including differentiating between real pain and general soreness. A general rule of thumb to use is whether pushing through the issue will make it significantly worse. If so, time to get it looked at.

Understand, Prepare, and Read Your Body

As much as I love going HAM on some exercise, sometimes life gets in the way. Stress, time, fatigue; it’s all part of the equation of long term success. Sometimes you’ll have to scale it back. So when that time comes that you just aren’t with it for whatever reason, it’s okay. Just put the crock pot on simmer for the day and get after it the next day. Of course, there will be times that you need to grind out a long run or a lift, but you need to be aware of when your body is mentally and physically fatigued (versus straight up laziness). 

This is one of the reasons recovery is so important, and as you can probably tell, I harp on it a lot. Start by taking a real introspective look at what you do in and around your workouts. Consider these three factors: nutrition and hydration, sleep patterns, and mobility and soft tissue work. For example, it’s amazing what happens when you get the right amount of sleep after a few nights of not-so-good sleep. Am I right? Did you eat and hydrate correctly? Did you foam roll and warm up? Keeping tabs on this stuff will really help you get to know the in’s and out’s of your body, as well as keep you feeling incredible.

Strength Train Frequently

Here’s the thing about that many people forget about. Being stronger is an all encompassing thing that helps you crush life, period. It’s never a bad idea. You won’t ever hear someone explain their goal of, “You know, I think I just want to be a little weaker than I was last year.” While this may seem fairly obvious, runners continue to neglect this part of training. Not only from an injury prevention standpoint, but from a relative strength standpoint (strength in relation to your bodyweight).

This isn't what I mean. Don't do this. Ever. 

If you think about it, the act of running is simply a translation of force into the ground, and this propels you forward. At a very basic level, the more force you can create against your own bodyweight, the faster you will move across the ground. Catching my drift? Obviously there may be other limiting factors here, such as conditioning level, efficiency, or level of fatigue. Plus, getting stronger will help give your joints stability, as well as the ability to work at a higher intensity for a longer period of time. If you aren’t sure what to do, get help! There are many “free programs” out there, but they are worthless if you don’t know how to execute them correctly!

Now, lets address the other side of the equation. If you refer back to Part 1 of this post, I mentioned how we evolved into runners because of the need to find and obtain food. Back then, we were much smaller. It was rare to find someone overweight, as we had much less access to food. Flash forward to today, where the obesity rate continues to rise alongside the growing number of people who engage in various running activity. It’s no wonder that we keep seeing all these injuries. The structure of the body can only handle so much. Focus on increasing your strength while lowering your body mass and you’ll see a huge difference in the way you run.

Run Fast, Run Hard 

As simple as it gets here. Once you establish a solid aerobic base, you need to get comfortable pushing your limit. Within your training program, have some shorter runs that focus on speed. Hill work falls under this category too. This is important for a number of reasons. The first of course, is that you are developing your ability to use carbohydrate more efficiently. Translation: You can push harder, for longer periods of time. Sticking to your normal pace and just running longer is only going to help you run farther, not faster.

My first half, in Boston.

The other reason, is the reactive stability the body will create for you. Moving quicker allows the muscles to stretch and contract at a faster rate. From the feedback of the ground, the joints stabilize themselves based on the force exerted. This is crucial for injury prevention, as well as teaching the body to create speed and translate it into the ground.

Warm Up

Last one, I swear. Take 5-10 minutes so you can get your body ready for the run. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it’s going to help you feel like you aren’t made of Elmer’s glue when you get going. Start from the ground and work your way up. It will help lubricate the joints, increase your core body temp, and increase the length of the tissue. Check mine out:

Groundwork: Foam Roll > Open Book > Deadbug > Single Leg Bridge

Activation: Standing Flamingo > Squat to Stand

Dynamic: Inchworm > Lunge with Twist > Tabletop Knee Pull > Forward and Lateral Power Skip

You don’t have to do this stuff, but try to get something in. It will help warm up the body and the lungs, so you aren’t asking: 

Final Thoughts

As you can probably tell, this is truly the tip of the iceberg. There are many more things to discuss about training schemes, logging miles, and the type of running you may want to do. In the interest of brevity, these are the big ones that I see all the time. It’s important to understand what goes on within your body when you are engaged in a training program. This becomes glaringly obvious the further you start to run, especially in the way of recovering. You may have some aches and pains here and there, but be sure to understand the “why” behind it. If you are running through actual pain, you aren’t performing optimally and getting the most out of your body. Ultimately, the biggest tip I can give is to be committed to the your overall health, because that’s why we exercise in the first place.

Cheers,

RY