It all started with the thought that I want to be the kind of person who can run a 5K race. As a health coach who is board-certified in lifestyle medicine, if I am going to talk the talk, I need to walk the walk. Before this thought, I had been dabbling in fitness, bartering with myself that if I exercised a minimum of 20 minutes in the morning before work I was doing alright. There were some days that I got going earlier and did more than my 20-minutes. There were many days that I wasn’t feeling like exercising, but got my 20 minute minimum completed, anyway. I need to do more to be a physically fit person.
Now the thought of running a 5k needed to become action. In my moment of inspiration, I searched online for a couch to 5K training plan. I looked at a few before I found one that worked for my slow pace and was an 8-week plan. My next step was to do an online search for a 5K race in my area that was 8 weeks away. Bingo! Memorial Day there was a Barks and Brew race in a large park with a nice flat course. I signed myself up immediately.
Link to training schedule I used: https://www.vumc.org/health-wellness/sites/vumc.org.health-wellness/files/public_files/hpCouchTo5K.pdf
I had just taken my thoughts and made them into a very specific goal. In 8 weeks, I was going to go from not running to “running” a 5K race. The race was paid for, so it was harder to back out. Now, all I need to do is train and run the race.
My enthusiasm in wanting to complete this challenge helped me along for the first 4 weeks of the 8 training weeks. Every week after week five made me wonder if I would be ready. The amount of running moved up more significantly with less rest between intervals. I managed to stick to the training plan and make it through each week’s assignment. The great thing about challenging yourself is that every success boosts your confidence.
Race day was the Memorial Day holiday. I made sure to get up early and have a little beet juice to boost my oxygen capacity and give me a little edge. I arrived early and picked up my shirt and race number. I had time to walk around and get warmed up. All of my training was on a treadmill, so this was the first outside run. It has been over 4 years since I have been in a race and I have forgotten how the crowd and enthusiasm can get you going unexpectedly fast and help carry you along. I cried with joy once I finished and heard my name read out loud.
Do I think everyone should be out there running a 5K race? Absolutely not. I do think that goal setting is not just for our New Year’s resolutions, but something we can do whenever we are inspired to push ourselves a little further. It’s important to move our thoughts into action.
When setting goals, it is important to make a SMART goal. In being intentional in our goal setting, we know exactly what we want to accomplish and it moves us forward into action. The SMART in SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. For my goal, I wanted to be a person who could run (Specific) a 5K (Measurable). I found a training plan (Achievable) and started to train daily (Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based) to be ready in 8 weeks (Time).
What kind of person do you want to be?
