Back on Track with 2010 Fitness Goals

You promised yourself in January that 2010 was the year you planned increase your fitness, train for a particular race or learn a new sport. Or maybe you knew that come January 1 it was time to forget about the holiday hustle, all the times you hit snooze and skipped a work out, and the extra helpings you allowed yourself during the festivities. Regardless, you had goals set on New Year’s Day.

Now February has come and gone, March has rolled around—faster than you’d like to admit—and you still haven’t found time to go to the gym, map out a race calendar and register for that key event, or return to that routine you so diligently stuck to last year. But it’s not too late to get started on accomplishing those goals or feel like you’re constantly playing catch up with the rest of the group. Here are five ways to join or jump back onto the fitness bandwagon:

Hop in the pool. Before triathlon season comes around, get in the pool and practice your strokes. The open water will be a lot easier to tackle if you can hone your skills in calmer pool waters. One way to do it: Practice drills that will make you more efficient in the water.

Try a new sport. If you ran a half marathon in 2009, consider a triathlon in 2010. It might seem daunting to have to add swimming and cycling to the mix, but look at it as cross training that’s even more beneficial for the run. Or if you think you’ve done it all, reach out of your comfort zone for an adventure race, work your flexibility in yoga, or learn to ski—cross-country skiing is one of the best cardio exercises around.

Improve one sport in your repertoire. If you’ve done triathlons, consider isolating one of its disciplines to focus on before the season starts. Set up your bike on an indoor trainer and feel comfortable in the saddle without worrying about balance or dodging pedestrians on the path. Push yourself harder in your runs or aim to get faster through track and interval work. Practice transitions in your living room.

Join a group training program. They’ll hold you more accountable for training, you’ll have a coach guiding you, and you’ll meet new friends that love training as much as you do and can make great workout partners. The good news is that many programs get underway in March and April, especially if you've set your eyes on a half marathon, half Ironman or marathon this year.

Free fitness. Who doesn’t love a free workout? The New Year doesn’t just mean crowded gyms with more people trying to get fit and lose weight. Those gyms and other facilities like yoga studios offer deals to check out what programs they offer. Or if you love to run but don’t want to run alone, there are plenty of weeknight and weekend fun runs to keep the legs moving.

Photo grabbed from truebod.com. Posted by Kate

Goooooaaaal!

Kate and I attended a TrainingBible Tri-Fit Clinic over the weekend in Aurora. It was a trek driving out there, but totally worth the trip. (I wrote a quickie recount of the experience for the TOC blog.) We'll be checking in every so often with snippets of what what we learned--we were both scribbling away in our notebooks and I think it's safe to say we walked away with a ton of useful info to implement in our training. One take-away I'm already putting into action came courtesy of Joe Friel, the renowned Arizona-based coach who has led countless seminars, workshops and camps in addition to writing numerous books and articles on the intricacies of training.

Joe recommends that athletes track not only the distance/pace/HR/etc they log during a workout, but also monitor how they feel before heading out for a training session. Are you fatigued? How many hours of sleep did you get? What's your general stress level? Are you sore? How much do you weigh? It's little numbers like this--which tend to get lost in the shuffle, in my experience--that can help you pinpoint why workouts go well or not-so-well.

Another important piece of information to track: Your goals for the week. This one was a little bit confusing to me. At first I thought, well, that's easy...I'm doing a swim, a long run, a tempo run, a hill workout...but no, those are your workouts for the week. Your goals should put those numbers in context, as in "I want to improve flexibility this week so I will stretch after each run." (Haha, that's a real goal for this stiff-as-boarder.) Or, "I want to bang out my hill workout at a slightly faster pace than I did last week." That was a goal for my week, and low and behold, it made a difference as I was sucking wind and suffering through the last 10 minutes of my treadie hill run yesterday. Normally I'd be content to just survive the predetermined workout, but this time I had raised the bar through the simple act of writing down an aspiration for this session. As much as I wanted to take the pace or incline down a notch, my goal had made itself comfortable in my psyche and there was no kicking it out.

Goals are nothing new to most athletes, but we tend to think of them as big picture objectives, as in "Break my PR in X, Y or Z distance." Setting micro-goals helps put this week's workouts in perspective when the event you're training for feels faaaaar away. Even if it's your off-season, goal-setting can give you a sense of purpose when hitting the gym feels like drudgery. (I'm on the verge of making a weather-related quip here, but....I'm biting my tongue.) Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Photo grabbed from stealmyfire on Flickr. Posted by Liz