Setting goals

The Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and KayakRace is five weeks from today. This is the race I'm really pointing to in my training. I think every athlete should have some sort of goal for each competitive season. The body is not capable of performing at its best at all times, so it makes sense to select a small number of times each year to have it ready for peak performance.

Back when I was a high school and college distance runner, setting goals wasn't that hard to do. Sports at the college and secondary levels are structured with obvious achievements to aspire to. A high school runner has regional and state titles to shoot for as well as all-region and all-state teams to try to make. Even less-talented runners can improve their times in the various distances and can help their teams do well in the big meets. For a college runner, there's the challenge of being all-conference and qualifying for the NCAA championships.

But once college is over, athletic goals suddenly are not so clear. And in canoe and kayak racing, a much smaller sport than running, deciding what to shoot for is that much tougher. Unless you're on track to make national and Olympic teams, your race offerings tend to be a disjointed set of events that don't lead to any particular title.

My response is to pick an event with high-quality competition and train to be at my very best when the day of that event arrives. I am fortunate that such an event happens each year in my hometown: the opportunity to test myself against the competition in the OICKR, and to promote the sport here by placing a Memphian as high in the field as possible, is plenty of motivation for me to be prepared for this race.

Of course, winning this race is all but out of the question for me as long as people like Olympic champion Greg Barton and three-time Olympian Mike Herbert keep showing up. But the hidden blessing here is that I am forced to evaluate my achievements on my own, and find internal happiness with my successes rather than have them validated by titles or medals.

In any case, I think setting goals for the season is a good idea. Pick a race that you really want to focus on and do well in, and structure your training plan accordingly. It makes training a lot more fun and there's much satisfaction in seeing through a plan from start to finish.