By Brandi Venne
When you sign up for a race — regardless of the distance — one of the most important things to do before you start training is ask yourself “why?” Why do you want to devote your time, energy, body and mind to this endeavor?
When we talk about goals, we sometimes think in terms of time or outcome. I’m a coach with Craven SPORT Service’s OnTrack running programs and work with new runners who often say: “I just want to cross a finish line.” My experienced marathoners sometimes say: “I want to qualify for Boston.” These are examples of extrinsic goals — they are great, but aren’t always within an athlete’s control and don’t always work out.
Anything can happen during a race. Imagine a thunderstorm rolling in, forcing organizers to pull everyone off course. If that happens to you, does that mean you failed? Is crossing the finish line the only measure of success? It’s the same thing with a time goal; anything can happen on race day no matter how well prepared you are.
We do need extrinsic goals; they give us ego boosts and help us achieve our dreams. Ideally, however, setting intrinsic goals will lead to extrinsic accomplishment.
Here are some examples of extrinsic and intrinsic goals:
- Extrinsic goals: Winning; running a specific time; prizes/awards; social praise/attention
- Intrinsic goals: Enjoyment from the activity; mental health benefits; personal growth and self-improvement; social connection; self-worth
If you train for extrinsic goals only, it’s hard to persist and improve. If running is just something that leads to fulfillment and not enjoyment in itself, it will take an exhausting amount of focus and determination to make it through a training period. In the end, even if you achieve a goal, you might feel deflated or empty.
It isn’t hard to find internal motivations — but it’s important to do so before you register for a race. Those motivations are what will drag you out of bed for a long run when you’re tired or get you out the door for a hard tempo run when it’s cold and raining. When you think about quitting because you had a bad workout, that’s when you should think about your “why.” You realize then that there is absolutely no quit in you.
Intrinsic goal setting is important for runners of all experience levels. So many of us get caught up in the data of our paces, splits and personal bests (PBs). Setting a PB is awesome, but it must be secondary to our true motivation for running. Those numbers do not determine our self worth.
As for me? Here is my why: Running brings me an incredible sense of freedom. I love to run first thing in the morning; it clears my head and sets a positive tone for the day. Ultimately, I run because I love it and it makes me feel good.
Brandi Venne is the leader of the Craven SPORT Services OnTrack programs including Run Club, Stretch Out Your Run, Learn to Run.
