What to Know About Secondary Goals

you want to prevent burn out or keep the joy in your running, start doing this one simple thing:

Celebrate.

I know…it’s not as important as other things, you don’t have time, and you don’t see the benefit.

But trust me, it’s one of the reasons I’ve thrived over the 20+ years and 300 ultras I’ve been in this sport.

Whether youIf finish a race and hurry on to the next, or try to move on as quickly as possible from a DNF, it’s easy to slip onto the hamster wheel of doing, doing, doing that creates burnout.

You’ll celebrate when you get “there.”

But there’s always a next so you never get there, and running becomes a never-ending chore that loses it’s joy.

On the other hand, celebrating now says where you are is worth appreciating, no matter what it looks like.

The distance you've travelled so far is a there.

And you’re totally allowed to feel wowed by it.

So why don’t we do it?

The most common reason is we think celebrating has to look a certain way.

We can only celebrate certain things - big, noteworthy achievements like first finish of a new distance, a PR, a win, etc.

And we can only celebrate in certain ways - like a party or buying ourselves a reward.

We end up focusing on the form of celebration and missing the substance.

But there’s a better way.

First, celebrate more than the big, obvious things. There’s plenty of it.

And second, make that celebrating part of your everyday. Easy.

Here are four examples.

1. Celebrate how far you’ve come.

Take a moment and look back at the races you’ve run over the year, one at a time. Feel what each means to you. Visualize the races from your current perspective.

What did you get from each?

2. Celebrate what your body CAN do.

Think about all your body did over the past X months - running, healing, racing, going without sleep, recovering... Appreciate it’s strength, muscles, and endurance.

What do you love most about it?

3. Celebrate your bravery, courage and willingness to risk.

Appreciate your past self for what she was willing to do in the face of doubt, how she did her best, and the things she did that make your current goals possible.

As Snoop Dog says,

“Last but not least, I wanna thank me

I wanna thank me for believing in me

I wanna thank me for doing all this hard work

I wanna thank me for having no days off

I wanna thank me for, for never quitting”

If you could go back in time and thank your past self, what would you say?

4. Celebrate your worthiness.

Every so often, take a break. Not from running - from forcing or pushing yourself.

You’re already worthy. You don’t have to earn it, so let your desire and body dictate your run for a change.A fabulous client going for his first 50 mile race messaged me he was thinking of changing his race goal.

Instead of finishing, he was thinking of going for a fast time.

I groaned. I’ve seen it a million times.

His well-meaning, supportive ultra friends said he could do better than finish and he should have a secondary goal.

If It’s just a secondary - what’s the problem?

You know I’m all for going for big goals - impossible ones.

The problem with a secondary goal is that it isn’t secondary - it replaces your original, primary goal because it’s “better.”

And it doesn’t just become primary - it makes the original goal a failure.

The original goal automatically becomes a failure because it’s less than the new one.

Now, despite telling everyone you’ll still be happy just to finish, you’ll really be disappointed because finishing is no longer good enough. You’ll have to settle for it if you don’t reach your new, more ambitious goal.

That ups the pressure.

You have to do better than cutoff AND your original goal. You have more to lose.

Better not blow it.

One of the first, most epic times I saw this play out was with a friend I’ll call Tim at Umstead 100, which was 10 or 12 loops at the time.

He worried going into the race, because he’d barely trained. He wasn’t sure he could do the miles, let alone make the 30 hour cutoff.

I didn’t see him until the second lap, passing me in the return direction of the short out-and back section near 20 miles.

He excitedly shouted, “Hey, I’m on 16-hour pace!”

“Anything’s possible,” I thought as I wished him luck.

But as you can imagine, the pace caught up to him. And because he’d committed to his secondary 16-hour goal, he wasn’t willing to back off pace and settle for a finish.

He crashed and burned…DNF’d.

Thankfully, my client figured it out for himself and decided to stick with his original goal.

I’m certain he can finish his first 50 miler. Once he hits that goal, he can decide where to go from there - a faster 50, longer distance, or something different.

But he’ll have reached the goal he wanted to, and answered that question for himself.

So if you’re ever tempted by a “secondary” goal, remember four things:

• To do your best, focus on one goal at a time, whichever that is.

• Be sure you have a strong Why - you’ll need it in the race when things get tough - and “this goal looks better” isn’t going to do it.

• Whichever goal you choose, make sure you can see yourself reaching it.

• Sticking with your original goal doesn’t mean you can’t exceed it.

Defining what you want from a race and staying true to it despite distractions and temptations takes skill.

It’s one of many things I teach my clients.

If you’re curious about working with me, click this link to schedule a no-commitment consult call and let’s talk details.

Whether you decide to work with me or not, you’ll leave with next steps on your biggest issue.