Optimal Training

Your unspoken goals...and how they affect your performances

There was a short, insightful post by Seth Godin a few days ago about goals that really hit home with me.  I've recreated it in full below (italics mine):

Doing goal setting with friends and colleagues is always motivating and invigorating for me. You hear things ranging from, "I want to help this village get out of poverty," or "I want to double our market share," or "I want to be financially independent."

What you rarely hear is, "I don't want to fail," "I don't want to look stupid," or "I don't want to make any mistakes."

The problem is that those goals are really common, and left unsaid, they dominate. If your goal is not to be called on in class, that's a largely achievable goal, right?

Think about how often your goal at a conference or a meeting or in a project is, "don't screw up!" or "don't make a fool of yourself and say the wrong thing." These are very easy goals to achieve, of course. Just do as little as possible. The problem is that they sabotage your real goals, the achievement ones.

It's not stupid to have a stated goal of starting several ventures that will fail, or asking three stupid questions a week, or posting a blog post that the world disagrees with. If you don't have goals like this, how exactly are you going to luck into being remarkable?

I see a lot of parallels here with regard to developing a race strategy and then executing it.  How many times have you gone into a race with a plan to run X-minute pace or to stick with That Guy, only to find yourself doing something completely different mid-race?  How often have you made a split-second decision during a race that was the opposite of what you told yourself you'd do?

You could look at these situations and say, "well, you can't overplan your races, you need to just react, to just compete."  That's more or less what Matt Tegenkamp said about his Beijing performance recently, after he didn't execute the plan he had prepared and finished 13th in Beijing.  And there's some truth to that, for sure.  But to be able to approach a race that way, you have to have no unspoken goal "not to mess it up." 

My guess is that Teg went to Beijing with spoken goals (get a medal, put yourself in a position to medal, conserve as much energy as possible in the prelims without taking unnecessary risks, etc.) but also at least one unspoken goal: don't do anything stupid that will mess everything up.  And it's that unspoken goal that paralyzes you mid-race, when you're trying--in a split second--to figure out if you're doing anything stupid or not.

I'm not trying to pick on Teg, really, and for all I know I'm wrong about his particular goals.  I do know I've gone into races where I was saying one thing (perhaps to convince myself) but reacting based on something else.  Often I was reacting based on a fear of the unknown.  ("He went already?  Should I go with him?  What if I blow up?  Or get stranded in no man's land?  Oh crap the race is over.") 

And then when the race was over, I always rationalized some external factor as being the reason things didn't go as I said they would.  ("I don't know what happened, coach.  My legs didn't feel that good and I couldn't tell my splits and he kind of surprised me and and and...")  I never said to myself, "you had an unspoken goal to run a safe race and not embarrass yourself, and you weren't ready to take the necessary risks or experience the necessary pain."

I think this idea of an unspoken goal is incredibly insightful.  It has helped me to put so much of my past running experience into a different perspective.  I encourage you to take a moment and think about whether you're not doing the same thing to yourself.  If you're not sure whether you do it or not, think about the last thing you mutter to yourself as you step to the line.  That's your unspoken goal.

I'll end by returning to Seth's last paragraph, but I'll change it for a more running-centric message:

It's not stupid to have a stated goal of running a race strategy with a losing-be-damned attitude, or making a reckless move mid-race, or even entering a race with no goals at all. If you don't set goals in open contrast to your natural approach, how exactly are you going to luck into being remarkable?

Doing goal setting with friends and colleagues is always motivating and invigorating for me. You hear things ranging from, "I want to help this village get out of poverty," or "I want to double our market share," or "I want to be financially independent."

What you rarely hear is, "I don't want to fail," "I don't want to look stupid," or "I don't want to make any mistakes."

The problem is that those goals are really common, and left unsaid, they dominate. If your goal is not to be called on in class, that's a largely achievable goal, right?

Think about how often your goal at a conference or a meeting or in a project is, "don't screw up!" or "don't make a fool of yourself and say the wrong thing." These are very easy goals to achieve, of course. Just do as little as possible. The problem is that they sabotage your real goals, the achievement ones.

It's not stupid to have a stated goal of starting several ventures that will fail, or asking three stupid questions a week, or posting a blog post that the world disagrees with. If you don't have goals like this, how exactly are you going to luck into being remarkable?

I see a lot of parallels here with regard to developing a race strategy and then executing it.  How many times have you gone into a race with a plan to run X-minute pace or to stick with That Guy, only to find yourself doing something completely different mid-race?  How often have you made a split-second decision during a race that was the opposite of what you told yourself you'd do?

You could look at these situations and say, "well, you can't overplan your races, you need to just react, to just compete."  That's more or less what Matt Tegenkamp said about his Beijing performance recently, after he didn't execute the plan he had prepared and finished 13th in Beijing.  And there's some truth to that, for sure.  But to be able to approach a race that way, you have to have no unspoken goal "not to mess it up." 

My guess is that Teg went to Beijing with spoken goals (get a medal, put yourself in a position to medal, conserve as much energy as possible in the prelims without taking unnecessary risks, etc.) but also at least one unspoken goal: don't do anything stupid that will mess everything up.  And it's that unspoken goal that paralyzes you mid-race, when you're trying--in a split second--to figure out if you're doing anything stupid or not.

I'm not trying to pick on Teg, really, and for all I know I'm wrong about his particular goals.  I do know I've gone into races where I was saying one thing (perhaps to convince myself) but reacting based on something else.  Often I was reacting based on a fear of the unknown.  ("He went already?  Should I go with him?  What if I blow up?  Or get stranded in no man's land?  Oh crap the race is over.") 

And then when the race was over, I always rationalized some external factor as being the reason things didn't go as I said they would.  ("I don't know what happened, coach.  My legs didn't feel that good and I couldn't tell my splits and he kind of surprised me and and and...")  I never said to myself, "you had an unspoken goal to run a safe race and not embarrass yourself, and you weren't ready to take the necessary risks or experience the necessary pain."

I think this idea of an unspoken goal is incredibly insightful.  It has helped me to put so much of my past running experience into a different perspective.  I encourage you to take a moment and think about whether you're not doing the same thing to yourself.  If you're not sure whether you do it or not, think about the last thing you mutter to yourself as you step to the line.  That's your unspoken goal.

I'll end by returning to Seth's last paragraph, but I'll change it for a more running-centric message:

It's not stupid to have a stated goal of running a race strategy with a losing-be-damned attitude, or making a reckless move mid-race, or even entering a race with no goals at all. If you don't set goals in open contrast to your natural approach, how exactly are you going to luck into being remarkable?

Osaka and New York marathons offer some interesting parallels

Brett Larner at the Japan Running Times has put together a pretty interesting analysis of the Osaka and New York marathons' "leading ladies".  He compares winners Yoko Shibui and Paula Radcliffe side-by-side, as well as two first-timers, Yukiko Akaba and Kara Goucher.  I love when writers notice things like this and then take the time to dive into them!

In another article translated by Larner, Shibui states that one of her goals is to break Paula's world record.  I can only hope both women show up at the World Championships in Berlin this summer ready to roll.

The marathon in 2009

If recent trends are any indication, 2009 could be a huge year for marathoning.  I referenced this briefly in my Notes on an '08 Calendar article, but a recent article by David Graham at LetsRun.com reminded me of just how much the sport of marathoning has changed over the years, and more specifically, the past decade.

Not only have the great distance runners on the track (first Tergat, now Gebrselassie) moved up to the marathon, but young runners like Sammy Wanjiru and Tsegay Kebede have chosen to focus on road racing and marathons and foresaken lengthy track careers for potential marathon greatness.  As a result we have under-23 marathoners who are practically veterans at the distance.  Can we really not expect to see marathon times drop when the event has now become a career focus, rather than a "post-track" career focus for the best runners in the world?

I think we can.  Because one thing seems clear to me.  The way a marathon is perceived has fundamentally shifted.  Not by you and me, perhaps, but for the top athletes in the world 26.2 is no longer viewed with the same fear.  Whether you agree with his skipping majors in favor of time trials or not, Haile Gebrselassie's world records in the marathon change--at a fundamental level--the way every elite runner views the challenge of completing 26.2.  The result is that the bar is set higher, and more and more athletes are achieving faster times, times that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago.

Just as I wrote recently that German Fernandez's "baseline" needs to be set higher, elite marathoners have had their "baseline" moved way up, and there's nothing they can do about it.  Well, except train harder, make the long-term sacrifices necessary to approach the new standards of excellence, and believe that they, too, can achieve what they themselves must have thought impossible just years before.

It won't be easy.  Overcoming mental barriers in this sport is probably the hardest aspect of it, in the end.  I'm not sure we'll see any world records or a year of marathoning that is "statistically superior" to 2008, but we won't be seeing a regression back to 1998 ever again either.  A new era of marathoning is here to stay.

12 to Watch: Lisa Koll starts off strong

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article at Runnerstribe in response to a Trackshark article where they picked 12 US distance runners to watch in 2009.  I thought their choices weren't inspired enough, so I chose my own top 12 to watch.  Not sure how this selectorial battle royale never got mentioned on this blog, but apparently it was never posted.  Quick recap:

Trackshark chose the following 12 runners: German Fernandez, Shalane Flanagan, Lauren Fleshman, Kara Goucher, Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Shannon Rowbury, Galen Rupp, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp, Alan Webb and Andrew Wheating.

You know they chose all the best US runners when they pretty much just listed all my Squidoo lenses...

My choices were: Abdi Abdirahman, Jenny Barringer, Scott Bauhs, Anthony Famiglietti, Adam Goucher, Jordan Hasay, Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezighi, Lisa Koll, Leonel Manzano, Jon Rankin, and Anna Willard.

Call me biased, but I think my list has a few more interesting stories associated with it, albeit a little less press coverage.  While I will certainly root for all the above athletes to have excellent seasons, there's a little part of me that's rooting for "my runners" more than Trackshark's (like when Meb beat Dathan in Houston--way to do it for the team, Meb).  Anyway, you can read the justification for each pick in the article.

(Place witty segue here)

That was all a big lead-in to my mentioning that Lisa Koll just opened up her season with a school record 9:09.92 for 3000m indoors.  The NCAA 10,000m record holder might be a threat to run a Goucher-esque time of sub-9:00 if she competes in the 3000m at Nationals.  Looks like she is definitely proving to be "one to watch".

Adding some perspective to German's performance

German Fernandez just ran 3:56.50 in his first indoor mile race ever.  He won the race with a big finish, despite being just two months removed from an Achilles injury that kept him from finishing the NCAA Championships.  It set an unofficial* junior indoor world record, and was among the greatest ever performances by an American junior.  He is 18 years old, and will turn 19 in November of this year.

What I found interesting about this weekend was that another young runner, Matthew Kisorio, ran what was arguably a more impressive race that went largely unnoticed.  He won the Discovery Cross Country Championship in Eldoret, Kenya, defeating such elite studs as Luke Kibet (World Marathon champion), Asbel Kiprop (Junior World Cross Country champion) and Barnabas Kosgei (World Cross Country bronze medallist).  Kisorio is apparently 1.5 years older than German Fernandez, and boasts a 5k personal best of 13:11, run as a 19 years old.  As an 18 year old, his best was 13:28.

For all intents and purposes, these two look pretty equal to me.  I'd be shocked if Fernandez didn't run 13:28 this year, given the speed he showed on Saturday and the fact that he has an amazing ability to run at pace.  But I have to wonder about their respective "development arcs" and whether Fernandez will show the same improvement as Kisorio has.  I wonder about this because so much of this sport is mental, and a simple difference between who you compare yourself to can make all the difference in what you believe you can achieve.

Kisorio's "baseline" for comparison is so much higher than Fernandez's.  Even as a 19-year old 13:11 guy, his baseline is Eliud Kipchoge's 12:52.  Here, we are content to compare Fernandez to other American high schoolers and collegiate freshman and say, "He's the greatest ever!"  And in that limited respect, he certainly could be.  But if we cast the net a little wider, we get an entirely different picture.  In fact, one could argue that our national measure of greatness is a bar set a little too low.

Here are the junior American records for the distances and middle distances (German's most likely "baseline"):

Junior American (Ryun/Gregorek times from here)

800m - 1:44.9y - Jim Ryun
1500m - 3:36.9 - Jim Ryun
1 mile - 3:51.3 - Jim Ryun
3000m - 7:49.16 - Galen Rupp
5000m - 13:37.91 - Galen Rupp
10000m - 28:15.52 - Galen Rupp
steeple - 8:33.8 - John Gregorek

American (just for comparison, full list is here)

800m - 1:42.60 - Johnny Gray
1000m - 2:13.9 - Rick Wohlhuter
1500m - 3:29.30 - Bernard Lagat
1 mile - 3:46.91 - Alan Webb
3000m - 7:30.84 - Bob Kennedy
2 mile - 8:07.07 - Matt Tegenkamp
5000m - 12:58.21 - Bob Kennedy
10000m - 27:13.98 - Meb Keflezighi

There do not appear to be any indoor lists for American juniors, unfortunately.  I would say that all of the American junior records from 3000m up are within Fernandez's reach, though I'm not sure he'll attempt a fast 10k while still eligible as a junior.

Now compare those times with the junior world records for the distance and middle distance events.

Indoor (full list here - only updated to 2006, unfortunately)

800m - 1:44.35 - Yuriy Borzakovskiy
1000m - 2:15.77 - Abubaker Kaki Khamis
1500m - 3:36.37 - Mike Too
1 mile - 3:56.50 - German Fernandez (previously 3:58.60 - Geoffrey Rono)
3000m - 7:40.83 - Markos Geneti
2 mile - 8:13.32 - Tariku Bekele
5000m - 13:32.90 - Ismael Kirui

Fernandez would appear to have at least two of these within reach this year, the 1500m and the 5000m.  Both would be a stretch, but they remain a possibility.  But check out the outdoor junior world record list (the true "baseline" for athletes like Kisorio).

Outdoor (full list here)

800m - 1:42.69 - Abubaker Kaki Khamis
1000m - 2:15.00 - Benjamin Kipkirui
1500m - 3:30.24 - Cornelius Chirchir
1 mile - 3:50.25 - Alex Kipchirchir
3000m - 7:28.78 - Augustine Kiprono Choge
5000m - 12:52.61 - Eliud Kipchoge
10000m - 26:41.75 - Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
steeple - 7:58.66 - Saif Saaeed Shaheen

Did you notice that the junior world records for 3000m and up are significantly faster than the American records in those events?  Every day, when Kisorio wakes up, he knows he's 20 seconds behind his "baseline" at the same age.  In fact, whereas most American runners view the American record as a reasonable career goal to shoot for, athletes like Kisorio treat our national records as milestones on the path to their ultimate destinations.  That difference in mindset makes a huge difference in performance.

My hope is that German takes a similar approach to viewing this mile race and his subsequent performances.  With his ability, he needs to be using the world as his benchmark, assuming the American records are his for the taking, and then settling for nothing less than his best.

*Indoor performances are not ratified as world records by the IAAF.  They are simply "best performances". 

Doug Logan addresses the supplement industry

Doug Logan, the CEO for USA Track and Field, gave a speech at Focus on the Future, a gathering of the dietary supplement and healthy food industries on January 22.  He addressed the need for the supplement industry to clean up its act and join in the battle against performance enhancing drugs in sports.

It was a forceful speech, with a clear message that it is a cultural battle that we are waging against PED use.  After discussing they myriad reasons why athletes are afraid to take any supplements at all, even "clean" supplements, he says:

"While this battle for "clean" supplements rages on, I focus on waging the battle for the hearts and minds of our athletes, coaches, agents and support staff to win the culture war against drugs. I am a person who likes simple concepts. This is pretty simple. I have two words for any person who uses, promotes or tacitly endorses the use of drugs by any athlete. GET OUT! Get out of our sport and out of our competitions."

I am personally in favor of this approach 100%.  I am in favor of stricter penalties on users and coaches, but I am also in favor of outright bans on companies (within the extent of the law, of course).  If a company is caught lacing a supplement with illegal PEDs, we should have the courage (and legal ability) to ban any and all products made by that company for use by athletes competing in USATF sanctioned competitions.  Maybe this is already common practice, but if not, I say we take the nuclear option with them.

After further discussion of the relative success seen in the cultural war against PED use, Logan finishes with this call to action for the supplement industry:

'I am personally committed to doing our part to reverse this cultural perversion. Our partners in this war, USADA and WADA are waging the battle with ground breaking science and techniques. The supplement industry can do its part in assisting us in the fray. The next time, do not be so quick to oppose reasonable and responsible federal regulation of your industry. Those who conduct ethical and legal businesses will ultimately benefit from the tightening of laws and increased scrutiny. If you say you can self regulate, then, by gosh do it! Cast these outlaws from your midst as the money changers were biblically cast from the temple. We are cleaning our house; get your brooms out and clean yours!"

I have no faith in a billion-dollar industry that exists through the promotion of get-results-quick-and-easy making any effort to self-regulate themselves.  Sorry, but the fact that any industry with the ability to create products so drastically unhealthy should have been regulated from the beginning.  So I hope Doug Logan and the USATF will not stop at self-regulation, but will work to get all other sports federations and professional sports leagues in concert to force regulation upon the industry.  I personally believe it's the only way.

Here is the link to the complete text of the speech.  There is a lot of good information here about the state of the sport in its battle against PEDs, as well as some depressing anecdotes that make very clear just how long and protracted this battle will inevitably be.

HUGE indoor opener for German Fernandez

In somewhat of a follow-up to my earlier post on reevaluating expectations...

German Fernandez ran 3:56.50 to win the Men's Championship Mile at the Razorback Invitational!  He beat Dorian Ulrey (more info here), the runner-up to Leonel Manzano at last year's NCAA Outdoor 1500m final.  Apparently they were 2:00 at the half.

I'm not even sure what to make of this, to be honest.  Some of the best milers in the U.S. never ran 3:56 indoors in college, and German did it in his first collegiate mile.  I thought 13:20 in the 5k was going to be a stretch this year (despite what his high school coach predicted), but if he's got those kind of wheels, I think all bets might be off.

Here's a link to the results of the meet, and to a forum thread on German.  You can see my biographical lens on German here.

Update:  Actually, this is a junior world record for indoors, previously 3:59.6, run by Jim Ryun in 1966!  More here.

What Makes a Major Marathon a "Major"?

An interesting week in distance running commentary.  Haile Gebrselassie runs 2:05:29 in Dubai, 8th fastest marathon of all time.  The Science of Sport reiterates their claim (accusation?) that Haile is a time trialer and not a racer.  Lets Run gives Haile a thumbs down.  I read this and understand completely where they are coming from, but can't help but feel that they are blaming the wrong person.

I have a new article up at Runnerstribe: What Makes a Major Marathon a "Major"?  It's my attempt to articulate what I think is going on with Haile and what I hope to see in the future.  Here's a snippet:

Why should we care that Haile doesn't run against any "competition" in "the majors"? Obviously, this whole question comes about because of one simple, selfish motive: We fans want to see all of the best run against each other. We want a clear answer to the big question: who is the best in the world? We lost that chance when Haile skipped Beijing, and one has to wonder if we'll ever get another opportunity. How can we convince Haile that he "needs" to run Boston, or New York, or Chicago? (He's already said he can't run London anymore due to his asthma.) I don't think we can. But maybe that's not the only solution.

Click here to read the full article.

Self-efficacy and the Olympic 800m champ

Spikes Magazine has an interview with Olympic 800m champion Wilfred Bungei, where they discuss a range of topics pertaining to the success of Kenyan athletes.  It's a nice, quick read, and two quotes stood out to me as they pertain directly to self-efficacy (the belief in what you can achieve given the effort you put into an activity).  Wilfred says:

"Seeing what they [Wilson Kipketer, etc] were doing [made] you believe you can be a world-class athlete." 

This is a classic example of self-efficacy built through vicarious experience.

"[My sports teacher] said I had the potential to run.  I wasn’t the best [runner] in school and I went home and thought, 'why did he think that I had the potential? Maybe he has seen something in me and this is a reminder to me that you can make it, you can make it'." 

This is a perfect example of self-efficacy built through social persuasion. 

I've written more about self-efficacy here and here.

First Reebok, now Flagstaff, next...

I read sometime last week that Reebok will be cutting its specialty running group and that a number of athletes were now out of a job.  The economy obviously had something to do with it, but given that Reebok is now owned by adidas, it wasn't that big a surprise.  Personally, I ran in Reeboks for three years and never really found a shoe I loved.  But I love my adidas kicks.

Much tougher news, in my opinion, is that the Center for High Altitude Training in Flagstaff, Arizona (based out of Northern Arizona University) will be closing.  The Center was home to numerous athletes, and I believe it is widely used by Team McMillan Elite, which supports Brett Gotcher, Andrew Carlson, and a number of the top finishers at last week's USA Half Marathon Championships.

To be perfectly frank, I would have made the same decision in both cases, probably.  The real shame isn't that the university won't pony up the $230,000 to keep it open, but rather that there is no one else in the country, either public corporation or private individual, willing to do so.  Phil Knight, this is an opportunity just waiting for you to seize it.

I hesitate to even guess what's coming next...any predictions?