New Year's Resolution Run at the Overlook

"The great man is he who does not lose his childlike heart."– Mencius

From left to right Tony (AKA Secretariat) Debbie, Frank, Randall and Diane

Yesterday at the Overlook, Randall, Diane, Secretariat, Debbie, and I were getting ready for our resolution run. The Secretariat had been whining for the last week or so about this race and other things. He remarked that last year, during this race, he couldn’t catch Herb. We talked about how Herb appears to run slow but in reality he doesn’t. Guess what? During our conversation, Herb ran by.  I mentioned to Secretariat “now you have a goal which is to beat him.”

That was all Secretariat needed. He now had his clearly defined goal that was measurable (to beat Herb). The goal was realistic based on history and Secretariat was highly motivated. The goal was perfect for Secretariat.

 Secretariat was smiling after the race as he came in front of Herb. In fact all of us were smiling after the race since we all ran well especially Debbie who completed the 10K. It was her first race in quite some time. After leaving the race site, we all showered at my daughter Sidne’s. From there we were joined at Chevy’s by Chris, Michele, Linda and Sidne for an enjoyable dinner celebration. This Sunday we plan on doing a long trail run and then meeting at Chris and Michele’s that evening to watch the NFL playoffs.

The rest of this post is related and continued from Monday’s.

If you haven’t been successful with your weight loss then you may have to be clearer about the amount of calories or the portions you’re consuming. You may have to re-evaluate the foods that you are eating and/or the foods to be eliminated. Further, your cardio or exercise program (sets, weight, repetitions, time rested) might also have to be adjusted. Perhaps three sets are not enough or 12 to 16 repetitions needs to be raised.  What about cardio as that’s a very important factor.

Also important, is how you think about your success or your failure. One way to think about not meeting the goal is simply “this is my best educated guess; the fact that I didn’t lose 4 to 6 pounds is not terrible in the short or long run; just think of all the new information I am going to learn; and if I lost 1 pound I consider that a step in the correct direction.”

Notice having positive thinking is very important because we want to remove the negative thoughts that are replayed in our head. Having a clearly defined important goal that can be objectively measured, able and realistic to be attained is most critical. My guess is that if you follow these steps your intention will be met. If you run into trouble, contact me for additional input.  Incidentally, I don’t do or have New Year’s resolutions. I prefer to set up goals during the year. One example of that is that each training run or competitive entry is thought of as training for the next event. In other words, there is always an upcoming or future event. If I decide to do a training run or enter a competitive event, then I always do it. This helps to meet my realistic goals on a yearly basis.

Remember to keep moving and run for your life because it’s good for you.