Friday Race Goals!

Happy Friday!!!!!

I hope you all have had a FABULOUS week and have an even greater weekend planned! I'll be running the Varmint Half Marathon in Burke's Garden tomorrow, but more about that later!

Yesterday started off by getting lazy bottoms up to go to the sitter. She was "SO TIRED" and repeatedly told me the entire ride there... Dramatic like her Momma! After I dropped her off, I came back home to work on the blog and get some stuff settled in my planner to make sure I know exactly when I can work with clients. I'm thinking of taking on one or two more, but want to make sure I have the room for them!

After that, I headed to Lowes. If you read yesterday's post, you saw that I was forced by my husband to finally decide on a wall color after (only) a year and a half at our new house... (Can you say new after a year and a half?)

I walked in, grabbed a color, and bought two gallons of it. I didn't stay and stare at all the colors, I just went with it. Let's hope I like it. If not, oh well. Live and learn, kids, live and learn.

This is the color I purchased...

I also bought curtains since ours don't match anything. So we'll have an almost entirely new bedroom by this time... well... I don't know how long it will take. Painting at the Hagy Homestead takes FOREVER. I have my kitchen painted, Lynny's room painted, and half of my living room painted... Don't ask me why only half is painted, ask Aaron...

I went to pick Lynny up from the sitter and took her a little surprise I got for her.

We stopped by the Police Department to see Aaron. Lynny also wanted to tell the Chief what the green, yellow, and red mean on the stoplights in town. The conversation went like this...

Chief: What does red mean?

Lynny: Red means stop!

Chief: Good! What does green mean?

Lynny: Green means go!

Chief: Good! What does yellow mean?

Lynny: Yellow means HURRY HURRY!!!!!

Chief: You learned this from your mother, didn't you?

It. Was. Hilarious. She gets it honest!

We went home so that she could paint and I could attempt to clean. She loves to paint so this was a hit!

I hate to clean so that wasn't as much of a hit....

Aaron came home and we went for a 2 miler! I'm happy he's been running with me some lately, even if he refuses to run more than 3 miles! ;)

We headed to Chic-fil-A after that- we love that place but don't make it down there often. It's a small drive (very small), enough that we don't usually make the trip just to eat there. Ha!

Then we gave Daddy his Father's Day present... Lynny was more interested in the bag...

And she made sure to ride her motorcycle... which is a Thomas the Train toy...

Safety first!

Ok, so now we are going to talk goals! Goals are so important to have! Running without goals means you have nothing to work towards. For some, this is fine, but you have to be ok with not really improving or finding out your true potential! Setting goals for yourself can be challenging (having a coach can help with this ;) just saying!). They need to be realistic. You can't set a goal for running a sub-30 5K in 8 weeks if you take an average of 20 minutes to complete a mile. You more than likely won't meet your goal and will be frustrated with yourself, possibly even deciding not to run any other 5Ks.

Setting realistic goals keeps you motivated and interested in your running! Most experts suggest setting SMART goals. As a teacher, I have had to use this method to set my goals for my classroom. SMART stands for Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

Specific- You want your goal to answer as many of the following questions as possible: Who? What? When? Where? How?

Saying you want to be faster isn't specific enough to be a good goal. Instead, set a goal similar to the following:

I want to take 4 minutes off my marathon PR in 7 months.

Measureable- You want your goals to answer the following questions:

How much? How many? How often? How long?

When your goals are measureable, it enables you to see your progress, keeping you excited about the goal!

Attainable- Don't set a goal that isn't attainable. You can't qualify for Boston in a month if your marathon PR is 5:49:06. It isn't an attainable goal, and you will more than likely fail. Look at your past times/races/achievements and see how much improvement you can make realistically. You want to push yourself, but don't make reaching your goal impossible.

Relevant- Obviously if you're a runner wanting to make a goal, it should be relevant to running, specifically your running. It doesn't have to be running a specific length of race, certain goal time, etc. like others usually do. Make your goals about YOU and YOUR running. You want your goals to be ones that you will want to work towards and be proud of once you achieve them!

Timely- Have a time frame in mind that is measureable. It's good to have a specific day (a race, perhaps?) that you want to hit your goal. You know the EXACT amount of time you have before you want to hit your goal, keeping you motivated and less likely to skip workouts or not give them your absolute best!

For the Varmint Half Marathon I am running tomorrow, I have set a goal for myself. The last time I ran this marathon, I had a finish time of 2:15:29. That was 7 minutes slower than the half I ran just two months prior to it. I didn't train very well, so the 7 extra minutes wasn't surprising. The course is also VERY hilly... and SO HOT. This year, I simply want to PR on this course. I would love under 2:10, however, with having trained for my marathon and not for a half, I will be surprised if I can get under 2:10. So, for tomorrow, this is my SMART goal:

I will run the 2017 Varmint Half Marathon on June 10th with a time under 2:15:29.

I feel like this goal is Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely, hitting all of the components required for a SMART goal!

We'll see how it goes tomorrow! I hope you all have a great weekend!!

What is your go-to paint color?

Do your kids tell on you?

What SMART goals have you set for yourself?