Week 14
Weekly Mileage: 32
Long Run: 16
I dipped out last week and didn’t write a week 13 running and leading post. I was too busy with work and with trying to keep up with training and family, so I gave myself a bye week- for writing, not running (we ran 38 miles last week). Maybe the best leadership lesson for this post should be for us all to give ourselves a bye every once in a while….
But a topic has been weighing on me related to running and leading stemming from my long run of 22 miles alone a couple of weeks ago.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. And if I’m honest, the training for this entire marathon hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be either. And I think the reason why is because of one simple tactic: chunking the training and the long runs into manageable pieces – small, accomplishable pieces that I can wrap my brain around.
For the long run, I found myself breaking it into these pieces: Eight miles on the beach road and a water, Gatorade and chews break where I had set these things out prior to getting started. Five and a half miles to my hotel and back to where I had left these things out. Six miles out and back on a backwoods trail for another break, then two and a half miles back to the hotel. Done. In each section, I just thought about getting to the next break, not getting the 22 miles done and it helped me mentally and physically.
Same is true for the longer view of the training plan. I just posted one month at a time on the fridge and tried to take it week by week. Low and behold, we’re headed to Philly for the run a week from today, and the training seemed manageable (with a lot of help along the way that made it manageable).
Getting an itch to run a marathon? You can view and download the month by month calendars we used here:
When we think about what makes people successful in achieving long-term goals, many people point to grit as a key factor in doing so. “Grit is living life like it is a marathon, not a sprint,” Angela Duckworth, the guru of grit says. She goes on to say in her TED Talk on the topic, though, that science knows very little about how to build grit.
In my experience, chunking tasks to meet a long-term goal into smaller, more manageable pieces is a good step in the right direction. Many people refer to this as creating the action plan and focusing on it instead of the end goal. Nick Saban would call this “the process”. And boy does he win with it.
So if you find yourself overwhelmed in trying to accomplish your leadership goals, break them down into smaller pieces. And if you need a calendar type model to help you accomplish this like the monthly race calendars do, Gantt charts are a beneficial way to manage projects with long-term goals. Here’s a tutorial on how to make one for yourself in Excel.
What helps you achieve success towards your marathons in life?
