knowing thyself

Can I coach myself? It's the question I keep getting asked since I made the big announcement of my snazzy new coach.

The answer: I can.

What will it take to coach myself? Self awareness, objectivity, planning and accountability.

I met with the new coach this morning and we set some goals and some limits. Training hours. The first thing I did was put a ceiling on training hours. Why? Because I would train as many as possible, which just isn't smart.

The second thing I did was lay out my goals. I shall share those later as they are in the rough draft form still. Get a piece of paper and write down everything you want to achieve next season. Put it away and tomorrow come back to it.

What's fluff? What's real?

Marrying Brian Rhodes.... now that would be an example of a fluff goal. That got crossed off the list. (not approved by husband)

Riding faster than Lance Armstrong? Fluff again.

PR'ing in a half marathon by May? Okay now we've got something to work with.

Top three placing at the Musselman? Gulf Coast? Now we are talking.

Once those goals get dusted off and solidified, we take a look at what we need to do to get there. We study last year's results with care to remember the playing field is always different year to year. However that shall give us a start. We determine what I would need to do.

Then we look at where I am at right now. Broken, still recovering from an injury, needing some healing and needing a good plan.

So there are two ends...... now I need to make them join up in the middle.

How on earth am I going to do that? Easy, I am going to start where all things begin. At the beginning. From now until November 1st I have some goals. We are all such goal oriented task masters aren't we? Give me a goal and a plan and I will get it. Or deal with bumps along the way.

My goals for October:

1. Heal

2. Wake up and see what I feel like doing that day. Do only what I feel like doing.

3. Good nutrition. I can drop weight like madd in the off-season.

4. Mental rest. I have given myself days and limits of planning for next season. Otherwise I would dream about it every single day.

I think that if you take on the task of coaching yourself you do have to be brutally honest. I will have to look at my weeks and my logs and track my progress just like I do with every single one of my athletes.

I will teach you how to do the very same thing. I always tell my athletes that there should be a point where you can take this thing and fly. Otherwise I have taught you nothing. Some have found their wings and they know I am here to support. Some have taken flight, some have not. They just need to trust that they know what to do.

Just like I do.