Moving Targets

-by Matt Leedham

In 2004, I ran my first marathon. I trained for 5 months, running 5-6 days per week. At my peak training period, I would run 35-45 miles in a week. I really began to enjoy running. I had all the best gear, would meet up with other fellow running junkies, would stay in on Friday nights and be up at 5am on Saturdays to prep for my long runs. I loved running.

On Halloween 2004, I had one of the best experiences of my life. Running that marathon was an incredible learning opportunity. It was my first race and I just remember how awesome the energy was. Everyone was so excited to run and so was I. I had friends there to cheer me on, strangers shouting my name (which was proudly written on my shirt), and people to celebrate with afterward. Then a funny thing happened the next day…

I stopped running.

Literally, I just stopped. I didn’t run again for over a year. Given how into running I was, I look back on it and can’t believe that I stopped. I was disappointed in myself, but never really took the time to examine why that happened.

Years later, I learned that it is quite common for rookie endurance athletes to go on a hiatus because they make one huge mistake. First-timers get so geared up for the race, and train so hard for completing their first marathon (or half-marathon, or triathlon or whatever) that they view it as the finish line, as if it’s the end somehow. They often make no plans for the future – for what will happen after the race. In a running magazine, I read that it’s helpful for a runner to pick their next race while they’re still training for the first one.

So that’s what I did.

Not just with running, which I eventually picked back up and completed my 2^nd marathon in 2010, but with other goals in my life. I would try to pick goals that required about 3-4 months of time and staggered them so that I was constantly striving toward achieving the next big thing.

It worked great! I started to achieve a lot in my career and personal life. I was officially an “achiever!” An over-achiever, some might argue.

Surprisingly though, true happiness eluded me.

In fact, just last night I was speaking with a fellow coach about how my daily routine for the morning has gotten disrupted and I don’t feel as “tuned in” to what I’m doing each day. I began to formulate a plan to create my next 4-month goal so that I can get “back in the game,” get motivated and energized, and go achieve something!

My colleague asked me a simple question. “To what end?”

“What do you mean to what end?” I asked, confused. “To achieve more!”

He replied with calm curiosity, “But why?”

I suddenly didn’t have a great answer. He said, “It sounds like you just want to stick your finger in the socket and get juiced up again, which is understandable because it’s exciting to do and achieve something new.”

He had my attention now, and finished with, “The problem comes when we keep looking 4 months ahead toward the next ‘thing’ we want to accomplish, we forget one very important piece of the puzzle. We forget how we’re living now.”

Actually, the real problem (for me) is surrounding myself with very intelligent and insightful people that call me out on this stuff. Shoot! He was right and I knew it.

In fact, his reminder to me sounded very similar to something I read and wrote about a few months ago, The Happiness Advantage. In his book, and based on his research, author Shawn Achor concludes that most people believe that if they can just achieve that next goal (weight loss, a promotion, buying a house, etc.), that then they will be happy. But once we achieve that goal, our milestones for success get pushed further and further back. We end up chasing happiness because we believe it to be just around the corner.

So, you may be thinking (much like I was last night), that I need to take corrective action. I need to stop spinning my wheels and stop chasing moving targets. I need to focus on my life right now, in this moment. But how?

Luckily, I’ve already written about this. If you want to know what to do next, simply click here!

TGIF: Matt Leedham

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week of achievement this week. If this is your first time reading our blog, Welcome! You can read more about Velocity in the tabs above this post. If you'd like a daily dose of inspiration, like us on facebook or add us on twitter.

Today we’re going to switch it up a bit and use this format to interview Matt about accomplishing one of his major personal goals. Matt’s written a lot of stuff on this blog, so feel to look around and read more about what he thinks and feels.

Now, onto the good stuff!

The Achiever

My name is Matt Leedham, and I am a married, Yankee-loving, marathon-running, dog-owning, native New Jerseyean, who is currently a Washington DC resident, and is passionately driven to help others achieve their goals. In my dream to change the world by building a community of achievers, I co-founded Velocity Goals with my good friend and former business partner, Jaime Willis. I also work extensively with entrepreneurs across the U.S. on strategic planning, goal setting and experience sharing at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

The Goal

My goal was to finish a marathon (26.2 miles) in under 4 hours.

Why This Goal

In 2004, at the age of 26, I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. I trained hard for months, but as the race got near, I let up on the training a bit. During the race, I ran into all sorts of trouble and there were times when I just stopped. I remember limping along Rt. 110 next to the Pentagon, grabbing my hamstring with my left hand and the highway guardrail with my right hand. It wasn’t pretty. I finished the race in what I considered a disappointing time knowing my potential - 4 hours and 34 minutes.

After that race, I quit running for awhile. I later learned that it is very common for runners and endurance athletes to completely stop doing what they trained for months to do after a big race. Race day is such a high, and without having plans for an upcoming event, it’s easy to just give it up. I would run occasionally but I stopped doing what I loved on a consistent basis.

Flash forward to 2009. I knew I needed to run. I was dealing with some stressful situations at work and was generally not happy with my fitness level. So, I decided to pick another challenging event – another marathon. It was the Fall, so I looked for a race sometime in the late Winter or early Spring, so that I would be forced to train all winter. That’s important because normally I would hibernate and become dormant all winter. I found an interesting race in Austin, TX, one of my favorite cities. It was on Valentine’s Day 2010 and I thought the wife and I could enjoy a nice weekend in a fun town. Plus my family has all migrated to Houston and I figured they’d come watch the race.

The First Step

The first thing I did was register for the race and booked my plane ticket. If you pony up the cash and put an event on your calendar, it becomes VERY difficult to back out. Think about it – you would lose money, have to make a bunch of phone calls, and tell everyone that plans changed. Once I commit to something like this, it’s on. That’s it. Get out of the way because I’m making it happen.

Challenges

For those of you that live in the DC Metro area or on the East coast, you may recall the winter we had last year in 2009/2010. I survived Snowpacalypse and Snowmageddon, but running in it wasn’t easy! In addition to massive amounts of snow, we also experienced ice storms, rain, and frigid temperatures. It’s not easy to get out of your car at 6:30pm in the dark, when it’s 18 degrees and sleeting outside, especially when all you have on is a few thin layers of DryFit or CoolMax running gear.

There were also many minor injuries. I remember one night, running in a light snow. My shins felt sore right away, but I needed to run 5 miles. I kept running, and it got worse and worse. I should have stopped, but I really needed to get in this run, so I kept going. Two miles later, I couldn’t run anymore. I could barely walk. I was about a mile away from home and would have called my wife if I had access to a phone. I slowly limped home, very distraught. This was about a month before the race and I knew I was in trouble. I almost gave up here because I know how bad shin splints can be. I’ve had them before and the only way to cure them is rest. Rest was not something I had time for and I didn’t see how it was possible to keep training.

I took three days off, iced my shins constantly, stretched out as much as possible, and tried not to walk more than was necessary. On the fourth day, I tested out my shins on a quick jaunt and they seemed better. I didn’t want to push it, but I kept running as was able to stave off further injury.

Staying Motivated

Planning my weekend in Austin with my wife was helpful. We both got excited about exploring the city, going to the Expo to pick up my race packet, eating lots of good food, etc.

Also, I knew that I had to average at least a 9-minute mile pace to reach my goal. I had gotten to a point in my training where I was running 8-minute miles for over 14+ miles. Knowing that I was averaging a pace that was significantly less than what I needed to finish in under 4 hours was really motivating.

Who Helped?

My wife is amazing and supported and encouraged me the whole time. She was very understanding when my training affected our dinner plans or weekend plans. She kept me focused on the goal and I love her for it.

I also met up with a fairly casual running group called Potomac Runners. They’re a great group of people that are very passionate about running. Having that support was essential.

I knew a couple of guys in Austin who were running the race and they were really generous with their time and knowledge of the course.

Of course my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch was amazing! It helped me track my pace, distance, and heart rate. This actually came in very handy during the race when I noticed my heart rate spiking after climbing a hill. I was able to regulate and get back to where I needed to be to finish the race strong.

TGIF – Celebrate!

My goal was to finish in under 4 hours. When I crossed the finish line and looked at my watch, I welled up inside. I finished the Austin Marathon in 3 hours and 41 minutes, well under my goal time. I crushed it. Then I went over to my wife and she was so genuinely ecstatic, that I welled up again. It was actually quite emotional.

Then, my wife and I joined some Austin locals for a post-race meal. It was one of the best meals of my life. After burning 3,000 calories, I really enjoyed my cheese smothered, chicken quesadilla at one of the best Tex Mex joints in town. A couple margaritas were a nice touch too!

Advice

My advice for race day is: just keep moving. There were times that I wanted to quit. There were times when I hit the wall. There were times when I was running up a hill and was literally angry about it. There were times when I was tight, or dehydrated, or in pain. But I remembered repeating to myself, over and over again…just keep moving. It was that feeling of disappointment from the Marine Corps Marathon in 2004 that kept me focused. I figured that if I just kept moving and didn’t stop, even if I slowed to a snail’s pace, that I would finish with a better time. It turns out that I was right.

Just keep moving.

What’s Next?

I just signed up for a triathlon in August, 2011. Jaime and I are hosting a triathlon training program, specifically geared toward novice athletes that may have never completed a triathlon before. We want you to feel like I felt when I crossed that finish line. Join us!

Giving Thanks

- by Jaime Willis

"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get." Frank A. Clark, former Democratic Congressman for the State of Pennsylvania

This week is all about gratitude.

When you are nose-to-the-grindstone, working, working, working on getting your goals accomplished, it is sometimes difficult to gain perspective on how far you have come especially if you aren't near the finish line. It's hard to be grateful for what you have right now, when your eye is on what you want to have.

At the beginning of the year, I set a health goal for myself. I wanted to lose 60 pounds. I decided to employ a personal trainer to assist me, and I thought I would go boot camp style --working out seven days a week and dieting in order to get the weight off as quickly as possible -- I was aiming for 3 months (20 pounds a month) to reach my goal.

As I am sure you may have already guessed, that didn't happen. It's now the end of November and I still haven't reached my goal. I could tell you all about my setbacks -- when I stopped eating right, when I stopped obsessively going to the gym, when my attitude about this goal was grim. But I won't.

I will tell you that 11 months later, I am down 45 pounds! I am not at the finish line yet, but I am much, much closer than I was when I first made this goal last January. Imagine if I hadn't set this goal for myself? Not only would I not be this close to achieving it, but I could have spent the last 11 months going in the opposite direction and gained more weight.

So this week, I am thankful that my hard work and dedication to my goals are paying dividends. I am grateful that it has taken me this long to lose the weight because slow weight loss is more likely to be long-term weight loss. I am thankful that I can continue to work hard and know that I will reach my goal soon.

A friend of mine recently watched a marathon in which a runner collapsed literally 100 meters from the finish line and was carted away by paramedics. (You can watch the footage here). The runner in question saw my friend's video and contacted him. Although he was initially embarrassed to see his moment of weakness immortalized, the runner realized that he had done the best he could that day, and running 26.1 miles is still a huge accomplishment.

What can you be thankful for right now without waiting to reach your goal? Let us know in the comments.