Ed. Note: This is a guest post by our admin guru, Kris!
One week into 2009, how are your New Year’s Resolutions going?
I’m guessing they are still flying high on the priority list and the list may still be growing since the Holiday gluttony and the gift giving frenzy are still pretty fresh. There may even still be some remnants of the eggnog lingering. I just caught a Top-Ten-List of New Years Resolutions (NYR’s) for the general population. It goes something like this:
#1 Spend more time with family.
#2 Fitness related gains.
#3 Lose weight.
#4 Eliminate a vice like smoking or…
#5 Drinking.
#6 Enjoy more life.
#7 Get out of debt.
#8 Learn something new.
#9 Help others and…
#10 Get organized.
Coach Patrick started a thread in our Forum for our members to share their NYR’s. While not all of our members posted I took a tally (and a bit of journalistic interpretation below) on how a group of EN triathletes compared with our top ten.
#1. Learn Something New – This is really based on an assumption on my part. Most of our 400+ and growing members come to EN to ‘Learn’ something new about training and racing a long distance triathlon. So you could say that learning something new is on most of our members priority list for the 2009 season.
#2. Help others – The number of posts in the forum support the notion that “connecting” and helping others is part of the game plan for 2009 for our members. Our forum is active with members sharing their experience, and supporting each other, even giving each other that much sought after – accountability for the coming year. The Coaches continue to develop helpful learning tools at a back-breaking speed. You could argue that their middle name is “help”.
#3. Fitness related – OK this is, as you could have guessed, the true number one NYR’s of our members. I was just trying to throw you off with the first two. Endurance Nation members are performance-oriented athletes so it’s not surprising that most posted some form of fitness – performance related goal for 2009. They are either looking to get faster overall or for a specific leg of the sport, improve a weakness, or just be more accountable to the workout.
#4. Family Time – Another big one for our members. Long distance triathlon training is time-demanding. While family/friends/co-workers signs-on in support often that entails carrying the burden of responsibilities while the athlete trains solo. Even training with our favorite group or training buddies can go to low priority when we have specific workouts to get in and get done in the allotted time. We had so many members shatter personal records in 2008 – and some are looking to step-back from a all-fit focus in 2009. Some of those folks list ‘do something really cool with the kids’ or ‘support their significant other for the coming year’ as a top priority for the coming year.
#5. Enjoy More Life – I think this also comes from so many members having a solid 2008. With some many great performances, came a great deal of focus, sacrifice and dedication to the goals. These members are looking to just ‘go out and play’ this year.
#6. Body Composition Goals – This is one that’s just forever in the revolving door even in a group of highly fit individuals. Just goes to show that in order to be super fit – you have to be nutritionally conscious all the time. One member summed it up nicely with her goal to “geek out over nutrition and body composition” for 2009.
#7. Get Organized - This is another interpretation on my part since long distance triathletes are generally very organized individuals. Yet as time-managed as we are priorities get shuffled. We can often have weeks where the training falls to the bottom of the pile and so we view this “forced” time off training as recovery. As long as the injury doesn’t get to us we plug along and think this works. Some have learned that this isn’t quite true – the injury bites anyway. Others …may look back after over the past year and wonder what level of performance they never discovered because they never gave “Recovery” it’s full appreciation. So another common goal for many at EN is taking those days off, physically and mentally, and giving recovery techniques face time. One member committing to 30-60 more minutes of sleep a night. (Good one! I went to my list and added that one.)
#8. Get Out of Debt - There was no sharing of financial spread sheets…or anything like that…there is interest in not engaging in unnecessary tri-related expenses. Coach P goes a bit into this in his post “The Triathlon Performance Gap.” This includes goals in gaining some self-reliance when it came to bike mechanics. Begs the question “Would Norman Stadler be $100K richer if he’d been able to change a that tire in 2005?”
As for 9 and 10 of eliminating a vice. The only 2009 Member goal I can find that comes close for this one…one member mention a goal of reducing the number of posts they make in the forum 2009 (ha!). No one ‘seconded’ the notion so I’m guess that it was added for comic relief! I guess I could add something similar like “I ” need to reduce my silence in the forum but I don’t think anyone would ‘second’ that one either. Ah but, NYR’s are usually gone by the wayside by March. If you don’t believe me just watch the crowd level at your local health club OR track Chocolate sales! (Chocolate sales usually skyrocket in February.) The exception to this rule ? Well, members of Endurance Nation, of course!
Cheers to 2009!
Kris
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