Goal setting is an important aspect of performance, whether you're talking about endurance sports or life in general. Wahoo Sports Science coaches Neal Henderson and Dr. Jinger Gottschall break down the basics of setting clear, SMART goals, on and off the bike.
It's hard to plan a journey if you don't know your destination. Goal setting is an important aspect of performance, whether you're talking about endurance sports or life in general. In this episode, Wahoo Sports Science coaches Neal Henderson and Dr. Jinger Gottschall break down the basics of setting goals that aren't just clear, but SMART: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Whether you have your sights set on the podium or a new PR on the local climb, this framework will help you get there.
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Neal Henderson 0:00
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Knowledge podcast by Wahoo. I am Neal Henderson, head of Wahoo sports science.
Jinger Gottschall 0:06
And I'm Dr. Ginger Gottschall, Director of applied research. And today we are going to chat about goals!
Neal Henderson 0:14
She shoots, she scores!
Jinger Gottschall 0:16
Is that the type of goal?
Neal Henderson 0:18
I mean, I, I used to play football or soccer. I also played football. I started off with soccer feels really confusing. Is that what we're talking about? No, I think maybe we're talking about the other kind of goals, not like a net and a ball, but things that we put out there
Jinger Gottschall 0:33
into the universe that we want to achieve.
Neal Henderson 0:38
Yeah, and one of the things I often say is, it's not a goal if it's not shared with someone, otherwise, it's just a hope, just something you kind of like think in your little head, you never share with anyone, then it's just a hope it's not an actual goal. So I think something that's important for us to consider is your goal should be shared.
Jinger Gottschall 0:55
I like that. I like that put it into the universe. Definitely.
Neal Henderson 1:00
There's another pretty good quote here from a guy who is pretty above average swimming, right?
Jinger Gottschall 1:05
He's all right.
Neal Henderson 1:07
Yeah. This guy said I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even when they're uncomfortable at the time guy who said that is Michael Phelps, he won a few gold medals in swimming, said a few world records had some pretty solid accomplishments. And the thing I like about this is they shouldn't be easy, they should push you to work. Those are kind of two good concepts. But this other part is, even if they're uncomfortable at the time, it's okay to put yourself out there a little bit. And that's kind of part of this being vulnerable and setting some of those goals, especially then when you share them with others.
Jinger Gottschall 1:39
Exactly. So we've got the intensity of them, meaning that it is a challenge and that you are actually going to communicate and interact with others about it, it gives you a little bit of accountability there.
Neal Henderson 1:52
Bingo! So let's rewind a little bit. If we look at just something like definition, what is a goal? Well, you know, here's one way of looking at a goal is defined as what an individual is trying to accomplish. It's the object or aim of an action to attain a specific standard of proficiency, usually within a specified time limit.
Jinger Gottschall 2:11
Yes, and we are not the only people that talk about goals, many of the federal governing bodies specific to physical activity, exercise and performance, also utilize these as a critical part of creating behavior change. So example, the American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, or the moving medicine foundation that's in the UK, all utilize these as a must-do when they're speaking to people about what they want to accomplish, the National Institutes of Health is another one. And they state that goal setting is absolutely a must-have whenever you want to make a change.
Neal Henderson 2:52
Yep. And that's a big part of it is setting those goals is helping you basically direct what you are trying to do. So if you just want to stay, you know, static and what you're currently able to do, well, then you probably don't have many goals. Whereas if you do want to create some change, then you set some goals to be able to create progress towards that.
Jinger Gottschall 3:14
And there are these things called learning goals, where you don't have any experience in that type of goal or performance goal, where you actually have had a lot of time already dedicated to this specific thing. And then you are ready to basically up the ante. And today we're going to more focus on these performance type goals.
Neal Henderson 3:35
When we're talking about goals here, we know that they're very important, but not all goals are the same. And so a couple of things you want to think about as you're setting your goals to make them both useful and effective. There are a few things in the research about setting goals. And the ideas that we need to address are in the realm of being specific, concrete, and challenging, rather than just vague and easy to achieve. This is really a part of that in the beginning, as you start to set your goals, you have to really define them in a really good way
Jinger Gottschall 4:08
Exactly. And create a plan that is essential in terms of this undertaking, and make sure that they are actionable so that it'll keep you motivated and on track. And here we're talking about, it could be something like getting on the podium, but you can't really control what others are doing. So therefore you want to make sure that they actually have an effect that you can influence the outcome that not others will dictate the success or not. So they're based on performance. They're based on what you can do and how you train and judge the progress is all about you.
Neal Henderson 4:48
Definitely. So for me, I always think about the most important kind of goals that we set are these process-oriented goals. And so it's what helps you get towards what that net end result may be. An acronym that we often use for this. And it's called the SMART goal setting process with smart being an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and time-bound or time-sensitive.
Jinger Gottschall 5:12
So let's start with specific, an example would be writing the state championship time trial in under 60 minutes that specific, but a top result or getting first, second or third, as I mentioned before, that's not specific, that's not as much in your control. But if you're giving yourself a time goal, that's a great example of a limitation that you're putting on it.
Neal Henderson 5:35
Exactly. And that is one of those things that we're not always in control of the complete outcome, there may be situations that arise on the day with the event that you do, whether it's like, say, weather conditions, if you're doing GranFondo, and you want to do a certain kind of time, meaning you'd have to average a certain speed, well, if it's really windy, that day are extremely hot, those things are going to impact your ability to go a given pace just based on the conditions alone. And so having not a rigid outcome in everything, but having a process that leads to the best possible outcome is really what gets you there,
Jinger Gottschall 6:10
yes. And specific also will then help you modify that goal based upon the conditions that you're speaking about. Because if you said a time trial and 60 minutes, but then there was a headwind or it was particularly hot, you could basically back-calculate and modify that goal based upon the conditions. So you would still know if you're successful or not
Neal Henderson 6:32
absolutely another, you know, the next phase of things that we'll think about is this measurable aspect of the goal. So you know, if you're saying a, again, a top result really isn't anything that's truly measurable, what is top really not, that doesn't have a specific definition. So finishing in the top 5% might be something that could be more measurable, or trying to average at least 200 watts for a certain amount of time would have some bit of measurable quality to it. And so, again, we always think about these, these measures are best to be done relative to your own ability, rather than something that's dependent on what others do or don't do. Even though you know, we do have elite athletes that have a goal. You know, when we go to a world championship or an Olympic Games, in many cases, they're very specific outcome goals of achieving a medal or winning a world title,
Jinger Gottschall 7:24
right. And I think actually, you may even have some, let's go back to the word specific experience in this just recently,
Neal Henderson 7:32
definitely in Tokyo with Roland Dennis, he was a two-time world champion, leading into the individual time trial event and very much had nettle goals, and it's an outcome kind of performance. But interestingly, in the couple of days leading into the event, in talking with Rohan, he was clearly switched on to the fact of he can only control himself, he can't control what others are going to do, how fast they're going to go. He said to me said, If I execute what I'm capable of doing, it's going to be a good result. And that's what I can do. So I'm gonna stick to my process,
Jinger Gottschall 8:10
right, that just gave me the chills actually, to be at that level, and to understand that his finish may not be a podium finish, and he could still feel completely confident about what he put out there that day, really humbling to think that that was his thought process. And just
Neal Henderson 8:28
looking at how that race ended up, you know, he did finish and in the metal position in the bronze medal position, he was two seconds out of the silver medal, but less than one second out of no metal. And it's one of those things, it was a process, he was believed may be in fifth place with just like six or 7k to go. And the goal was to be finishing strong, there was a good bit of uphill leading in that last bit, and he was able to execute his plan, his process, which led to then that outcome. That's amazing.
Jinger Gottschall 8:59
The next letter of our SMART acronym is an achievable This is a tricky one because actually is dependent a bit upon personality to the overall theme, though, is that it is challenging. However, you do have the ability to attain it. So it will take work and dedication. But it's possible. Yep,
Neal Henderson 9:23
that will take some time. Yeah, it's not possible right now, but it is possible in the future if you do the work.
Jinger Gottschall 9:31
Exactly. So a tricky one there. So that may take a bit more time and a little bit of communication with those around you to make sure that the goal is the right amount of challenge.
Neal Henderson 9:42
Moving into the next one we get to our which is relevant. And so do you care about these goals? Are they your goals? Are there some goals that sometimes others project on you and so in reality, for a goal to be really effective, it needs to be your own goal as a coach, I can't tell you the number of times that athletes, you know, will ask, What do you think I should do? I said, Hey, the goal is yours, you need to own it, you need to define it, I can help give you ideas within that, and sometimes say, within a certain amount of time, like, Is this possible to do in the next two months? No, but in six months or next year, yes, I can help craft that. But you have to have more of that goal, you're, you know, the athlete has to develop their own goals, right? When they're letting someone else set the goal, the buy-in is sometimes more difficult, if not impossible, or it may not be again, in that what they're gonna care about, what you care about, is what you're going to be able to affect and commit to. And so this relevance in having them be the goal, the things that you want to achieve, are really important to consider,
Jinger Gottschall 10:49
right. And the final letter is t, which is time-bound. And this goes along with what Neil was just speaking about the coach, the mentor, the trainer, could help you modify the goal, based upon time, and what is realistic and achieving. But it is actually good to have again, we go back to a specific amount of time in this specific goal. In the last week, we actually did a cool exercise on the system forum and asked people about their goals and goal settings, since it's a new year. And we actually have a few of them that Neil is going to evaluate a bit and tell us if they are following this smart protocol.
Neal Henderson 11:31
Yeah, so we got a lot of responses here. And I'm just gonna pull out a few of them. So first one is, as the user said, they want to retrain outdoor running from zero kilometers up to five kilometers by March, and specifically the first week of March. So there's a lot of good things going on here. There was specific from the fact that they're not running, they want to get to a certain measurable amount five kilometers. They want to do it by the first week of March. And so that's also following a lot of these things. So specific, yes. Measurable, yes. achievable, building up to 5k. Yes. If they said, building up to doing 20-kilometer long run well, and that amount of time, maybe not. But in that zero to five, yes, very achievable. And relevant. Again, they chose this, this is what they want to do. And it's time-bound. So you don't have until that first week of March oh, five, boom. The next one is another user who wants to swim 100-yard pace at 152 per 100 yards from their current level of one minute and 59 seconds per 100 yards in 12 months. So again, nailed I think pretty much across the board here we have specific swimming a from their current pace to their goal pace. achievable it's seven seconds per 100 yards. So it's not you know, shooting for the moon not way over overboard. Relevant. Exactly. And time bomb, they want to do that within 12 months, I would say as a coach, I think you could do their due that in three months.
Jinger Gottschall 13:05
Oh, little modification, therefore,
Neal Henderson 13:08
I would bump that up, for sure. And within 12 months, I mean, man, I would be shocked if this person couldn't get it down to say even a 140 or 145 if they made a significant dedication to the effort and swimming we know his technique technique technique of personalized Can
Jinger Gottschall 13:25
you see in the water, you are getting some free coaching here this week. Yeah, so you
Neal Henderson 13:30
can bump up that goal. So that's to the third one is increased lean body mass weight to somewhere between 122 and 127 pounds, which they're currently at 118 pounds of lean mass. And they want to do that over eight months. So again, we got a lot of specificity here going on, it is measurable. One thing to keep in mind though, with the measurement here, is if we're looking at body composition, we can see some really wildly varying values depending on what kind of tool somebody use. Great point, the best one is a DEXA. In terms of truly measuring that lean body weight, right decks are a pretty expensive technology comparatively not typically available to everyone. And so more often we're using something like either underwater weighing, which again, still has a fair amount of technical demand and is not super readily available. And then we have
Jinger Gottschall 14:29
some of the bioimpedance measures
Neal Henderson 14:33
bioimpedance. And also skin folds which they have a lot of air. So with the change that they're looking for, they have a pretty broad range of increases that they're looking for. And it's somewhere between three and 7%, which to be honest, all of those measures have a degree of accuracy in that range. So it's a little tricky. They'll probably be able to see that kind of change if they're making adjustments to their physical activity. So to gain lean muscle mass they're going to be needing to do Some sort of strength activity, they're going to have to have some sort of diet manipulation, making sure they have adequate energy to be able to build muscle tissue, it takes energy, not just protein, but it also takes carbohydrate. So pay attention to those things. But this is within the realm of possible, yes, and it fits the SMART acronym here from beginning to end.
Jinger Gottschall 15:20
It was so fun, a little bit of on-the-spot evaluation of some real goals that were submitted to us. Because we are the Sports Science Team here at Oahu, I just wanted to take a moment and talk about what the recent research is saying in terms of four critical mediators of successful goals. And they go along with a smart principle, which is really cool. The first one is chosen. And that means that the goal set or it must be their choice to his effort, that it does need to have enough challenge that it causes you to put some energy and intensity into it, it also must be something that requires persistence, or consistency. And I think this is actually for me, this is one of the most important if you can build a habit and create something that is regular in your life. And that's going to be more achievable and realistic. And the last is that you already have some of the existing strategies to make it happen. So it's choice, effort, persistence, and strategies, which I think are four cool things that go along with what we talked about in a smart principle,
Neal Henderson 16:33
definitely, and there are a few other elements that we do think are important to be part of this entire process with setting your goals and what kind of requirements you need to have to be able to accomplish those. So one is actually that word ability. I mean, this is a combination of things. And it could be cognitive or physical, it's not one or the other. In some cases, it's also a bit of both and cognitive, really just having knowledge and understanding of factors that are going to be required for that success. And then the physical that might be something, you know, if we think like aerobic capacity, so developing that aerobic ability and more, knowing how to move your body during a strength training type of move so that you don't actually injure yourself would be, you know, a physical ability that you would need to be able to accomplish a task.
Jinger Gottschall 17:24
And this goes right along with the second one, which is commitment, you've already wanted to have some of the experience in this, both cognitively and physically in order to make it happen. So that means achievement is going to be dependent upon past experience. The third thing we're going
Neal Henderson 17:43
to think about here is feedback. So you need to be able to both receive and understand the feedback that you get as you're moving towards those goals. And so just setting a goal is not necessarily the only thing you need to be checking up on along the way. A lot of times it's self-monitored, sometimes you might do some sort of task where somebody else may give you feedback as well. You want to make sure that they have relevant experience and understanding of what you're trying to do, though, to be able to give effective feedback. That's really what coaches are, in many cases, it's providing relevant, actionable feedback,
Jinger Gottschall 18:18
right. And you actually did that a little bit. When we did that goal exercise a few moments ago, you were actually providing some feedback that would help them along the way or even make that modification based upon time. The last one is resources, ensuring that you actually have access to the equipment that's required to attain the goal and or the ability to travel to a potential event that you have the social support, I think that's one that we don't think about a lot as being a resource, but knowing that those around you are actually going to boost you up and be behind you in terms of achieving that goal is huge.
Neal Henderson 18:57
Definitely one other thing to think then here, when we have sometimes external factors, things like stress, anxiety, pressure can rear their head if these goals that we set are too lofty are out of our reach, or if other things start to come up from the time that we set our initial goal and we do not make an adjustment to those and when that task just becomes so far feeling removed from where we're currently at. It will make us more anxious and have potentially a lot of times negative feedback in terms of we may stop committing to that goal if we don't make an adjustment and making an adjustment and adaptation is actually perfectly fine and actually really recommended. I mean having a plan is great. But being able to adapt and adjust based on the reality of your situation is even better.
Jinger Gottschall 19:45
Huge, huge. So be honest with yourself and don't beat yourself down about it be open and flexible to making change. That is our goals setting session and just a couple of summary points to end This session is to check out the SMART theory, SMART goals.
Neal Henderson 20:06
You need to commit to the work that is required to accomplish your goals especially you know those goals that are set out there at a high level. Remember that consistency is probably the most important thing
Jinger Gottschall 20:18
is key, as well as reflection and assessment. Make sure that you have both an internal dialogue with yourself as well as ask others what's possible in order to get your desired outcome.
Neal Henderson 20:31
And finally, remain positive, and having some tools that you can rely on some of the mental training types of things that will help you stay positive and moving forward always is going to be beneficial for you. Yes, head up, keep moving forward, even though sometimes it may not feel like you're moving as fast as you want. Just keep moving forward. That's how that's what's gonna help you get to where you want to go.
Jinger Gottschall 20:54
Yes, keep on moving on. Well, that is it for another episode, we hope that you're able to take away some useful info on goal setting to make you a better endurance athlete. Thanks for listening to The Knowledge podcast by Wahoo