“Secret” training, goals and races
Why do you think some people choose to have “secret” training, goals and races? Have you ever?
And really, what does “secret” even mean? That you didn’t mention it on your blog or broadcast it to the world? What says that we even have to share everything anyway?
A few people made comments to me about the On the Run 5K that implied they thought I was planning to run it all along, but was keeping it a secret. Nah, it was a decision I made the day before when I remembered the race existed, and realized it fit in my schedule. I wasn’t going to update Facebook or write a blog post about it after deciding.
But! I have kept a race secret before! Bobbi and I did a November marathon in 2012 as a “last effort” of the year for her. We didn’t tell anyone to keep some pressure off, and in case we blew up, um… which we did. But we still both wrote about it on our blogs.
The thing is, I am not really the type of blogger to hype up the races I do, since most of them are for fun, not a goal time. You can always see a list of my upcoming races here, but you’re not going to see me write a ton ton about them. I will mention it if it’s a goal race, a race I’m looking forward to running with friends or family, a sponsored race I need to write about, a race I am fundraising for, a race I am trying to decide to do, or the Wisconsin Half Marathon… but some races I am signed up for and may not even talk about it until after I do them. Maggie gave me a free race entry for Saturday and I plan to make the race part of my long run. I wouldn’t have mentioned that until after this weekend, except, I am writing this post about it now! Ha ha.
I am kind of weird about my “goals” for racing. I rarely set any. And when I do, I try not to make a big deal out of them. And when I don’t meet them… I am not really upset.
Broadcasting goals doesn’t seem to help me achieve them. In fact, it makes me sick of thinking about them. It makes me not want to work on them… in the rare case that I even do to start with.
So… yeah. I know it helps others, but I am not sure why it makes me neurotic. Maybe it’s along the same lines of why I can’t use a food journal – just thinking about it all the time makes me CRAZY.
This post seems kind of out of the blue, right? In all honestly, I was on GOMI a few weeks ago and people were talking about how a blogger isn’t honest with their training recaps, then has these “amazing” races. So, they are saying the blogger lies about how hard they train, then really kicks butt at races, to look like a badass, I guess? I have no idea if that is true. But it got me thinking about all of this. I am completely transparent in my training logs, but I suppose it may seem to some like I am trying to keep races under wraps, just because I don’t mention them that often!
Themocracy
How dare you not tell everyone everything you do, or are planning to do, or even not planning to do but do anyway! How can you call yourself a blogger?
Seriously though, I think everyone is different in the way they present their training/racing. I tend to talk more on my blog about upcoming races, but don’t give lots of training details. I’m like the opposite of you! hah.
Also, there is a big difference between “lying” about training/racing vs. just not mentioning it. It’s not like you’re saying “hey guys, I’m not running any races this weekend” and then you go out and do one. I think that particular blogger actually gives training recaps each week and purposely leaves things out. Why would someone do that?
Sigh. I know. I am not really a blogger. Maybe that is why my computer restarted and ate that post Sunday night. PUNISHMENT!!!
So you are saying… we perfectly complement one another?
True dat. I am not lying. Just not mentioning every single damn thing I do. I am not sure why someone WOULD lie. 🙁
I think I experience the opposite – having awesome training logs, and crappy races. I should really work on presenting myself differently 😉
Sometimes I’ll see a race recap from you and think I probably just forgot about a race you were doing. I never think you’re “hiding” races though. And if you are, WHO CARES??? Being accountable about goals helped me when I was in super weight loss mode, but I think I’ve been a little less public about any goals I may have, since I haven’t been reaching a lot lately. It’s frustrating enough to not hit your goal, but then to have to blog about it? Blah.
You know, I give you my schedule WHY CAN’T YOU REMEMBER IT? Jk. You are not one of the people who said something to me about that race. And really… why the eff would people remember everything I do? Ha ha. But to act like I was hiding it was odd.
Anyway.
Do you think not sharing is making you not reach, a little? What do you think would help you reach them?
Probably, but as it stands, I don’t really have any major goals right now! I guess I was pretty open about my fundraising goals, and I did find that sharing that (constantly, LOL) helped me to reach and totally overachieve on them.
My last running-related goal was the half, and we know the weather made it impossible to reach any sort of time goal. I’m still evaluating whether or not I want a concrete time goal for GR, other than beat my Women’s half time. Which seems impossible to not do.
I’d vote for just beating the last time! 🙂
No secret races or hidden goals for me. Actually, *nothing* about me is hidden or secret, so that shouldn’t surprise anyone… I find speaking about my goals helps make them “more real” and more achievable, but then again I realize that I am a freak and/or a mutant.
Why anyone would lie about training or goals is a mystery to me. One reason I’ve always liked running is that one cannot “fake it”. Talent only takes you so far. Your race times (over time) reflect your training one way or another. There is no lie that running will not expose in time.
Running can also be very personal, so I totally understand why someone would want to keep a race “secret”. Sometimes our friends mean well, but end up putting added pressure on us. Sometimes we just want to be ALONE or run with one special person. I think that’s so cool that you and Bobbi ran a secret marathon last year!
I was going to add something about that – you can’t fake what you do! And when you share training logs like I do, anyone can see what I am up to and get whatever idea they want of where I am heading/how I might perform. 😉
LOL, you are not a freak/mutant. In THAT regard, anyway! 🙂
Drive safe!
I make sure I complain as much as possible in my training so that when i do in my race, it won’t look surprising.
I float my goal times around every once in awhile, but always put my goal for the training day up front. I post more for my own good to look back to than for anyone else. I know that no matter what happens in the race, the community is very supportive, so the hardest critic will be myself.. and maybe I need myself to yell at me since nobody else will?
You always bring up the best points! I think some people get caught up in what others think, but we ARE our hardest critics – no one will EVER care as much as we do!
Secret races FTW!! Or…not…haha! If anything, that race taught me that it’s not always the pressure that makes me blow up. But it was still nice to NOT have that added to the experience.
And even tho the race sucked, I still had the best time 🙂
This year, I don’t have any secret goals or races. In fact, I don’t have ANY goals or races.
But I’m already thinking about next year…
There are LOTS of things that can make us blow up! Buah ha ha! I was very happy to be out there with YOU 🙂
Xaarlin and I are already talking about 50Ks in the spring… did Nathan get back to you?!
Goals stress me out – lol. So, if I have them I keep them to myself. I’m only racing against myself anyways, so it doesn’t really even matter! 🙂
Do people actually secretly train and lie about it? Weird. I like to post about my training because I like to look back at it and I think it can be helpful for people to see that not everyone can run a marathon every weekend and recover quickly. Most people train for months for a longer distance race. Posting so much can definitely be a double edged sword though because like you, if I don’t meet my goals, I’m not going to be super upset. I actually really like training and I’d run as much as I do now whether or not I was training for a race. I just like to try out new plans and see how they work and it’s easier to see progress by comparing times.
I don’t know! I also think that would be weird. And sad 🙁
I was running more in the winter than now when I actually have a marathon on the schedule! I just love to run run run. You are way better about following a plan than me though! 🙂
I primarily run races for fun and announcing goals ahead of time makes it less fun. The few times I have set ambitious goals and make them public, I felt like there was way too much pressure on me. When really this is silly. I am recreational runner. If I don’t meet an arbitrary goal I set for myself- who really cares?
Isn’t that funny? Because no one does really care, but us! Or at least, it only means the most to us, and since we race against ourselves, and really doesn’t even matter, then!
I have a best friend (not a blogger) who doesn’t mention things like buying a new house, car or getting getting baptized. He just kind of leaves these out of conversation until later (or he posts it posts in on Facebook). I’m worried he’ll be the guy who’ll die in surgery and everyone will all be “I didn’t know he was sick”.
So I’m off topic from running, but it’s kind of odd the things some people keep to themselves.
Off topic is good. 😉 I know a few people like this. And we know people who keep health stuff to themselves and it’s like, uh, we’d liked to have known you were going in for surgery? Some people are strangely … private. LOL
I had so many people who were surprised that I ran the full marathon at Illinois in April because I wasn’t out there broadcasting it from every pulpit I have. I thought that was amusing 🙂 I guess when we blog people think that we’re going to talk about EVERYTHING. There are lots of things I don’t blog about!
I do tend to be someone who shares things publicly after the fact in some instances. But I try to give back story about them so people aren’t thinking it came completely out of the blue!
I remember that! And then I was surprised because I knew! But then again, it would be bad if I didn’t know 😉
I guess add me to camp “I don’t care” what anyone’s training looks like or how they’re presenting it. I love what Pete said: running will expose you over time.
Far be it from me to judge anyone who puts their goals/races out there or who chooses to keep them private.
I don’t have any secret races. I don’t race a ton so anytime I do have one coming up I am so excited that I want to talk nonstop about it. I pretty much always will have a goal, sometimes I broadcast it and sometimes it’s a secret that I will talk about after the fact.
Something to think about: Are the same people who are mad at bloggers who run faster than their broadcasted goals happy when that same blogger finishes a race slower than their broadcasted goal?
Probably, I assume people who can’t be happy for others are happy when they “fail.”
Agree. Sad, but probably true. Anyway, luckily I set most of my PRs pre-blogging. I broke my half marathon PR by 14 minutes in a race that I ran so fast it completely shocked even me. My pre-blogging readers would have been livid! 🙂
LOL, I don’t think you have any hateful readers! The CRB community seems to be very supportive! 🙂
I used to be very self-conscious about publicizing my goals and my race times, especially if I didn’t meet my goals. But now I don’t really care. We all run these races for different reasons, and there are a whole slew of things that can substantially affect our running, both positively and negatively, on any given day. A lot of these factors are completely out of our control, too. So whatever. But I know that image can be very important, especially for some of what I will just call the “big-brand” bloggers who are literally being compensated to uphold that image!
I kept my Ironman secret for a week because I needed to digest it and come to my own terms with it. I was going to wait until after the half Ironman to mention it, but then there were a couple facebook groups I wanted to join and decided I’d take the support I could get. I think talking about races holds me accountable and makes me work more for it.
That is interesting – so you announced it since you knew people would see you “liking” or joining those groups?
I was given a free marathon race entry in July and didn’t mention it until a few weeks ago. LOL. We don’t have to say things right away. Or ever! 🙂 But it’s good to share if it holds you accountable and makes you work harder.
Well…I know which blogger you’re speaking of since I can’t keep myself of GOMI… 🙂
I think a big part of the frustration with blogger’s hiding/lying about training is that it’s dishonest to readers who are looking to train for a similar race. It gives an incorrect perspective about what it really takes to complete a big race like that.
I don’t think it’s a big deal to hide races. If you don’t want to share, it’s nbd, but it’s pretty inappropriate to lie about training. Share all or none. Just my thought.
Ahh, yes. It is really misleading, especially if you are searching for training plans online or something! That is not something I would do, but I think a lot of people look up to those big bloggers.
Ah, I want to know who this blogger is!!
I don’t get all up in arms about “secret” races because I typically think that bloggers don’t have an obligation to share anything they don’t want to online. I guess it would kind of annoy me though if it seemed like they were doing it just for congratulatory comments though.