Taking a Systems or Goal Approach for Achievement

Lately I've been maximizing time listening to podcasts while doing work around the house or spinning on the rollers. I came across some gems from a recent edition in the Tim Ferriss interview with Scott Adams. It's worth a listen if you like long-form interviews and have a couple hours to spare.


Anyways they discussed a Systems vs. Goal concept to achieving objectives. I thought about how I interact and use this with differing athletes in varied situations.  It's meaningful and everyone is different, hence why any coach shouldn't have a cookie cutter approach in this area.

Director sportif at UCI race reviewing race objective

Let's dig down a little and define how this can be useful as an athlete.  Let's say you're trying to improve your threshold and assuming your current level of fitness and training status you need 30 minutes of threshold work repeated twice per week.

A goal based approach would be to set Tuesday and Friday as your threshold "Goal" workout days.  Then you'd need to establish your other training around these goal days to best support your chance to achieve the objective.

A systems based approach may be riding 5-6 days per week and doing the threshold work as it fits.  Instead of defining specific days you must complete objective,  you approach each workout with the thought, "if I have good legs today, I'll knock the out the work."

What's the advantages and disadvantages of each?  Hopefully you find this helps you know when to set a goal or system approach, because there can be ideal times for both.  Or simply if one method is better for your approach as an athlete.

Here are a few arguments for and against the Goal approach, as I play the devil's advocate.

• Pro - Goals require you to prioritize an exact objective. Creates a "Today is the day to perform." attitude.  In essence, this approach should help you prepare both physically and mentally.  For example, eating a snack 90 minutes prior & keeping your hydration in check on the given day so you are fueled for the effort all while going into it thinking "I've got to execute."
• Con - Conversely this requisite to execute can create pressure to perform, thus leaving a chance to fail.  Which failing may not be the worse thing, but that's another topic all together. Like what if your morning meeting or project ran long at work ran and you didn't drink anything since your 2nd cup of coffee and you are trying to hit the workout on lunch. Or you were up with your kiddo having nightmares but your morning trainer pain cave session is being challenged with the necessity for more sleep.  You may be less than physically (dehydrated, under fed, need of sleep) which can lead to mental questioning of "I'm not prepared because of X so how can I nail this."  

• Pro - The goal may force you unnecessarily push your limits.  Pushing your limits is often good but unnecessary is key here.  Let's say if you go into the session over-tired, over-stressed, and just sub-par, then it may force you deeper into a stress pit.  Especially if you don't achieve the goal!  Many athletes and coaches unfortunately only monitor training stress.  When in actuality all the stress can add up to push you over the edge.  C'mon nobody should be snippy with their kids or short with their wife because the combination of a bike ride, sloppy nutrition and a challenging day at work!
• Con - A goal may be Limiting your potential. Yes that's right, just opposite from above, you may have more to give than what your goal presents.  Like if your weeks goal was 60 min of total threshold work split between 2 days, but you were capable of two 40 min sessions (80 minutes total) or even a third 30 min session (90 minutes total for the week) then you'd be selling yourself short for what's possible.  Now that doesn't mean that you always push past a proper training progression or periodization, but sometimes that feedback/reflection can help you and hopefully your coach tailor the plan for a more advanced progression. Thus a better performance outcome.  

And now taking the plusses and minuses of the Systems approach.

• Pro - Allows you to Capitalize on having a good day by allowing flexibility.  It's similar to a slang I heard growing up. "get'n while the gettings good", meaning take advantage of a good thing.  I think it was used in context like when we found a good fishing hole for bass, making money cutting trees after a hail storm, or helping people move when a new big business created an population influx. Anyways, if you'd scheduled a rest day but you hop on and feel like a champ; the question arises, should you waste that feeling?  Often I say go for it unless you are tapering and thus you don't want to waste your "good day" for training when you want those legs for a race. It reminds me of the skit from Big Daddy where they waste the good surprise on Sonny. 
• Con - Some may delay facing the objective, thinking they'll have a better day later.  Thus potentially never accomplishing anything.  For example, if you don't prioritize the importance of the objective to you and things keep snowballing in the opposing direction, then you may just keep missing the boat.   By the end of the week you may have not hit any of the defined quality.  That's no good! 

• Pro - Promotes Tuning into your body, thus improving on knowing yourself as an athlete. You start to develop patterns for feeling good and why you might be feeling bad.  And hopefully the bad days become less and less with the consistency and self-reflection contained in the process. Like him or not, Lance had a great quote stating,  "I don't have any more bad days. I have good days and I have great days." 
• Con - This approach can Promote mediocrity.  Consistency can be a great, but if you aren't good at tuning into your body then you may not get the quality or subsequent rest.  Meaning you may have too many days just taxing enough to your system to leave you just unable to ever feel good enough to go for the objective.  Many thrive on this because you are consistent but you never really see your true potential. 

This application is how I related it to coaching and performance, but there are many other applications.  One of which was a systems approach to nutrition that Adams also discussed.  It's worth considering to educate yourself so you can make better choices vs depending on will telling yourself you can have something.  It's like the saying, Missing the forest for the trees, if you focus on what you have to do and only that, then you may miss the bigger picture.  

I hope this helps you reflect on what method may work for you as an athlete or in everyday life for that matter.  And as always, I believe having a coach on your side to offer an objective perspective is extremely valuable.  So look me up at www.mathenyendurance.com and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram if you need someone in your corner.

Seize and Conquer in a "Like" and "Share" Time

I finally came to the realization of something in the past couple days that has been building over the past year.  It all revolves around the way our society now operates of being able to see so dramatically into the lives of one another through social media.

You can literally see what all your "Friends" are doing day to day even if in another state, follow your favorite stars and share all the amazing work of the professionals you aspire to be.  And yet you don't actually have to DO anything besides clicking like or share!

You are (or can be) sooooo connected and yet still be farther detached than we ever have been as a community.

Don't get me wrong, I use these social mediums frequently, maybe without such savvy as some, but they do serve a purpose.  You can reach large groups of people quicker than ever.  Create something viral, a following, or even get your message out.  Needless to say that bottom line can be positive, negative or somewhere in-between, but it's getting it out there.

Now getting to the point, I recently used a Facebook event for a Strength Training for Cyclist presentation and demonstration that I hosted for our local COS Racing team.  It was great being able to see the couple handfuls of locals who were "Interested", "Coming" or just no response while sending out updates to the attendees.

The striking thing was I got an RSVP from a friend and former coached athlete living in Denver, Teddy Gutshall.  He's the "Seize and Conquer", the model social presence in this scenario.  Don't get me wrong, I hopefully put together a good presentation with some interaction setting goals and forcing the participant to reflect, all ending with a hands-on circuit that we were able to run through together in a friends private gym.  But I was expecting only local, so to have Teddy drive 2 hours round trip for a 1 hour session was humbling to say the least.



He showed up in his teacher work attire which happens to be going the extra mile with classy bow tie laid upon a Colorado chic palate of dark khakis and plaid shirt.  I thanked him for coming down and he made the statement that Facebook events make it so easy to jump on attending varied events and happening like this.  When I made the comment that I see just the opposite; people have a social presence, make comments, show "web" interest from behind their digital devices, but then never act upon actually attending or making a real social presence.

I'm thankful for this and as I look back upon following Teddy over the past year including when we worked him up for his completion of the Dirty Kanza 200 in June, he's done nothing but DO!  He disclosed that that's how he found out about DK200 and signed up.  He's one of the spearheads of a fun group of friends that embark on yearly outings of biking, beers, & outdoors that they refer to as the DST, or the Dirty South Tour.  They are in their 8th year of having a blast driving cross country from the hoodoos of Utah to the canopied trail and roots of Pisgah in NC.  And on top of that whenever schools out for summer, he loads up the car and embarks on every adventure he can find outside of the group of friends that can get together for those 1-2 weeks each year.  He ok rolling solo to seek adventure and I respect that.  He's living each day for the moment and actually acting on the things that most everyone else is just "liking" and living vicariously through.

Keep it up Teddy!