Targets

Targets are funny things which don't always inspire people to greater performance.  It depends on your mind set.  This morning I knew I had a big swim but rather than look at the totality of the target I stuck with the breakdown; 300m warm up, 100m fast, 3 x 500m, 3 x 400m, 2 x 300m, 100m warm down - all against the clock.  It is natural to count the laps and in the first 500m my mind started thinking, "well that's 6 lengths only 4 more to go but then it tried to work out the total lengths I had to complete the total task.  This doesn't work for me because it would tire me out and in the end, what good would that thinking do anyway?
So I forced that though to the back of my head and focused on the task in hand; finishing the first 500m.  Then I started the next stage and by approaching the swimming this way I performed extremely well (for me).  It was only after completing all the small tasks that I totalled the swim which was of course 3,800m.  Had I entered the pool thinking about the magnitude of the total I don't think I would have performed so well.  So when faced with a stretching target, break it down into manageable pieces and enjoy yourself!