High Performer – No Matter What
One way or another Isabelle Kennedy will succeed. We all face obstacles. How we face them determines our paths.
Isabelle, a fifth year graduate student and Captain of the Boston College cross country team, approached me about cross training for swimming.
“After being injured for a long time, I was having trouble setting new, realistic goals for my performance,” she said. Her injury at the time was a sacral stress fracture.
I knew Isabelle would have no trouble managing a good cross training goal. She has had a lot of experience with injuries, and a lot of experience succeeding in running despite challenges. Isabelle has been training all her life around one major setback: Cystic Fibrosis, a disease which can lead to compromised lung function* (see note below).
While that has often represented a challenge in her athletic career, Isabelle has always prevailed. Her running career includes tremendous races throughout high-school-, and college (personal bests - cross country 6K: 19:51, track 5k: 16:20, 10K 34:08).
And she’s had those successes because she knows how to train through injury – to find new avenues to keep her goals in sight.
So in December when she couldn’t run, she saw me at the BC pool (we knew each other through the the BC track team and The Runner in Red project).
“I was feeling directionless without my performance goals for running, and struggling to maintain my motivation. Right now I am using the M.O.V.E.! strategies to create meaningful cross training goals to keep my motivation up.
“Before starting M.O.V.E.! I thought I knew how to set goals for my performance, but even in the first session working with Cathy, as we were going through setting short-term goals, it became obvious that M.O.V.E.! brings so much more into the picture. I realized that what I thought were specific, achievable goals were far too vague, and I came to understand that the reason so many of my previous goals were unsuccessful was because I did not plan for obstacles I might face.
“I realized that setting goals is a skill that needs to be practiced. Through the process of using the M.O.V.E.! method, I hope to not only reach my athletic goals, but also to get better at goal setting.”
Planning out detailed workouts in advance of the week motivated Isabelle. “Particularly when it comes to cross training, my training plan is often solely up to me, and lacks a lot of the discipline and planning of my regular training schedule. When I don’t have a planned schedule, I find I spend a lot of time procrastinating my workouts and feeling indecisive about the best way to cross train.
“However, after going through a weekly plan with Cathy and scheduling the types of workouts I would do each day, I found that it was much easier for me to feel motivated and get my workout done efficiently. I was much more excited about my training sessions because of the structure. I realized that a major reason why I find maintaining motivation during periods of cross training stems from the lack of accountability and structure compared to my typical training plan. Reintroducing this element made a huge difference for me, and I learned that having a training plan is an essential tool for my success.”
So what is Isabelle’s goal? On December 18 she swam 500 yards in 8:53 . Her “A” goal - swim it under 8:40-8:43; her “B” goal swim it under 8:43-8:46; and her “C” goal is to swim it under 8:46-8:49.
And what has she learned so far related to goal setting, training, swimming, cross training, or training through injury (any 1 of these points) this week?
"Working with Cathy and the M.O.V.E.! method has not only helped with goal setting and motivation for cross training, but also with my form," she said. "In our sessions, Cathy’s attentive focus and critical feedback has helped me improve my swimming form to meet my goals. She noticed where I was not completing my stroke fully and wasting energy lifting my head out of the water to breathe. By helping me make adjustments to my form to address these issues, our sessions have helped me improve the efficiency of my form and streamline my strokes, improving my times. This has been just as helpful as the training plans when it comes to reaching my set goals. This experience demonstrated that focusing on the craft of your chosen task deserves just as much attention as the training plan, as both are critical components of improvement. "
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic lung disease that primarily affects a person’s lungs. The disease stems from a mutation in the gene that causes a misuse of salt in various parts of the body. As such, CF can also affect digestion. More (scientific) info:https://www.cff.org/What-is-CF/About-Cystic-Fibrosis/
One way or another Isabelle Kennedy will succeed. We all face obstacles. How we face them determines our paths.
Isabelle, a fifth year graduate student and Captain of the Boston College cross country team, approached me about cross training for swimming.
“After being injured for a long time, I was having trouble setting new, realistic goals for my performance,” she said. Her injury at the time was a sacral stress fracture.
I knew Isabelle would have no trouble managing a good cross training goal. She has had a lot of experience with injuries, and a lot of experience succeeding in running despite challenges. Isabelle has been training all her life around one major setback: Cystic Fibrosis, a disease which can lead to compromised lung function* (see note below).
While that has often represented a challenge in her athletic career, Isabelle has always prevailed. Her running career includes tremendous races throughout high-school-, and college (personal bests - cross country 6K: 19:51, track 5k: 16:20, 10K 34:08).
And she’s had those successes because she knows how to train through injury – to find new avenues to keep her goals in sight.
So in December when she couldn’t run, she saw me at the BC pool (we knew each other through the the BC track team and The Runner in Red project).
“I was feeling directionless without my performance goals for running, and struggling to maintain my motivation. Right now I am using the M.O.V.E.! strategies to create meaningful cross training goals to keep my motivation up.
“Before starting M.O.V.E.! I thought I knew how to set goals for my performance, but even in the first session working with Cathy, as we were going through setting short-term goals, it became obvious that M.O.V.E.! brings so much more into the picture. I realized that what I thought were specific, achievable goals were far too vague, and I came to understand that the reason so many of my previous goals were unsuccessful was because I did not plan for obstacles I might face.
“I realized that setting goals is a skill that needs to be practiced. Through the process of using the M.O.V.E.! method, I hope to not only reach my athletic goals, but also to get better at goal setting.”
Planning out detailed workouts in advance of the week motivated Isabelle. “Particularly when it comes to cross training, my training plan is often solely up to me, and lacks a lot of the discipline and planning of my regular training schedule. When I don’t have a planned schedule, I find I spend a lot of time procrastinating my workouts and feeling indecisive about the best way to cross train.
“However, after going through a weekly plan with Cathy and scheduling the types of workouts I would do each day, I found that it was much easier for me to feel motivated and get my workout done efficiently. I was much more excited about my training sessions because of the structure. I realized that a major reason why I find maintaining motivation during periods of cross training stems from the lack of accountability and structure compared to my typical training plan. Reintroducing this element made a huge difference for me, and I learned that having a training plan is an essential tool for my success.”
So what is Isabelle’s goal? On December 18 she swam 500 yards in 8:53 . Her “A” goal - swim it under 8:40-8:43; her “B” goal swim it under 8:43-8:46; and her “C” goal is to swim it under 8:46-8:49.
And what has she learned so far related to goal setting, training, swimming, cross training, or training through injury (any 1 of these points) this week?
"Working with Cathy and the M.O.V.E.! method has not only helped with goal setting and motivation for cross training, but also with my form," she said. "In our sessions, Cathy’s attentive focus and critical feedback has helped me improve my swimming form to meet my goals. She noticed where I was not completing my stroke fully and wasting energy lifting my head out of the water to breathe. By helping me make adjustments to my form to address these issues, our sessions have helped me improve the efficiency of my form and streamline my strokes, improving my times. This has been just as helpful as the training plans when it comes to reaching my set goals. This experience demonstrated that focusing on the craft of your chosen task deserves just as much attention as the training plan, as both are critical components of improvement. "
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic lung disease that primarily affects a person’s lungs. The disease stems from a mutation in the gene that causes a misuse of salt in various parts of the body. As such, CF can also affect digestion. More (scientific) info:https://www.cff.org/What-is-CF/About-Cystic-Fibrosis/