For those of us who are fortunate enough to work in education, this is the time of year for new beginnings. Every year (or every semester) is a fresh start, with new classes, different students, and a clean slate. It’s full of opportunities to fix what didn’t work and improve on what did.
Early in my teaching career a faculty mentor urged me to take the time after each semester to write a reflection. For each course, what went well and what didn’t? What would I change? Were there any difficult situations with students that I could have handled more wisely? And for the semester, did I allocate my time and attention in an effective way?
I’ve found this helpful in two ways. By making a conscious effort to process the experience, I’m able to observe patterns or trends that would become inaccessible later. And when I next start a semester or repeat a course, I have a starting point that serves me much better than just memory.
But this is a running blog. Goals, seasons…. I like to have two or more seasons each year, in which I establish goals, develop a plan to achieve them, try my best to execute the plan, and hopefully see the results I want. That much I’ve been doing most of my life. But often, I’d get to the end of one season, and immediately start planning the next one.
I’ve finally taken my mentor’s advice and applied it more explicitly to running. At the end of the season, I now make myself sit down and assess it. Did I race as well as my training predicted? Did I accomplish my goals? If not, were the goals reasonable? Did I get hurt? Do I understand how the injury developed? And what of the goals achieved? Have I allowed myself a moment to celebrate them? (I’m not good at this.)
I’m currently in a fall 5k and cross-country season. My primary goal is to improve on my (modern era) 5k PR. My secondary goal is the run competitively (for me) in the three XC races on my schedule.
I’ll be back in December with the assessment.