Lift, Run, Bang guide to achieving goals

Paul Carter of Lift Run Bang posted today about goals:

These things make up the trinity of planning your training. 

Have a specific goal
Make sure it's not retarded
Have a very precise plan for achieving it 

All pretty good ideas for aiming to do any kind of goal-setting, so I'll break it down so that I can see how relevant it is for me.

Have a specific goal

Previously I stated my specific goals, which give exact values that I want to achieve.  I took the usual path of a rookie and sought advice from those wiser than myself.  Emil made suggestions to refine my goals into safety, realistic and stretch goals.

I'll consider the previous goals stated to be my "realistic" goals, achievable assuming that I'm willing to put in the work.

Exercise	Current	Safe Goal	Realistic Goal	Stretch Goal
Power Clean	5 @ 50kg	5 @70kg	5 @ 80kg	5 @ 90kg
Dead Lift	5 @ 130kg	5 @ 150kg	5 @ 160kg	5 @ 170kg
Overhead Press	5 @ 75kg	5 @ 95kg	5 @ 100kg	5 @ 110kg
Squat	5 @ 130kg	5 @ 140kg	5 @ 150kg	5 @ 170kg
Bench	5 @ 90kg	5 @ 110kg	5 @ 120kg	5 @ 130kg
Pull ups	50 @ bw	5 @ 20kg	5 @ 40kg	5 @ 50kg
Running	3km 30min	10km 55 min	10km 45 min	10km in 42 min

From the current to my safe goal is 20 kg.  The realistic is 30kg  and the stretch 30+ kg.

Make sure its not retarded.

It would appear that a 20kg increase in 52 weeks (13 x 4 week cycles)  worth of work out to be a 1.5kg increase per 531 (4 week) cycle.  While this may seem to be too little it only requires me to increase my maximum by 5kg a minimum of 4 times throughout a 12 month cycle.  I'd like to think that I can do this.

The realistic goal of 30 kg means that in the 52 weeks worth of work out to be 2.5kg per 531 (4 week cycle).  This may be possible but it means that it requires me to increase my maximum by 5kg 6 times throughout the 13 cycles.  This is possible.. but I don't know if my body can handle it.

The stretch goal would mean a 30+kg increase in the same 13 x 4 week cycle.   This may be possible but it means that it requires me to increase my maximum by 5kg 8 times throughout the 13 cycles.  This is unlikely but I think that life will get in the way.

The running time is clearly not included in the above "retarded".  The values posted for safe and realistic I believe are achievable and I have done them before in my life.  Its just a matter of being ready and trained to do them. 

Have a precise plan for achieving it.

While Paul doesn't go into this, let me outline how I plan to achieve my goals.  The 531 implementation I am on is 4 lifting days a week.  I can shuffle them around but the idea is mon - wed - fri - sat .  Even if I have to bump a day I can continue as the lifts from the previous workout are different ones from working out the next day.

 The safe goals mean that I would only need to increase the weights 4 times through the year.  If I stick to the program, and increase 5kg at every 3rd cycle.  I can hit these values without too much of a problem.

If I go for the realistic goal.  I would need to increase the weight by 5kg every second cycle.  This also does sound achievable when it is broken down into such clear and exact terms, however the problem is that there is no room for error, if I can't lift the extra 5kg by the second cycle, I'm falling back immediately into the safe zone.   I do feel as though though I should attempt this option for all of my lifts.

The stretch goal pretty much means that I'd need to bump it by 5kg every cycle increase, (8 times out of 13) and hit a maximum of 5 failures along the way).  I know my body and I don't think that this can happen reliably with my lifestyle.

Supplemental ideas to help my lift:

• Yoga - 4-5 basic stretches as recomended to me by a good yoga teacher.
• Creatine - 5g per day every day.
• Whey Protein powder.
• Diet changes, possibly lean gains or at least more accurate measurement of caloric intake.
• Couch to 10k program.

If you can think of anything else legal and sane that can help me with my goals, please don't hesitate to drop a line in the comments below, I'm willing to listen and learn to the wizened ones, please do cite your resources though.. :)