Goals

by John Reblin

Setting a goal seems pretty simple, right? I mean we do it everyday from what time we are waking up to what the day is going to bring. Setting a goal helps you start and end the day successfully.

I try to do the same in my life. Setting goals daily, beginning with I want to get these many jobs done, paperwork done and then I want to get something personal accomplished in the remaining time. It could be an ABATE project, something in the garage or just making some popcorn on Monday night, turning on some TV and spending the evening with the “The Little Flower”

I go to the doctor every 6 months to watch over the “vitals”. You know, the blood pressure and other things going on and it was hinted at one of my visits to lose a couple of pounds. So now I had a challenge and a goal set by my doctor. As I walked out of the office, I knew that she was going to lose this challenge.

I started to watch what I ate a little closer along with stepping up the exercise outside, mixing in a little jogging with the walks. I started to challenge myself to jog that length between the telephone poles. Next, maybe from my driveway to the corner, slowly changing the distance and intensity. Yes, I started setting goals in my work outs.

I found I started to enjoy those early morning workouts. Getting out early in the morning before the sun comes up, I mean who wants to see me gasping for air running down the street, listening to some music and planning out the rest of the day.

I started to go a little farther every week, not feeling quite as sore from the exercises, making sure that I stayed relaxed and stretched out. I also made sure that I did not overdo things hurting myself or burning out from going too far too early. I started to think of other goals.

Reading the paper, I saw that an organization was restarting a race in Milwaukee that had several starts and fails due to inaccurate measuring and one of the races was a half marathon. Now I knew that I would not be able to win something like this, but I also knew that if done right I could finish. I started looking around and found a training plan and thought, why not set a goal for this?

As I started working on this 12-week plan, every week increasing the long run mileage, I felt more confident on finishing, maybe coming in last, but finishing. As the date came closer to the event something changed in my plans and I decided I did not want to do this race. I felt, for whatever reason, I did not want to attempt this distance in a group setting with too many eyes on me. So, one Saturday early morning after checking some distances, I set out from home and set out to do the half marathon on my own. After some struggles like slipping on some ice and landing on my butt, dodging a car or two, and making sure my distance was covered I finished. It was slow but, hey I did it.

Every year as chair of the Highway Safety Committee we have a clean slate and look towards the end of the riding season with a goal of having less fatalities than the year before. That same goal is set this year, just keep lowering that number, share trends that we are seeing and hopefully make that difference. I think most of the membership knows what you need to do, but we have to share this knowledge of raising awareness and rider education with the others so everyone can have a safe riding season.

First of all, ride within your skill level. Ride at a speed you feel confident at and make sure you are able to maintain and remain in your lane of travel. Remember to use both your brakes to stop quickly and under control.

Make sure when out on your bike, you ride defensively. Watch out for the other road users, anticipate their actions and have that “escape route” in mind.

Don’t ride under the influence. Pretty simple that any slowdown in your reaction time could result in a crash.

Keep working on improving your skill level whether it is practicing in a parking lot on a Sunday morning or it is taking a rider education class that has a trained professional working with you to help improve your skill level.

And remember to share this knowledge with other riders in your group. Mentor the less experienced rider and share what you know. Sometimes, like any bad habit, riders don’t realize they are making a mistake. It’s just a bad habit that keeps popping up because it just never got corrected. Having a fresh pair of eyes watching their riding style can draw attention to those small things they are doing and sharing this can help them out. Be sure other riders are aware of the fact that paying attention to the influences of alcohol or some other sort of stimulant can be affecting their ability to ride safely.

Working together we can, at the end of this and future riding seasons, achieve the goal of reducing motorcycle fatalities in Wisconsin.

John