Running Goals Development for 2023

With a new year almost on our door step its time for runners to take stock and think about the development of their running goals for the new year. Where do you want to take your running in the New Year.

How you develop goals can be an individual pursuit and requires a thoughtful process and strategy. Here we use a three step strategy to develop goals and keep you accountable to achieving these goals moving forward.

Step One – Write Down your goals.

Create an overarching goal. Be specific, this may be your the races that you hope to do your best at or specific time goals that you hope and plan to achieve. If your overarching goal is a major race it is most likely necessary to enter ahead of time and put the plan in place for this goal. Write the goal down and let it be visible to others.

Underneath these goals the next step is to create subgoals necessary to reach the overarching goal these may include training strategies and goals that help you achieve the over arching goal.

For example: Overarching Goal – Run a sub for our marathon.

Sub Goals:

Step Two – Consider who is necessary to help achieve these goals.

Do you need help from your spouse or family in order to keep yourself accountable to your training program. Where will you get the right advice and help to build your training program. Do you have training partners that you can rely on and they can rely on you to help you achieve your goals. Having a someone you can build your training structure with may be important when you go through the process of fitting your training into life and completing your running.

Every runner will need the support of someone to get to race day and achieve their goals. Having a plan for this before you begin gives you a head start on the process.

For example:

Speak with your spouse and ensure your running fits into all your families lives.

Develop a structured training plan with a coach if needed or at least give yourself a structured plan if self coached.

Speak with your training partners and share goals and find commonality that you can structure into each weeks running.

Step Three – Give and receive regular feedback on your progress.

Apart from the process of completing your runs and developing your fitness and running, the giving and receiving of regular feedback is an important way to keep you on track towards your goals and ensure that your running is both positive for yourself and for the others in your life. Having regular conversations with your spouse and loved ones will help them understand what you are trying to achieve and also ensure that you are spending time away from running and being able to recharge and refresh yourself.

If you choose to use a coach it is also very important to provide your coach with timely feedback about how the structure and process of training is going. You will help your coach in the development of your training moving forward and this will only help you achieve your goals.

Lastly, having regular two way conversations with your training partners ensure that you are all enjoying and getting the necessary development from the running you do together.

Putting this all together requires the runner to not only be planned but also thoughtful and thoughtful of the other people in your life and how running fits into your family life and also your work life. It requires you to have a structure and plan for your running and be working towards achieving your goal. However it is most important that when building this plan for your running year you make sure that the structure lets you enjoy the process and your running. After all running should be enjoyable and you should want to get out the door and complete your runs.

Should you need any help developing your running strategy and plan for 2023 or help with running coaching please reach me at therunninger@gmail.com to discuss how we can assist you achieving your running goals for the new year.