For the last few years I’ve set myself a goal of doing a certain number of events, or getting a certain time at an event. This… No, last year I set myself the goal of getting 10 medals and a half marathon time under 2 hours. I succeeded with the 10 medals, sub 2 hours not quite. So this year I want a little more accountability, I’m going to write down what I want to achieve during 2020 and I’ll check in with it in December to see how far on this list I got. My goals might even surprise you or even inspire some of your running goals this year!
So here goes my event goal this year, is actually to do less than in previous years. My reasoning for this is that I want to really focus on training well for each event and trying to do my best. When I do a lot of events it starts to feel a little like I’m only doing it for the medal. That extrinsic motivation just isn’t really motivating me to get better within myself. So my main goal is simply to do an event of each distance, a 5km, a 10km, and a Half Marathon. The Half Marathon is already booked, and I’ve got my eye on a few different 10km that may give me a good time, sorry trail 10km’s! Honestly, this will also decrease the cost of running for me, which can’t be a bad thing!
Secondly, I want to volunteer at races more often. 2019 saw me marshalling 3 different running events, and so I’d really like to give back a little bit more and help support other runners. I’m currently in the team setting up a Great Run Local at my nearest park, so I may be plunging straight in there Event Coordinating for that! So if you’re Bristol based come and join us at Hengrove Park on Sundays at 9:30am, they’ll be a 2km and a 5km option that is almost completely flat! Doing this will also see a change in my running plan to not really run on a Sunday, so my hope is that I’ll be able to do more cycling as well this year.
Third of all, I’d love to decrease my times for all distances. This goal may stick on the list for a few more years, or at least until I think I’m too old to be pushing my speed boundaries. I don’t what to have specific time goals in mind at the moment until I’ve decided on a course and really thought about a time I’d love to get it around. My first event will be the Bath Half, which is a flat looped course, so I think a goal of under 2 hours for that should be do-able, I just need to start speeding up my long runs when I’m training, especially as my long route isn’t flat.
Forth on my list is to simply keep up cross training. My partner and I have tentatively started doing a little bit of strength work once a week to build the habit in already before we hit January, so now we just need to keep it up. We’ve plenty of dumbbells and a little bar bell we’re able to use at home so it should be really easy to keep this habit going all year. My hope is that this will strengthen all the muscles around my knee so they can work equally, with any luck decreasing my risk of knee injuries. This being the injury that I always seem to get. Without being too predictable it always seems to be when the weather changes and suddenly gets cold that my knee pain begins. But if I use the year to build up the weak muscles it may help reduce this injury risk.
Finally I simply want to enjoy running this year. I don’t want to get too intense with training, or too obsessed with running that I can’t imagine not doing it. I think for everyone running should just be something you do, not something that’s a part of you. So I’m not planning to get too distressed when I have to miss a run for an event that suddenly come up, or if a running event is cancelled.
What are your goals for running this year? Let me know, maybe they will inspire my 2021 list.
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Have a happy year of running everyone!
RADanceFitness 