Years ago, I had a running acquaintance who did an annual New Year’s Eve “reflection” on the previous year’s training. He’d pick through the highs and lows he experienced and used them to set goals for the upcoming year.
I’m not a big New Year’s Resolution guy, but this tradition has rubbed off on me and I do it to this day.
The challenge with many resolutions is that they are either unmeasurable or unbounded (or both). The inherent vagueness of “exercising more” or “eating healthier” makes it easy to bend, and eventually break. There’s no benchmark for whether or not you’re hitting it or not. It’s also tempting to set too lofty a goal when the year is fresh in January only to face the reality of the task: seeing the goal through its completion the other 11 months of the year or longer.
Through a running log, the truth of last year lays bare on the page and the new present will live alongside the journey that got you there (for better or worse).
For many, the obvious place to start in setting a goal is finishing some kind of a race distance or achieving some kind of time. These are easy goals to make and provide real motivation as the race date approaches.
Sometimes, the stress of a time goal creates an unhealthy balance. You either hit the time or you don’t: success or fail.
Running is more nuanced than that.
I always make multiple goals including both “process” and “outcome”.
A shiny PR is something to strive for. This outcome goal is something that you’ll undoubtedly be proud of should you hit it. But if you come up short, you might forget all the good things you did to get there in the first place. These are also achievements to be proud of.
Maybe it’s getting out the door four times a week on average. Or perhaps it’s adding in a couple days a week of lifting. Feeling disconnected with former running friends? Make it a priority to run with someone 40 times this year.
Blending some of these process goals offers redemption should you miss the ultimate goal.
It’s rare that I hit my “A” goal for the year these days, but I can appreciate the things I did in an attempt to get there as I read over the goals I set the previous year.
Given a long enough time frame, these New Year’s entries provide a record of how my aspirations have changed over the years. It’s a fantastic accomplishment in itself to keep running year after year when there’s so many other things grabbing our attention.
If you’re feeling driftless this winter, take some time to think about what you’d like to accomplish this year. Craft a mix of some “outcomes” you want and also a couple “process” goals that will help you get there.
Even if you come up short, they’ll likely take you farther than where you would have been without them.
Happy goal setting and see you out on the trails!
John and Kate