New Beginnings: Goal Setting

Setting goals is key to a successful season. At the end of the day, only one person wins the race, so if everyone sets their goals according to being that one person, almost everyone ends the season disappointed. The reality is that the success of a season isn’t measured by whether or not you were the first finisher in a given race.

The success of a season is determined by whether or not you accomplish your personal goal.

The personal goal of every runner should be to run the best race that he or she is capable of. For some runners that means being a CIF champion, for others it means crushing your PR and seeing all your hard work pay off. Your personal goal should be a time that you can achieve if and only if you give this season all you have to give. It should be a time you can hit if you refuse to let yourself off easy on the hard days at practice, or on the race days where nothing seems to be going right.

For returning runners, your goal should 45 seconds to two minutes faster than your best time from the previous season depending on how many miles you have put in over the summer and how your training is going right now. For new runners, you should be looking to take at least one minute off of your best fun run time.

It’s a good strategy to set a few time goals for yourself. Start with a dream number; something that’s realistic, but definitely hard to achieve. From there set yourself a clearly achievable goal (i.e. shave 45 seconds off of your PR from the previous season). Keep these numbers in your head; let them motivate you during the tough days in practice, and use them to measure your success on race day.

Hitting your number means you are a winner, regardless of what place you end up in. At the end of the day, running is a sport that is all about doing the best that YOU can do!

#goals #vpxc #firstrace #2015