Make your New Year objectives

That's not what this blog is about though. It's about New Year's Resolutions, or New Year's Objectives as Foxy wisely recommends they are. On our way to meet the others for the run he told me that New Year's Resolutions have a negative feel as they are all about giving things up and not doing things, whereas objectives are about setting yourself things to do and targets to reach. Very wise, think positive and not negative!

Think positive

So what running objectives will you set? Given that most resolutions have been broken by February maybe it would be better to set objectives to achieve by the end of 2012 so that you have time to work towards them. Maybe something like:

By the end of the year I will have:

run a certain number of miles

broken a certain time barrier for a certain distance

reduced handicap score by a certain number....

You could then chunk them down and set objectives to reach throughout the year. If, for example, you are challenging yourself to run 2012 miles in 2012 you will need to challenge yourself to have done 1006 by 30 June to keep the objective realistic. If you want to reduce your handicap score by 4 you will need to plan the races that are going to help you to do that and aim to have brought it down a couple of points by 30 June.

Reflect on the past

Before the clock strikes midnight tonight it's worth reflecting on how 2011 has gone for you. What are you most proud of? What helped you with this achievement? Was there anything that you wanted to do but didn't? Why did the things that went your way, go your way? Why did the things that didn't go your way, not go your way? Could you have made them go your way if you had gone about things in a different way? Was there anything you could have done that you didn't but wish you had? Which sessions do you enjoy? Which do you dislike? Now for the big question: What do you want to achieve in 2012?

Consider the future

Make your target challenging but also realistic. It has to be exciting or you'll lose interest in it. Before you start planning how you are going to reach this it might be worth considering what might go wrong. (This is a bit like doing a risk assessment). You may need to think carefully about the time frame. It's sad but true that you will come up against obstacles, whether that is illness, injury, weather (we only ran 8 miles today after planning 14), holidays, work or family pressures so before you put pen to paper look at the time available and factor in a buffer. It maybe that you know part of the year will be stressful for you in another area of your life or it may be that you have some regular constraints.

Once all of this has been done you should be ready to draw up your plan that takes into account past experience and future considerations.

Your bespoke plan

By reflecting on what has gone right and wrong for you in the past and by recognising what works for you, you will have an idea of the type of training and preparation needed in your plan. By understanding your situation and any constraints that you have you will have an idea of the training load that you can handle at different times during the plan so the only thing left to do now is to write that plan.

It just so happens that we have a great resource to help you do this. The Training Wizard recognises that each week doesn't look the same for everybody so he will help you to tailor your training to the focus and load that you need in each week.

So there you have it - time to set your objectives for next year. Don't forget the non-running ones as well.  You may be able to use this same formula for lifestyle objectives?