New running goals after a race

After every big challenge it’s important to rest, recover and take stock of your performance. The first few days are important and can set the tone for the rest of your running year. Be sure to recover completely before you race again, but start thinking about the next challenge.

It is important to set a goal, as it helps to focus your mind and give you a fresh perspective to your life. Give it a few days after your last race before you decide on the next targets.

Start with a long term goal that may be up to a year away. This should be something you really want to run well at and make a big effort for. It may well be next year’s Flora London Marathon or the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. This should be the main focus of the whole year and something that requires a big effort on your part in training and preparation.

After the main goal has been established it’s time to set medium term goals. These should be within the next few months and will probably be shorter distances than your main goal. There’s no point setting a medium term goal that is totally unrealistic, as this is not attainable and can be demoralising. All goals should be realistic, but they should challenge you as well. Medium term goals give you a nice focus over the next few months and you can plan quite a few races in this programme depending on how you feel.

Finally, set some short term goals that are based on weekly performances. These may not be races but training goals; for example: run 60 minutes twice this week, or aim to run an interval session faster than last time. These short term goals are based around very realistic and very attainable targets as they are reviewable every day. Goals should be simple tasks that challenge you a little but help guide you towards the main objective of the long term goal.