Short Term Goals

Last week I mentioned that I had a decent training week but my headspace was probably not in a great place with another lockdown about to be announced. Well this past week was kind of the opposite. I didn’t have a particularly great training week but was in a way better headspace. At the start of last week myself and my girlfriend went away for 2 nights in a Hotel in Dublin just before Lockdown 2.0 came into effect. It actually did us the world of good and was a well needed break away from the 4 walls of our apartment. In terms of running I actually got out running every day but didn’t really put much structure on any of the runs, I just ran for an hour most days and didn’t complete any specific sessions, but maybe that’s what my mind needed this week!

It made me think that runners tend to lack focus when we’ve no goals to aim for. You can have long term goals in place like a marathon next Spring or Autumn and I talked last week about how putting in the consistent work now will contribute to the result of those races further down the line. Having these long term goals is great but for me definitely I need short term goals to work towards which will aid the long term goal but also provide me with focus that will allow me to be motivated and hungry to train. In essence it gives me accountability and allows me to look back on my weeks training and know that it was productive but also effective. I know many who ran the Virtual Marathon and Half marathon over the weekend and having that goal to work towards over the last few months gave them a focus and a clarity of purpose.

With races looking unlikely for the rest of the year I’ve given myself and many of the runners I coach a short term goal of running a 10k time trial in mid-December which will give me something to strive towards but also by writing this here it gives me some accountability as I’ve stated that this is my target and will ensure I put the work in each week. Anybody reading this who is struggling for a bit of motivation and lacking focus I would highly suggest setting some short term goals to work towards. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a time trial it can be a mileage goal, improve flexibility, improve strength etc, something that will give you a target to aim for!

Have a great week 😊

Noel