Running Goals Don’t Define You, They Refine You
By: Michael Horner
Tags: Running, Fitness, Balanced Life, 2021, Goals

Running Goals Don’t Define You, They Refine You

Even if you just run to get out of the house, it’s good to have some goals.

Setting running goals for 2021. Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

Everybody has different reasons for running. Some run competitively, looking to move up the ladder at races. Some run to keep themselves physically fit. Still, others run because it is their mental escape.

No matter why you run, having some running goals is important. I had a coach who once said, “if you don’t have goals, you’re sure to hit them. Not setting goals is a goal itself. You’ve set a goal to accomplish nothing and wander aimlessly.”

That has stuck with me my whole life because at the time I was a geeky, undersized sophomore in high school and I was doing sports mainly so I wouldn’t have to go straight home after school. With no goals and no direction, I was really just wasting time. This happened forty years ago and I still set goals in everything I am doing, even if they are just to have something to shoot for.

When I began running ten years ago, I followed the same process. The process of setting goals is something I keep very simple and easy to follow. I have friends that have goals for running that are so detailed, it makes my head swim just listening to them. I recommend simple, attainable yet challenging enough goals.

Running goals will be best met if the goals have three elements to them: (1) the goal is specific and attainable; (2) the goal is something that will make you smile; and (3) the goal challenges you enough that you don’t get bored, but isn’t so challenging that you quit.

Then to each one of those elements, I add a short-term, medium-term and long-term goal.

For me, the most important element of running goals is that I be flexible enough to change them if I find life getting in the way of reaching them or not challenging enough because I’m ticking them off too quickly.

In 2020, I reached 90% of my running goals, and that included changing my mileage goal in May because I found myself with more time to run working from home than when I had to go into the office every day.

Specific and Attainable Goal Setting

Setting goals for 2021. Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

David Roche, a fantastic coach and runner, wrote a Strava blog article back in 2018 around this time of year that I find very helpful when I begin setting my running goals for the next year. “Get better at running by setting meaningful goals” should be a gold standard for run goal-setting.

There are two schools of thought on goal setting: results goals versus process goals.

Results based goal setting is also called outcome-based goal setting. This kind of goal setting creates measurable results that are effective and achievable.

A process goal is focused on what you have to do to achieve your goals instead of the “goal” itself.

The reason I, as does Coach Roche, believe in process goals is that when I set outcome-based goals, there is a huge deflation when I actually reach the goal.

An example for me is mileage goals. I have a general idea of how many miles I want to run per week, month and year based on my training plans. The mileage is not what I focus on though.

At the end of 2019 when I was setting goals for 2020, I knew that to run somewhere around 2,400 miles based on my training plan for specific races. I didn’t have a mileage goal though as that is results-based.

Instead, I had exercise activity goals for 2020. My weekly running goal was four running days per week with one cross fit/strength day per week. At the time, I was working for a large corporation and my division was being tasked with some very hard to reach tasks.

When the world came to a screeching halt, and I found myself making a move across the country to take on running a business instead of working for a corporation combined with working mainly from home, I found I had more exercise days available.

To deal with the increased stress from everything going on in 2020, I adjusted my process goals. Now I was running at least six days a week, sometimes twice a day, and doing strength workouts at lunch.

Throw in every race being canceled or postponed and my training plan was constantly being revised.

As I begin to ramp up for my 2021 goals, once again I am setting process goals that are specific and attainable. With the belief that I will once again be able to conduct business the way it should be done, I have my goals for the number of days running per week, month and year as well as goals for cross fit/strength training.

By setting process goals, it isn’t as devastating if my February race gets canceled because my process goals are still attainable. I spend more time on this area of goal setting than others because if I do this area the right way, then smiling and challenging naturally happens.

Setting Running Goals That Make You Smile and Challenge You

Set goals that make you happy. Photo by Lidya Nada on Unsplash

In these areas, my goals are more outcome-based than process-based. Whereas I feel great when I get at least three mid-week runs in, it isn’t what makes me smile nor what challenges me.

What makes me smile is when I nail the process goal and at the end of a week, I can look back and see that the process is something that makes me smile.

A smile goal for me is to run because I love running, not because I have to get a certain amount of miles in. Therefore, what makes me smile may not be the same thing as what makes you smile.

An article that speaks to this is by Nakia Austin, a life coach, who wrote: “8 Life Goals to Set for Happiness and Success”. In this article, she wrote about how happiness is found when people “live meaningful, productive and authentic lives.”

Translating that to running. What about running makes you happy? For me, I am happiest when I run someplace where I don’t bump into people. Therefore, one of my happy running goals is to find a running route at least once a week where I know that it will be weird to actually see another human being.

When I achieve this goal, inner peace and tranquility fill me and I am able to conduct the rest of my life with less stress even while living in a thriving metropolis that never stops.

Challenging goals are the ones that I know will take being disciplined about the process goals in order to reach.

My goal of running all five hundred miles of the Virginia Appalachian Trail in 2021 is a challenging goal. This will take being disciplined to the process goals I have set as well as being disciplined in other areas of my life so I can take off for the fourteen weekends between May and November that I have set aside to run the Appalachian Trails with the four to six hours of driving, searching for campsites and logistically getting everything prepared to accomplish this.

Make Goal Setting Fun and Inclusive

Since I enjoy being happily married going on thirty-five years now and want to continue this tradition, I include my amazing spouse in my goal setting.

We make it fun and make it so that my running goals aren’t just about me and what I want, need and desire. Every running goal I have for next year comes about in discussion with my wife and with her input. She already knows I am crazy so no longer questions why I want to run the Appalachian Trail.

With her input for my goals though, she helps each running goal be realistic, attainable and fun.

My last takeaway is don’t let your running goals define you. Running goals should always refine other areas of your life, not be the thing that defines who you are. Running is simply one more part of a well-rounded life, what I call living an ultra life.