Setting Targets for the New Year
Many of us anticipate the New Year with eagerness. We view it as a fresh start – an opportunity to make changes and improve ourselves. However, it can sometimes be difficult to narrow down exactly what we want to improve. Some of us might have vague ideas floating around in our heads like “I want to lose weight and be healthier” or “I want to become a better runner”.
It helps to transform these ideas into more specific and measurable goals. For instance, if you want to lose weight, you might narrow that goal down to “I’m going to lose ‘x’ pounds this year” or if you want to become a better runner, you might sign up for a race and aim to run it in a set target time.
Making achievable goals like this has been shown to give people a sense of purpose and to help with motivation, as it’s hard to know when a goal has been reached if it is open ended. The important word here is “achievable” – if a goal is too difficult it can be hard to maintain motivation. Conversely, if a goal isn’t hard enough then you can lose focus and see training as nothing more than a pointless chore. It can be useful to brainstorm and write a list of running goals for the coming year, as well as why these achievements are important for you.
Form an action plan
Once an overall goal has been decided on, the next step is to make an action-based plan so that you have a clear idea of the steps required to achieve your goal. Creating a plan that you can stick to is as important as defining a realistic and achievable goal. This means that you need to think carefully about how often you’ll be able to train per week, and whether your overall training plan is going to be long enough to achieve your goal. The amount of time you need will depend on your starting fitness level and the goal that you are aiming to achieve. A training plan lasting 12 to 16 weeks will usually be appropriate.
Having intermediate targets within the overall goal is helpful in providing focus during training, as well as a sense of achievement when the “mini goal” is completed. Without breaking the overall goal into smaller steps, it can be hard to measure progress, and it might feel like the goal is impossible – especially near the beginning! These smaller steps can almost be thought of as training objectives, reasons why you are putting yourself through (at times!) very grueling workouts.
For example, if you want to become a better runner, and your overall goal is “I am going to run a 10k in 3 months’ time” then including some intermediate targets could result in a more measurable goal. For instance, “After a month of training, I aim to be able to run comfortably for 20 minutes nonstop” and “in two months’ time, I should be able to run comfortably for 45 minutes, leading up to a 10k race in 3 months’ time.” If goals have been clearly defined, then the value of each session will become more apparent, meaning that you’ll be more likely to continue training.
How Zoazi can help
Once you have decided on your running goals, you can create a training plan with Zoazi which will help you stay on target. Our plans consider your current fitness and provide you with a structured plan towards your goal. You can even choose a target race and target time so that Zoazi can tailor sessions and session paces to prepare and get you to your goal.
Each personalised training plan is broken down into phases, and each phase has a set of targets that must be achieved before the next phase can be activated. For beginners, there is an Introduction phase which builds up to a 20-minute run. For runners wishing to increase the number of days they train each week, the Conditioning phase adds an additional session each week in order to gradually introduce more workouts. This is followed by Base, Build, Strength, Speed and Taper phases – each tailored to give you the best preparation for achieving your specific goal.
Why don’t you sign up to Zoazi today and see what you can achieve!