By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 May 2024 bring you countless injury-free miles and PRs in all your distances.

As a brand new year appears into our calendars, with 52 weekends primed for long runs with friends, six Abbott Marathon Majors to be completed by some of the runners we know, if not ourselves, and countless races in all distances anticipating for us to register; it comes that time to figure out what we want to paint on that virgin canvas so 10 or 12 months from now, we are not regretting a wasted running year.

Improving your sleep will help you in more ways than a PR or a BQ (Photo: Ketut Subiyanto, Pexels)

Your 2024 running goals should be set in an individual and feasible fashion. It is about what Is realistic for you and what you alone are willing and able to do. Running a sub-3 marathon if you’ve never gone sub-4 is not impossible but it may be a recipe for disappointment or injury for most runners. Improving 10 minutes in your half marathon or 5K PR may be achievable but depending on where you stand. Going from a 2:40 half to a 2:30 one is one thing. Improving the same 10 minutes in 5K if your PR is 22 would make you a world-record holder. So, let’s be realistic about our goals.

If you haven’t thought about it yet, here are eight quick ideas for you to consider before we get too deep into the year. This way you can hit the ground running:

1.    1000 Miles: A feasible distance for any consistent runner. It only requires 4.8 miles a day, four times a week during 50 of the 52 weeks of the year. If you already run 1000 every year, then set your sights on 1500, or 2000.

 2.    Choose your goal race, now: Not just select it, register for it, and let everybody know. Set up a road map so you’ll know how to get from where you are to where you want to be and to be there in time. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll succeed, but it will put success within your reach.

 3.    Pick up one PR to set: Sure, we want them all, but a 5K and a marathon are two different animals and requires separate training plans. So, pick one distance where to focus and make sure everything you do is in service of that specific goal.

 4.    Upgrade your sleep: Sleep is better for restoration than your entire recovery toolkit multiplied by three. Be initiative-taking and intentional about it. Make sleeping a priority in your everyday life. Its benefits will go beyond a PR or a BQ.

Don’t let streght training be the neglected aspect of your running (Photo Andrea Piaquadio, Pexels)

 5.    Strength training: For every mile you run, you’re pounding your musculoskeletal system with 3-5 times your weight, about 800-900 times per leg. If you don’t prepare your bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments for such a vicious workload, they will inevitably break down. Translation: You will get injured.

 6.    Don’t just run:  The constant percussion this sport places on our bodies requires us scheduling time to repair and restore, more of it as we age. Incorporating one or two days a week of yoga, swimming, Pilates, biking, elliptical or any other non-impact exercise will make you a more resilient runner.

7.    Keep a running log: Beyond Garmin, Runkeeper or Strava and the slew worthless or irrelevant parameters they measure for us, writing down your daily activity either by hand or on a spreadsheet will noticeably improve your understanding of what you are doing. Give it a shot.

 8.    Learn about running: Knowledge is always an advantage. You can delve into the history of the sport, the science of what happens to your body when you run, or biographies of its greatest icons. Pick up one book or two and make sure you finish them before December 31st.

I hope these ideas assist you in shaping the running year to be. This way, come December, you can brag about your victories, PRs and improvements, instead of setting up for a 2025 in which to redeem yourself.

What are your running goals for 2024?