By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

We are facing a brand-new year. Twelve clean-slated months ready to be lived. 365 crisp calendar pages waiting to be filled with experiences, memories, and achievements. The time has come not only to have our goals ready but also to set up a plan to realize them.

If you, like most of us procrastinators, are not thoroughly prepared for 2026, please read below to follow a structure and get there before the final countdown of 2025.

► Reflect on what happened in 2025 — To know where you are going, you must know where you are coming from. Understanding what made the previous year a success, less than that, or even a miserable failure, is the key to making the necessary adjustments. Adjustments will be needed to maintain the same trajectory or to find new paths to reach that elusive road to success. So, take your time to look back, reminisce, identify, understand, and realize before you take any steps towards defining what you want from your running in 2026.

► Set up your 2026 goals now — Do not procrastinate. Figure out what you want from your running this year. Goals may be time-related (first 5K under 25), distance-related (finally getting to 1000), social (I want to make like-minded friends), health-related (losing those last few pounds), or a combination of everything. Adjustments and detours are expected, but to adjust and recenter, you must have a clear path to your destination.

► Set up the path to achieve your goals —  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (yes, The Little Prince author) said that “a goal without a plan is just a wish. Right on point! You must know how to get there and how to do so on time. Goals may need steps, checklists, reassessments, checkpoints, rewrites, refinements, and more. For time-related goals, speedwork is essential, but a 5K PR is not the same as a marathon PR. Running your first 100-miler requires a different approach than your local Turkey Trot. So, know what you are doing, why, and when.

► Register for the races — If your goal is performance-related in a specific race, time, or distance, register for a race right now as soon as you are done reading this post. Nothing will get you more focused than having a date with destiny in your calendar. I know of no focusing tool sharper than spending the money on an upcoming race. And if your goal race hasn’t opened registration yet, register for another race so you can stay active and focused until the day comes.

►Venture outside your comfort zone — Running is a sport that, beyond the health and social benefits, can teach us so much about who we are and how the bounds of our limits are far beyond what we thought possible. So, don’t get comfy just on what you know. Set up an extravagant short-term goal to keep your training fresh and varied. If you like marathons and halves, push for the fastest 5K you can. If you like the shorter distances, set up a trial date for your fastest mile ever. The options are endless: run an ultra, venture into a trail, force yourself to run slower, etc. Your imagination is the limit.

► Embrace failure — Failing is part of the process, and eventually, you will fail. You get up, dust off, figure out what happened, reassess, and keep moving forward. If you learned something from it, it is not a failure. And when you don’t get what you originally set out for, you get experience, which could be even more valuable than the original goal.

► Remember you are doing this for fun — Unless your family’s economic survival depends on your running performance, you are just running because you like it. So, make sure everything you do contributes to the enjoyment and extension of your running journey, and the satisfaction of achieving your goals while keeping yourself injury-free.

My sincere wish for you in 2026, my dear reader, is a year of endless, injury-free miles and PRs in all your distances. May you plan properly to accomplish it all.