by Adolfo Salgueiro | Jan 4, 2022 | List, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
As a new year dawns on us and we focus on what we want to accomplish during the coming 12 months, our running lives should not pushed to the back burner. If we want to make sure that come December, we are not regretting a wasted athletic year, or cramming up the miles, the time to set up the course is now.
Running goals are very individual. Qualifying for Boston may be the goal of a lifetime for someone, while others qualify every year. Finishing your first marathon can be a tough yet achievable goal for you, while others are focusing on their 10th 100-miler. Goals need to be feasible and, mor important, individual.
These are a few running goals you may consider for 2022:
1 – Set up a mileage goal – One thousand miles in a year is an immensely popular and achievable goal. The 4-digit number is more of a psychological barrier than anything else, but it is feasible. The key is to break it (or whatever number you set your mind to) down to small segments you can easily manage. For 1000 miles, this is just 83.33 miles per month, or 4.8 a day if you run 4 times a week (less if you include a weekly long run). If this goal is for you, I recommend you join the 1K Run Club in Facebook, with over 8000 runners from all over the world.
Set up your course for 2022, now, so you are not cramming up, come December
2 – Add one more day of activity per week – If running mileage is not your thing, adding another day to your training is an effective way to increase your activity. If you run 2-3 times a week, that 3rd or 4th day is viable. If you run 5 or 6, this may not be a goal for you, but you can always add a yoga class or a cross training day. The key is to increase your activity as long as you are not sacrificing your recovery.
3 – Add strength training to the weekly routine – It is the most neglected part of every training cycle, yet the most beneficial to make you stronger, faster and deflect injuries. This is usually the first casualty of a busy lifestyle. But consider this: As runners, we pound on our musculoskeletal system with 3-4 times our body weight into each leg, about 800 times per mile. If we don’t prepare our bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments to take on the workload, we will be rehabbing instead of running.
4 – Set up a PR Goal on a Specific Distance – Setting up for a PR in every distance in the same season is a recipe for injury. Going for a PR in every race, every week is the fastest way to burning out. Set up your main goals for the season and focus on them. If you want to run your best 5K ever, a marathon PR may not be a good mix. Figure out what is important to you and go for it.
5 – Concentrate on running easy on easy days – The biggest mistake runners make is to go to fast on easy days. There is a good reason why easy days are labeled as “easy”. It is because you are supposed to run easy. These are the sessions when you recover so you can go faster later, when you develop the cardiovascular system so you can go faster later, when you prepare your musculoskeletal system to adjust so you can go faster later. Science has determined that you won’t get slower by running slow. Quite the contrary. You must run slow to eventually be able to run fast.
In 200,000 years of history, humans haven’t evolved not to sleep. So hit that pillow in 2022 (Photo: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels.com)
6 – Focus on Sleeping –Sleeping is the number one device in our recovery tool bag, and it is mandatory. Consider this: The Homo Sapiens emerged about 200,000 years ago and during its evolution, the need for sleep to recover and reset our systems has not disappeared. That alone should tell you why you can’t skip it. So, make sure 7-8 hours of sleep a night is part of your daily training for 2022.
7 – Keep a running log – Sure, Garmin, Runkeeper, Strava, etc., keep track of more parameters you could ever understand or need. But keeping a personal log, either handwritten or in a computer file, on your daily activity, will make a noticeable difference in the understanding of your training.
8 – Read at least one running book – If we want to get better at our sport, we must learn about its science, its practices, its history, and its top performers. Personal experience is important, sure, but it is not the wherewithal to become the best runner you can be. Reading may not be for everybody, but one book a year should be easily manageable. Find a book on a running subject that interests you and give go for it.
Of course, these are not the only athletic goals you may set up for 2022. They are just ideas to help you define what you would like to achieve this year. Pick one, pick two or pick them all, but get started right away.
What are your running goals for 2022?
by Adolfo Salgueiro | Aug 17, 2021 | Article, Opinion, Personal, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
Maybe because I started running way before personal computers and the internet were ubiquitous. Or because I am a visual person. Or because I am just traditional. I like to keep track of my sporting activities in a written log. For years I handwrote in a 3-ring binder and, as the technology progressed, I set up a spreadsheet that has been constantly changing as I learned more about the wonders of MS Excel.
These days, with Garmin, Strava, TrainingPeaks, RunKeeper, and many, many more, you just forget about it, and someone keeps track for you. And they do so with more parameters than you will ever need, know what to do with, or care for. I do believe it is inevitable that any “serious” runner will end up with a GPS watch and an online account, and that is a good thing. But at the same time I believe that so much data, uploaded up there in the cloud, where you can access but small portions of it at a time, is not necessarily better. Yes, well into the 21st Century, I advocate for a written running log.
World Record holder Eliud Kipchoge has been keeping a handwritten running log since he turned professional
Eliud Kipchoge, —yes, that Eliud Kipchoge— has kept a had written, yearly running log since he became a professional runner. He records in every single workout as detailed as possible, also adding things and thoughts from outside the running world that may help his training. “When you write, then you remember”, he says. If it works for Kipchoge, maybe you should give some thought.
There are multiple ways to keep track of your activity. You can do it by hand in an appointment book, a 3-ring binder, or a notebook. There are also a variety of journals on sale specifically designed for this purpose. In your computer you can develop an Excel sheet to track what is important to you, or you can just write in your entries in a Word (or equivalent) document. Google has spreadsheets and documents that are accessible in your desktop computer and phone. The options, these days, are limitless.
It is important to take your time to write or type something into your journal, purposefully, so you can internalize it, meditate on it, and visualize. Your GPS watch doesn’t record your thoughts.
Your entries can be arranged, based on the platform where you keep them: daily, weekly, or monthly. My personal preference is monthly because it allows me to review a bigger segment of my training in a single glance. Since I developed my Excel sheet, I have added weekly totals, monthly and yearly totals, pace average, heart rate, temperature, humidity, cross training, and much more.
Why do we keep track?
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Because when we get in a rut (and you will), you can go back to when you were doing great and check what worked for you back then.
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Because when you are training for your goal race you can glance your entire training without thumbing through hundreds of single entries in Strava or Garmin.
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Because when you decide to change GPS watch brand, or want to change your online tracking platform, you won’t lose the data in your account.
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Because when you are looking for a specific piece of data you can flip a page or two instead of combing through thousands upon thousands of data entries that were not designed with your needs in mind.
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Because you can store it by year, month or whatever parameter works for you so data will be easily accessible when you need to consult it.
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Because it creates a spectacular database that will become your frame of reference to get you from where you are today to where you want to be, tomorrow.
Handwritten logbooks or computer spreadsheets can become as elaborate or a simple as your individual needs.
If by any chance I have persuaded you to give a running log a try, start right away. Now! Write down date, mileage, time and specific, detailed notes of each workout. If you did a particular mobility exercise or weightlifting routine that made you feel good, write it down. If you ran with someone who helped you get the best out of your ability, write it down. If the temperature or humidity became a pro or a con on your run, write it down. If you started with a new pair of shoes, write it down. If you feel any parameters become key in every workout, start tracking them.
The key to the usefulness of your log is the quality and trustworthiness of the data. If you fail to do your entries after each training, if you don’t keep good notes on why it went great or why you bonked, if you are just guessing your mileage and time, if you are lying to yourself, if you misplace your logs in your home or computer; then you are better off not wasting your time.
Think of all the benefits I’ve enumerated and check for yourself if they have any merits.
