Setting Goals for Running Success

Week #6

All of you are on the road to meeting a landmark goal: running a 5K. For most of you, it will be for the first time.  To have set this goal and stayed with the program thus far is quite an achievement, one that many people never try to undertake. Some of you have secondary goals: perhaps to lose weight, to get in better shape, or to do something for yourself in the midst of the demands of parenthood.

The path we have chosen to meet this goal is to use a beginners running schedule from Hal Higdon. I’ve heard from many of you how you really enjoy having a schedule: it takes the guesswork out of training, it gives you “mini goals” to make each week, and it is a proven, conservative plan to get new runners safely to the finish line of their first 5K within a few months of training.

But the schedule isn’t like a recipe that, if modified, will yield different results. Let’s face it: life interrupts. You may have every intention of following the schedule to a “T” until your toddler gets sick. Or perhaps your spouse is away on a business trip and you can’t get out. Or maybe you’ve developed a setback such an illness, stress, or even injury – and you need to lay off running for awhile.

All these things happen. In fact, I would be surprised if they don’t happen. That’s where the good news comes in: There’s plenty of “give” in the schedule so that, even if you aren’t able to complete all of the training, you WILL be able to complete the 5K if you have been steadily running over the eight-week period.

So look at the schedule as a guideline, not gospel. And whatever you do, don’t do more mileage than the schedule calls for: you may risk injury from overtraining, which could put you out of the race.  A very important component to every training schedule is the “rest” days.  In fact, rest days are as important (if not more) as running or walking days, because as you increase your effort, your body needs the down time for muscle recovery.  This is one of the reasons your midweek distance is shorter: it give you a bit of a break.

So do your best with the schedule.  If you are able to run comfortably anywhere from 2 to 2 ½ miles before race day, you will complete the 5K race. Why? Because with of the excitement of  race day, running the course with many other runners, your family cheering you on, and seeing the finish line, three miles will only “feel” like two.

Does this mean you should coast along from here on out? Not at all. Ideally, if you can follow the schedule and get up to three miles before the race, you will be the best prepared you ever could be.

And remember: completing the race, i.e. making your goal, is really the icing on the cake. The real benefits come from the eight weeks of training you are completing. Think about where you were before you started this program: Are you feeling the benefits of regular physical activity? Every time you run a little bit farther, you are achieving a new milestone for yourself, and your body is benefiting from the regular, scheduled exercise. So congratulate yourself – you’ve already achieved so much!

My sister completed a 5K a few years back – inadvertently.  She went to a 5K and 1-mile fun run, and signed up for the fun run. As she saw runners begin to gather at the start line, she thought, “Oh I guess we all start together, and then the 5K runners continue on after we stop.” So the gun went off, and off she went.

She had not even trained for the fun run, and she was not in the best of shape.

When she got to the one-mile mark, she realized her mistake. Nobody was stopping: in fact; the fun run had started after the 5K. She told me, “I felt embarrassed, but I wasn’t about to just stop, so I kept going. And I kept going and going. And I crossed the finish line. It took me awhile – a LONG while–  but I did it.”

The next year she ran the same 5K and trained for it, although not nearly to the level that our team is training.

Of course, no one would recommend going out a running a 5K without training for it. And she was pretty sore from the race for a long time afterwards. But I bring the story up because it shows that we all can accomplish so much more than we think we can.

So as you run this week, congratulate yourself for achieving what you have thus far, and have the confidence to see yourself finishing the 5K and meeting your goal in just a few weeks!