Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Thursday Tempo of 2020 and #37 since I started in 2018. You can find my past editions on runwithraj.com/blog.
The start of a new year presents an opportunity for resolutions. For runners, our goal-setting usually occurs after we sign up for a race or finish one. But most individuals fail to maintain pledges because of time or effort needed to stay the course.
I have been making resolutions for over 20 years, and I too struggle to keep some of them each year. Over time, I have learned some tricks to be better at setting goals and achieving them.
Setting goals
Consider setting goals about behavior: aspects of well-being such as fitness, mental health, nutrition, recovery, and sleep are good areas where you can bring about change
Ask yourself “What would make me happier?” since the more your life reflects your values, the happier you’ll be
Make your goals specific, realistically achievable, and measurable
Achieving goals
Chart a path to success for each goal, including how you can accomplish it, by when, and who will keep you accountable
Consider implementing a habit loop to be consistent and make a goal part of your daily routine
Anticipate roadblocks that may arise and how you would respond, remembering to strive for progress not perfection
Here’s how I did against my 2019 fitness goals:
RUN: 7 marathons: 5 new states, Boston #7, and NYC #8 as an Achilles guide
Achieved: I ran marathons in exactly 5 new states: Utah, Colorado, Montana, Maine, and New Hampshire. In addition, Utah, Colorado, and Montana were all races at altitude; in fact, the Montana race is known to be “the highest road race on planet Earth” with an average altitude of over 9,000 feet.
I was able to recover from a torn hip labrum after the net downhill race in Utah to run my 7th Boston marathon, and I was honored to guide a runner from Mongolia in my 8th NYC marathon. I ran just about the same number of miles as 2018 (12 miles less, to be precise) but I was 5% faster averaging 7:30 minutes per mile.
RUN: Marathon PR OR 2 back-to-back (Saturday/Sunday) sub-3:00 marathons
Achieved: I did not sign up for any fast and flat races in 2019 and actually haven’t in a few years, so I could not run a PR in races with a lot of hills or at altitude. Moreover, running 7 or more marathons in a year makes it harder for me to put in quality time for both training and recovery for a PR attempt.
Nevertheless, I did run back-to-back sub-3:00 marathons in New Hampshire (2:55:22) and Maine (2:59:50) on consecutive days. Both courses were incredibly hilly, though Maine was slightly more forgiving than the 1,500 feet of elevation gain in New Hampshire. This was also the fourth time I ran two marathons on consecutive days, the previous times being in 2014 (Indiana and Ohio), 2015 (Iowa and South Dakota), and 2016 (Alabama and Mississippi). I was glad to know that my aging body can still recover fairly quickly (with the help of my trusty compression boots).
SWIM: 125 miles of swimming
Not Achieved: I did 97 miles of swimming - my goal of 125 was ambitious but attainable, as I ran a similar amount of miles last year and swam 165 miles. On the bright side, I was about 3% faster in 2019, averaging 1:45 minutes per 100 yards.
STRENGTH: 75 hours of strength training
Achieved: I doubled my goal with 152 hours of strength training as I introduced hot yoga and regular post-run strength into my weekly routine, as well as doing more barre and pilates classes with my wife. My total exercise time (running, swimming, cycling, and strength) for 2019 was 517 hours, but it should be noted that 76 hours or 15% was commuting on a Citibike!
COACHING: Coach 10 athletes 1:1, coach 2,000 new athletes in classes, 2x subscriber growth of bi-weekly Thursday Tempo
Partially Achieved: I coached 21 athletes 1:1 over various training periods of the year. 16 of them (76%) set personal records in a race. Last year I taught 2,147 unique athletes in my treadmill class at Mile High Run Club and an additional 1,717 in 2019. Although that was less than my goal of 2,000, I joined the audio fitness app Aaptiv midway through the year and likely reached thousands of new athletes through 30+ audio workouts recorded. Finally, I had 2.6x subscriber growth for this Thursday Tempo newsletter.
So, what’s in store for 2020?
As of now I’m signed up only for the Ann Arbor marathon on March 22 and the Boston marathon on April 20 (my wife’s birthday!). I have visited Ann Arbor the past few years to spend time with two of my closest friends who are in academia and medicine at the University of Michigan, so this year I’m hoping to also run in the local marathon. I sat out the Boston marathon in 2015 the last time it fell on my wife’s birthday, but early signs point toward celebrating together in Boston. I am hoping to find a flat and fast fall race and go for a PR. Outside running, I plan to continue swimming and strength training twice a week and improve both my recovery and sleep habits.
As much as I enjoy teaching classes and coaching athletes, I began to scale back on both toward the second half of last year and will continue to focus on quality instead of quantity. So I won’t be setting goals for number of fitness hours, athletes coached or even newsletter subscribers. In 2019, I enjoyed creating a five-week program on Aaptiv called “Race Prep,” which included intervals and strength workouts that I believe are the foundation of training for any race. And in the spirit of “what would make me happier” I want to have more time for reading and volunteering, especially since a longer-term goal of mine is to promote fitness and well-being for children in low-income schools.
RUN: 6 marathons: 4 new states, Boston #8, and NYC #9 as an Achilles guide
RUN: Marathon PR
RECOVERY: Stretch and/or foam roll after every run
FITNESS: 2x swimming and strength training per week
COACHING: 70+% PRs for athletes I coach; 2 new running programs on Aaptiv
LEARNING: 6 podcasts or 1 book per month
SLEEP: No device usage in the bedroom; no alcohol or caffeine within 2+ hours of bedtime; average 7+ hours of sleep per day
MENTAL HEALTH: Meditate 5x per week
SERVICE: 100 hours of volunteering or 1x per week through Achilles and other organizations
I want to thank each of you for supporting this passion of mine. A special thanks to Aditi, Adrienne, and Anisa for the feedback and editing on many of my posts in 2019.
Feel free to share your goals with me so we can keep each other accountable. I'm here to help you achieve them. Let’s get it, 2020!
