Running Goals - Learning to Love What You Hate

Did you make any New Year’s Goals this year and did they have anything to do with running?  If you are a running fanatic, chances are that you did.  Right up there in the top ten resolutions are the usual - get in shape, or achieve new fitness goals and, of course, lose weight.  Running can help you achieve all these goals.

My New Year’s Running Goals include learning to love what I hate - or at least like it!  An important part of any training routine is speed work and I must admit, I loath speed work.  But to be perfectly honest, whenever I have wanted to achieve a specific goal in a marathon or other running race, I have followed a running program “with discipline” that included speed workouts or fartleks.  AND… it is only those times that I have completed my program “with discipline” that I have achieved my goals.

The truth is that I don’t like struggling with things that I’m not naturally good at. Many experienced runners do the same and avoid workouts that challenge them.  For some it may be hillwork or others it may be speedwork. It is important to incorporate a variety of running workouts into your routine as it is these workouts that will make you stronger and possibly avoid injuries.  My plan is to avoid the track.  Whenever I think of going to the track, it implies painful speed workouts, so I have decided to incorporate fartleks instead into my regular runs.  After completing a warmup at a slower running pace, I will do speed bursts (with recovery), increasing the times of these speed bursts as I improve.

Along with my goal to incorporate speed work in one of my weekly runs, I am also going to include easier runs.  Perhaps I will go running with a friend that runs at a more leisurely pace than I do.  This will give my muscles a chance to repair themselves and also provide me with a “fun” run while catching up with a friend.