9 Goals to Keep Your Running Focus Strong ...

1. Learn to Love Your Body

One of the most important goals to keep your running focus is to take certain steps and give your body some love. You need to bear in mind that your body is your tool, and if it is not in the best shape, you’re never going to get far. Your first move should be to keep constantly in touch with your physiotherapist – don’t just visit a physiotherapist when you’re injured. A physiotherapist can find areas of weakness or tightness that would ultimately lead to a serious injury. So, be sure to bear this extra expense to show some love towards your ultimate running tool – your body, that is.

2. Be Open to Suggestions

In order to keep your running focus, you should be willing to try new and different things. Don’t let yourself get stuck in a rut, and be ready to experiment. Just bear in mind that you need to introduce changes in how you approach your training sessions – you may simply challenge yourself to tackle a distance you’ve never done in the past, or you can simply try running on a different track just to keep things interesting and your running goals fresh.

3. Overcome Your Weaknesses

Logging your training should always be one of your goals to keep your running focus. This gives you some information about how well you’ve been doing in the last few weeks/months and even years. It may also help you get an idea of what training regime led to an injury. It also helps identify your weaknesses. Like most runners, you may also have a nemesis in training – it could be long runs, speed work, or hills. Whatever the case, learn to push yourself hard and try the stuff you usually don’t like doing.

4. Don’t Forget to Stretch

If stretching is not the highlight of your training program, you’re definitely not alone. Many runners think and work this way, and usually don’t understand the true importance of stretching after every easy run. It keeps muscle fibers from tightening up and saves you from dealing with serious injuries. So, be sure to stretch and use movements involving your hamstrings, calves, glutes, quads, and lower back.

5. Understand Your Body and Muscles

A competition runner can benefit from working with a physiotherapist, but if it feels expensive, you should at least have some basic knowledge about different physiotherapy techniques that you could apply on your own. Simply using a tennis ball and rolling it on to tight areas will help stave off some injuries.

6. Know the Purpose of Every Run

One of your goals to keep your running focus is to run with a purpose. What it means is that every run should have a purpose – don’t run just for the sake of it, but try to get something out of every run. Also, be sure to put in similar effort every day you come for training.

7. Set Your Goals Right

Always take your time to define your exact goals – know what you want to achieve with your running. Just be sure to set small and realistic goals to avoid burning yourself in order to achieve them. Start with short-term goals and then make intermediate and long-term goals for optimum results.

8. Stay Hydrated

Don’t just keep yourself limited to drinking copious amounts of coffee and tea, but always lay your emphasis on drinking water to keep yourself hydrated. To achieve your running goals, you need to keep yourself well hydrated, as dehydration will affect your performance and impair your immune response.

9. Socialize with like-Minded People

Be sure to spend time with other experienced runners. Try to learn from their experience and apply their ideas when training. Sometimes, this will help you overcome issues that keep you from maintaining your focus and achieving your running goals.

What it comes down to is that you should set yourself running goals that continually push you to achieve more. As with all goals, make them a stretch but achievable. Setting yourself crazy targets is more likely to demotivate than motivate. You want to keep your running focus to continue to enjoy it, and to reap the benefits from this most accessible form of exercise. What running goals have you set yourself this year?