If you haven’t read my previous personal challenge posts, Happy New Year. I’m going to sound incredibly selfish, but I hope that 2021 is a more injury-free year for me. I also hope that 2021 starts to resemble some sort of normality sooner rather than later. I don’t think I can cope with living alone and working from home for much longer.

I’ve reviewed last year in a lot of detail so I think it’s now time for me to look ahead to 2021 and to set some running goals. The combination of a global pandemic and injuries meant that I didn’t achieve most of the running goals I set myself at the start of 2020.

I briefly considered not publishing this post, however, I hope that I make myself a little more accountable by sharing these goals. As in previous years, sharing my running goals has been an effective way of motivating me to get off my arse, I decided to publish this post.

Continue to listen to my niggles – I’m definitely what I’d describe as an injury-prone runner. Some runners hardly ever seem to get injured, other runners like me seem to spend most of the time either injured or recovering from an injury. It’s a never-ending circle of run – get injured – injury rehab – recover from injury – run and repeat.

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Running helps to keep my anxiety under control, and as I don’t want to spend another year feeling miserable because I can’t run, I’m going to continue to closely monitor my niggles. Last year, I was reminded that attempting to run through niggles only tends to end in what I call a ‘proper’ injury. As I’m sat writing these running goals, I can feel my left knee. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s constantly reminding me that it’s there.

Continue with my strength and conditioning – I don’t think I’m the only runner who is guilty of doing this, but when I’m able to run pain-free, I’m guilty of neglecting the personalised strength and conditioning exercises I was provided with following my Run3D gait analysis. I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to strength and conditioning and injury prevention. I mean, who else would spend a fortune on a gait analysis and then not keep on top of the exercises. I sometimes wonder what is wrong with me.

Train sensibly and consistently – This goal has featured in previous years, but I’m still not great at running and training consistently. I’m usually so pleased to be injury-free and to be back up and running; I’ll end up running 3-4 times a week and end up injuring myself again. Looking back, I probably should have stopped religiously following the Couch to 5k when my knee started to hurt during Week 7. Unfortunately, I was so determined to actually complete the Couch to 5k for once, I ignored the niggle in my left knee and ended up injuring myself. Once I’ve recovered from my knee niggle, I not only need to remind myself of the importance of building up my mileage slowly but also of the importance of taking a break from running if I need to.

Join a running group and run with others more – I’ve set this as a running goal a few times. Last year, I said that I didn’t want to join a more formal running club, but I did miss running with others. I felt that slightly less formal running groups were the best option for me. I even went as far as naming some local running groups; SE Fitness and the Boldmere Bullets Running Collective. So, I’m sure you can guess what happened, I ended up rejoining my local running club; Royal Sutton Coldfield Athletics Club. I figured that’s it’s good to support a local running club, my very own version of shop local. I’m looking forward to taking part in some training sessions on the local athletics track later this year and to being reunited with my running coach.

Run 500 miles – Last year, I set myself what I thought was the sensible and realistic goal of running 500 miles. Thanks to injuries and the small matter of a global pandemic, I ended up running a not quite so impressive 100 miles. So, I’ve set myself the goal of running 500 miles this year. If by June, I’m way behind my mileage target I’ll adjust my distance goal to something a little more achievable.

Complete 5 races – Fingers crossed a lot more races can take place this year. Last year, I set myself the goal of completing 10 races. The majority of those races were either cancelled or postponed due to the global pandemic. In ‘normal’ years I would have DNS a lot of races due to my left knee. The fact that these races weren’t able to take place so I was able to defer my entries was quite possibly one of the few positive outcomes of the global pandemic. If you’ve read my previous challenge posts you’ll know I’m aiming to spend nothing on running-related purchases this year. This obviously includes race entries so I’ve lowered my expectations a little this year.

Volunteer at least 10 times at parkrun – I’m confident that parkrun will be able to restart at some point this year so I think this goal is achievable. I have a feeling that parkruns will struggle to fill their volunteer rosters, so I’ll probably volunteer the first few weeks it returns. However, this year, I want to find a good balance between volunteering and actually taking part in parkrun.

Become a member of the parkrun 50 Club – I set myself this goal last year and we all know what happened! I think it’s fair to say I’ve not been in a hurry to become a member of the parkrun 50 Club. I completed my first parkrun in May 2013 and my 25th parkrun in July 2018.

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I’ve now completed 36 parkruns so even if parkrun isn’t able to return until the summer, I should in theory be able to reach 50 by the end of the year. I want to become a member of the 50 Club and to earn myself a red t-shirt. As black is my favourite colour, I have a longer-term goal of becoming a member of the 100 Club in 2023.

Explore more local parkruns – This is a repeat goal from last year. To date, I’ve completed four different parkruns; Didcot, Kingsbury Water Park, Sutton Park, and Walsall Arboretum. I’ve also volunteered at Beacon parkrun in Lichfield. This year, I would love to visit more local parkruns, however, my no spend challenge means that this is going to be tricky.

I may well be limited to completing Sutton Park and Beacon parkruns as both of these are easily accessible by train. That’s unless I manage to convince my friend that he would love to explore some other parts of the West Midlands.

Don’t buy any running gear or enter any races – And finally, my goal of not buying any running gear or entering any races. I set myself a similar goal in 2019 and last year and failed miserably. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here as I’ve already talked about how and why I’m aiming to spend nothing on running in 2021 in this post. Let’s just say the race and medal #FOMO will be real and it’s going to be difficult. If I’m offered free entry into a local race I’m not going to say no!

I know I ask the same question every year, have you set yourself any running goals for 2021? 

Have you entered any target races?