Happy New Year! Happy Monday. Here’s to a hopefully positive 2023 for everyone. I’m going to begin by making what sounds like a selfish wish; I hope 2023 is an injury free year for me. I know that there’s more to life than running, but I hope I’m finally able to run consistently. I’ve had enough knee issues to last me a lifetime.

I’ve reviewed 2022 in a fair amount of detail here and I’ve drawn a line under 2022. It’s now time for me to look ahead to 2023 and to set myself some running goals, some walking goals, and some parkrun goals. Last year, the combination of a severe loss of mojo and a persistent knee injury meant that I failed to achieve several of the goals I shared in this post a year ago.

I spent a lot of time weighing up the pros and cons of making these goals public. I’m aware that my goals have been getting far too predictable over the last few years. I’m also aware that my knees are not completely fixed and without surgery never will be. I hope that by sharing my goals, I make myself more accountable and less likely to give up. The last couple of years, sharing my goals helped me to start the year feeling both motivated and positive, so I decided to publish this post.

1. Listen to my niggles – I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, but I’m definitely what I’d describe as an injury-prone runner. Some runners hardly ever seem to pick up injuries, other runners seem to spend the majority of the time either injured or recovering from an injury. It feels like some of us are trapped in a never-ending cycle of run – get injured – sulk – rest – injury rehab – recover from injury – get excited to be back up and running – run too much – ignore strength and conditioning – repeat. I’m rereading all the books I’ve invested in over the last year or so.

Running helps keep my anxiety under control and I know I’m a better person when I have running in my life. I don’t want to spend large chunks of the year feeling stressed and miserable because I can’t run, so I’m going to keep an eye on my niggles. Last year, I was once again reminded that attempting to run through niggles only tends to result in one outcome: a more serious injury. As I’m sat writing these goals, my knees are both *touch wood* feeling a lot happier than they did a year ago.

2. Dedicate time to strength and conditioning – This goal has featured in previous years, but I’m still not great at completing the strength and conditioning exercises I was provided with during my physio appointments last summer. I’ve concluded that I’m very much an all or nothing type of person, this needs to change as consistency will be key. I really am my own worst enemy when it comes to regularly completing my strength and conditioning exercises. And I know I have long legs, but I really do need to stop sitting with my legs double crossed, it isn’t helping my knees and hips.

3. Train sensibly and consistently – Another repeat goal, but I’m not great at training sensibly and consistently. I’m getting better, but I still have room to improve. I’ve said it before, but I’m usually so thrilled to be back up and running, I end up obsessively following the Couch to 5k, not giving myself a week off when needed, and end up injuring myself. Last September, my training was going well until I decided to complete a 5k run at Beacon parkrun during the fifth week of the Couch to 5k. While I don’t think parkrun was the cause of my knee injury making an unwelcome reappearance, I don’t think it helped.

4. Complete the Couch to 5k – Although I guess that I could argue that by running 5km at Beacon parkrun, I successfully completed the Couch to 5k, I failed to complete the full nine weeks of the training plan. After experiencing a slight loss of motivation towards the end of last year, I haven’t run consistently since the end of September, my priority for the first three months of the year is to restart the Couch to 5k. I don’t think I’m going to share weekly training updates as I don’t want to risk boring people to tears.

5. Run a minimum of 25 miles a month – This is obviously very much an injury permitting, knee behaving itself kind of goal, but I want to run a minimum of 25 miles a month this year. I’m hoping that a large proportion of these miles will be what I’ve previously described as parkrun miles. I’m not worried about my pace, I’m not worried about having to take numerous walking breaks., Jeffing may well be the way forward. I just want to be able to jog or to run three times a week.

6. Walk a minimum of 100 miles a month – Last year, I aimed to walk a minimum of 100 km each month. With the exception of May when trying to combine my full-time job with caring for an elderly friend prevented me from doing much in the way of exercise, I found walking 100 km each month easy. My walks across Sutton Park to parkrun were the most amazing way to start the weekend.

I enjoyed my walks across Sutton Park and around Four Oaks so much, I decided to set myself a goal of walking a minimum of 100 miles each month this year. If, after a couple of months, I find that this goal has turned walking into a chore, I’ll adjust my monthly distance goal to something more achievable.

7. Become a member of the parkrun 100 Club – After completing my first parkrun what feels like a lifetime ago in May 2013, I finally became a member of the parkrun 50 Club in November 2021. After completing 42 parkruns last year, I’ve now completed 94 parkruns in total, so I should be able to join the parkrun 100 Club in the next month or so. My focus will then switch to my next parkrun goal.

8. Become a member of the parkrun Volunteer 100 Club – At one stage I’d volunteered at parkrun more times than I’d run/walked at parkrun. I love volunteering, the selfie opportunities are endless but a little predictable.

If you follow me over on Instagram, you’ll already be aware that I really enjoy volunteering, so I’ll be aiming to become a member of what I call the parkrun volunteer 100 Club at some point this year. As I’m writing this 2023 goals post, I’ve volunteered 82 times so this goal should be achievable.

9. Explore more local parkruns – This is a repeat goal from the last three years. To date, I’ve still only completed five different parkruns; Beacon, Didcot, Kingsbury Water Park, Sutton Park and Walsall Arboretum. This year, I’d love to visit more local parkruns, I’m yet to complete Perry Hall parkrun which is located only 3 miles or so from Sutton Park parkrun.

I don’t have a car, so unless I manage to grab a lift with other parkrunners, I’ll be limited to exploring local parkruns that are accessible by public transport. I’ve worked out that several local parkruns are in theory easily accessible by public transport, it’s just unfortunate that the trains and buses have been so unreliable recently.

10. Complete more parkrun challenges – I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, again, but much as I love parkrun, I didn’t take a lot of notice of the various parkrun challenges until last year. While I’d heard of the parkrun alphabet challenge and have met a lot of parkrun tourists at Sutton Park parkrun, I had no idea there were so many parkrun challenges. I still don’t completely understand what the p-index actually means and when there was an influx of parkrunners at Sutton Park parkruns 144^th event, I was introduced to the Fibonacci Challenge. I still regularly check my progress in completing the various challenges using the Running Challenge extension. Could we have a parkwalker volunteer badge please?

Last year, I achieved my Silver parkrun Obsessive badge and became a three-star tail walker and marshal. This year, I’d love to visit the home of parkrun and to complete the Bushy Pilgrimage challenge. I’d also love to make a start on the Name Badge challenge (0/12 letters completed) and to make more progress towards completing the Stopwatch Bingo challenge (44/60 times completed). Most importantly, I want to continue to have as much fun at parkrun as I did in 2022.

11. Be a less antisocial runner – If I discount parkrun, I complete all of my training sessions on my own. I also live alone, work from home and don’t have many friends. I do feel lonely a lot of the time and regularly find myself wishing that I had more interaction with people in real-life and not just virtually through MS Teams. I’ve also reached the stage that I miss training with other people. I re-joined my local running club two years ago, and when I’ve completed the Couch to 5k, my goal is to take part in some training sessions with the Club.

12. Don’t buy any running gear or enter any races – And finally, the goal I know from experience I’ll find the most challenging. I set myself a similar goal in 2021 and failed miserably. This year, if I want to make any running related purchases, I’ll have to raise money to fund these purchases by selling some of my unwanted running gear online first. I want my running habit to fund itself. I think it’s fair to say that if I’m offered any Brooks Adrenaline trainers to review or offered free entry into a local event, I’m not going to say no. I’m also going to be entering every competition I see on social media.

Have you set yourself any running goals for the year ahead?

Have you entered any target races?

Do you think I’ll be able to run for free in 2023?

 

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