Real David H.

After falling short of a few goals this year, I’ve done a lot of thinking about how to approach 2014. My best results have always been when I have a bigger picture in mind, rather than smaller goals.
If I set a handful of bigger goals, smaller goals pop up along the way. In my past few runs and other moments in the office with no one around, I keep coming around to 3 ideas for next year that are much larger in scope that what failed this year with 13 goals for the year.

A year from this moment, I want to be able to reflect in a much more positive way than I’ve done lately. Part of being content with how this year went also brings along discontent as I know I could have tried a little bit harder in some ways. It’s not a “beat yourself up” type of thing, but instead a thought process of making myself a better well-rounded person and athlete over the next year, not the “same old, same old” that 2013 was.

Here are my 3 goals for 2014 with some explanation of what they mean.

Finish what I start.
Since late 2012, I’ve done a lot of “just finishing” runs and races. Every race this year, which was considerably less than years past, didn’t have a time goal. Most of them were “I’m just going to do what I feel like doing.” As I said in my last post, that’s exactly what I wanted to do this year.

That just hasn’t felt right though. I can’t continue running without more specific goals in place; I need to start a training cycle and train the best I can for it. Specific PRs aren’t a part of my goals for next year — those will happen if I train well and stay focused. The way I feel right now is very much like I did a few years ago as I approached 2011 coming off an injury.

Logging mileage on paper.
There used to be a point in my running life in which I felt like I couldn’t function without dailymile. Now that site is nothing but a place I log into a couple of times a month to catch up on my miles. I’ve certainly made some great friends along the way, and for that I am grateful, but I just want to be done with a run, write down the mileage on paper and go on with my day.

I can analyze mileage and runs later, not as soon as they happen. And with the way the site is set up, I find it much easier to carry on a conversation about my run or others runs via Twitter or Facebook.

1,000 miles.

Every time I say something about 1,000 miles I remember the video above from several years ago and there actually being runners in it. I hope you appreciate that flashback because part of 2014 will be a flashback as I refocus on a specific mileage mark — 1,000 miles.

If I finish what I start, there’s no reason this can’t happen. I’ve missed going for this mark after hitting it in 2010, 2011 and 2012. I didn’t realize I’d miss it so much.

Photo credit.