Setting new goals

If you've decided to join Help the Hospices as one of our runners in the Flora London Marathon 2005 – congratulations!

If you've not run a marathon before no-one would blame you if you were a bit concerned about the distance, don't be.

Regard that as the long term goal, the main focus of the whole year and something that requires a big effort on your behalf both in terms of training and preparation.

After the main goal has been established it is important to set medium term goals. These should be within the next few months and will probably be shorter distances to your main goal. Here it is important to be realistic but challenging. There is no point setting a medium term goal that is totally unrealistic as this is not attainable and can be demoralising. All of your goals should be realistic but they should also challenge you as well. The medium term goals give you a nice focus over the next few months and you can plan quite a few races in this programme depending on how you feel.

Finally set some short term goals that are based on weekly performances. These may not be races but training goals i.e. run 60 minutes twice this week. These short term goals are based around very realistic and very attainable targets as they are review able every day. They should be simple tasks that challenge you a little but help guide you towards the main objective of the long term goal.