Forums >Running 101>Beginner - How to set realistic goals?
I'm 43 and I have just joined the gym and started jogging a mile each day on the treadmill. I never jogged before, but have kept my weight down over the years so people assume that I am fitter than I am.
I spent the first week finding out where I am at. I went from a 10min mile to an 8min mile (which is probably about my limit right now). My ultimate long term goal would be a 6min mile.
I was thinking that I could aim for 7min after 6 months and 6 min after a year, but that may be to aggressive?
I'm curious to know if anyone else was in a similar boat, and how their PBs went down over time. Any advice?
Shin splints and Achilles tendinitis are the most common afflictions for beginners, a problem of too much, too hard, too soon. Progressing rapidly with a focus on mile personal best at the outset puts you at risk. Most miles should be easy and conversational, with a focus on gradually extending the length of daily runs.
You might want to take a look at the Just Finish program in Hanson's Marathon Method. You don't have to run a marathon, but it does show how to build up base mileage and goes into the physiology of running in general. A more realistic goal would be to build base miles to 40 MPW by the end of 2017. Then focus on breaking 6:00 in the mile, if it hasn't come naturally from building a solid base.
Work on going farther for now. Faster will come with more miles. It takes time to build up the muscles and tendons and the aerobic capacity. Start with running 30 minutes at a time. Run slow and easy, at a pace where you can talk to the person next to you, or recite the lyrics to the song you are listening to. Then add 5 minutes, when that is comfortable. Then add 5 more. etc. Build up gradually so you run some days 30 minutes, some 45, one 60 or more. When you are running 25 or so miles a week, take one day to run faster, after warming up by running a mile or two easy.
When you can run 3 miles without stopping, do a 5k race. That you will run all out, after a warm-up jog. A month or two later, run another. If you have been continuing to run consistently during that time, you will see some improvement.
not bad for mile 25
I'm with them; My first thought was, why are your goals so speed-oriented? You'll be much better off with goals that call for persistence and dedication; say, to run 15 minutes a day, five days a week for the next month. That's a pretty good initial accomplishment. The speed will come in due course.
What the previous posters said.
Do NOT set specific goals of speed / distance / time vs date. Your body does not work that way. The gains you have already seen are short term gains. Future speed increases will come naturally after building endurance.
Endurance is the key to running fast for any distance over about 400 meters. You build endurance by running at an easy pace for at least 30 minutes at a time. Easy means able to carry on a conversation speaking in full sentences without straining. When you can run for 30 minutes at a time, and do this six days per week, then you can start adding speed work once per week. Speed work might be run one or two miles easy to warm up, then one mile hard, then an easy mile to cool off. A hard effort will have you breathing hard at the end, but is less than all out race effort.
Then go out and run a race once or twice per month.
Thanks all. Makes a lot of sense.
Are we there, yet?
At 43 setting a goal of a 6:00 mile is fairly aggressive. Are you really focused on a faster mile time or more interested in general health and fitness? If general health and fitness, then a more suitable goal might be running a 5K some months in the future. You'll get more general health benefits by focusing on running farther than by faster at this point.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
At 43 setting a goal of a 6:00 mile is fairly aggressive.
Agree to disagree.
That said, to the OP, it's tough to know how fast you are until you enter a race. I'd recommend you avoid trying to set records in every workout and instead work on building a consistent base of miles, then add in *some* speed a couple times a week.
Runners run
Disagree. I've only run two 5k races. In one, I went out too fast and ran the first mile in 6:30, then finished in 22:45. I was holding back for the first mile, so I'm sure that a 6:00 mile was possible. I was 59 at the time. My training at the time was only easy runs, with no speed work.
I think the 6:00 mile may or may not be aggressive depending on where you are starting from and if you are a man or woman. You're just starting. I don't think you can really say. For me, as a 43 year old woman who has done a little racing, a 6:00 mile is aggressive. For you, maybe yes maybe no.
Pace goals are not a good idea at this stage, your physical body has a lot of catching up to do to even handle easy paces. Goals right now should be developing consistency in your workouts and keeping a cap on effort levels to avoid stressing those ligaments, tissues and related structures that will take a while to adapt. Keep effort levels down, focus on the length of your runs in terms of time only.
Aggressive is not the same as impossible or even unlikely, but it's likely to take a lot more work than a novice expects. For a 43 year old a 6:00 mile is roughly equivalent to a sub-21:00 5K. What you could do is irrelevant, as is what I could do. When I started running back in 1968 at 21 I also had a rather aggressive goal. I wanted to run a sub-5:00 mile. What I had to do to achieve that was a lot more than what the rest of the people in my fitness program were doing. A goal like that is not a casual undertaking.
Obi-Run Kenobi
I'd also second a lot of what others have said here already re: focusing on endurance rather than speed in the beginning. And proceed more slowly, in terms of progression, than you think you can handle. The goal should be to increase the amount of time you're running, not necessarily the speed at which you run (for right now). This has several benefits for the long term:
1. Strengthens your legs, core, glutes, etc. which will be critical for improving speed down the road (no pun intended!).
2. Does #1 gradually so as to reduce the risk of injury early on. Nothing kills running stoke faster than an injury.
3. Helps ensure you can run consistently because of #2. Consistently running, even if it's short distances, over days and weeks and months at a time is where it's at. The progress is slow, but becomes constant.
4. Improves aerobic fitness that will serve you well when you're looking to blaze those 6:00/mile paces down the road.
In summary: slower pace, but gradually longer distances at a more conservative progression reduces the risk of overuse injuries and leads to consistent running, which in the end will help you get faster.
Good luck!
Do or do not. There is no try.