Review Your Running Year

with Steve Manning – intraining Coaching Director
The number one goal you want from your running is to enjoy it. You can achieve this with 3 simple steps:
- Review your past year
- Set new Goals
- Create a routine
This section is to take you through each of those steps so you can continue to love your running.
Here is your first Step: Review your Running Year
Happy Running
Steve Manning
Review your Running year
With the year coming to a close it is a good time to review your running year. This is a good thing to do before setting goals for 2024.
You can start by looking at the goals you set at the beginning of 2023. Your goals may have been specific times or races however it is unusual for you to meet all your goals in a year. Which ones did you achieve and which goals alluded you?
In hindsight you should evaluate whether your goals were too easy or too hard. This can be reflected in how many you were able to achieve. This can then help you set realistic but challenging goals for next year.
Difficulty completing goals is not always within your control. Illness and injury can prevent you running. Poor weather may significantly affect realistic race times. Sometimes it is non running issues like family or work that impact your running performance.
What is important is for you to set goals that are small improvements on your current fitness. They need to be written down and reviewed as you go through the season.
When you are reviewing the previous season of running you need to consider all of the variables that impacted your performance. If some performances were not up to the standard you set then why? It is not making excuses to be realistic about your racing. This review can help you set realistic goals for the future.
Another important consideration is how successful you were at peaking for your major races. Do you run your best performances when you want to at your major goal races? Or did you run better in the lead-up races and could not reach the same standard when peaking? This may only require some tweaking to your training program, however, it is often caused by running too hard before the competition phase of training.
1. Personal Best Times and Season Best Times:
Start your review by writing down your PBs as they stood at the beginning of the year. Follow them with your best times this year
2. Major Goal race results:
Then write down your major goal races, with the satisfactory, challenging and ultimate goals you set pre-race. Then add your actual performances.
3. Top 5 performances for the year:
The next thing that you need to do is write down and rank your top 5 performances for the year. This does not just mean your fastest times as different courses may affect the times. Which races do you feel you ran closest to your maximum potential?
4. Training Review:
You should also review your training over the year. How consistent was your training? Did you have injuries or niggles to manage? Did you take your training frequency or total mileage to a new level? Did you have the best speed session or the longest run ever? How did you cope with the training load? Were you constantly tired or thriving on the training?
5. Evaluate your review:
Finally, look over the list you have created and consider where you could have possibly run better. Make notes after each list of what you think you could have done if everything went perfectly on the day.
Once you have done this review you will be ready to start your GOAL SETTING for this coming year.
If you haven’t already done so, click on the link to download your Goal Setting Checklist.
If you don’t want to think about this too much yourself, or want help with doing your review or creating your goals for next year, you can book into the intraining clinic to see me. I love creating plans for runners with target paces that also develop a progression of improvement and running strength.
Call 3870 2525 or Book here!

Steve Manning "The Footman"
Steve has been a running shoe aficionado for the last 4 decades and as the owner of intraining Running Centre has helped thousands of runners find the perfect shoe. He is a member of the Footman Biomechanics Group of the International Society of Biomechanics and a previous President of the Qld branch of Sports Medicine Australia. As a Podiatrist specialising in running sports injury prevention he utilises footwear prescription and modification to keep you running. Contact Steve at the intraining Running Centre, [email protected] for all your footwear questions.