Set Your Goals: Tips and Tricks of the Trade

The tail end of 2011 is slowly peeking through. It is time to reflect on this past year on your strengths and weakness and start planning for 2012.  Here are some tips for setting your goals and achieving it.

Make measurable goals. Instead of goals like "Run more in 2012" or "Run faster" or "Race more," consider goal statements like "Run X miles in 2012" or "Run an average 11:00/mile pace" or "Race # of 5K races (10K races, half marathons).

Be realistic. Aim high and challenge yourself, but be realistic too. You don't want to end up with an injury. If you know that you need a rest day every other run, be sure to include it. For me, I know running more than 2 days in a row makes my knees wonky, so I don't do it.

Find a buddy (or a source) to keep you accountable. Blogging helps. Dailymile helps. I have become friends with some of my blogging friends on Facebook and we have been doing virtual runs together.

Find a challenge. Dailymile has different challenges each month (e.g.: Run 50 miles this month) and some of the bloggers host different challenges to hold you accountable.

Christine over at Dream Big Runner is hosting a 100X Challenge. You will do a 100 of something each month. January is run 100 km (62 miles). February is 100 push-ups. March is 100 minutes of stretching. Get involved! There are many different challenges all through the year, so find one that suits / challenge you.
If you know of any other challenges, do comment below and help your fellow blogging friends.

Runners' World has a little snippet about sticking to your plan I thought I would share.

Break it down! Break your goals into smaller, easier digestable chunks. Run 60 miles a month = 15 miles/wk = 2.1 miles/day.

Buddy Up: I already mentioned above.

Mark Progress. Keep a calendar where you can pencil in your planned workouts/mileage and check it off! Once it is on paper, you will find it irresistable to not check it off.

What other tips/tricks do you swear by?
Please Share.
Thanks!!!!