Feedback before you look forward

It's the last day of 2014 and runners all over the world will be setting their 2015 targets but make sure you evaluate your progress from this year before you plan for next.

Before you can plan forward you need to look back and reflect on what you have done, how well you have done it and the effect it has had on your progress. By doing this you may gain an increased understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and this, in turn, will  inform your next training plan.

Just as realistic performance evaluation is a key characteristic for developing excellence and one of the discriminating factors between medal and non-medal winners it is likely to also support the development of runners aspiring for less elite performances such as personal best times or achieving target distances (Bailey et al. 2010). It is, therefore, advisable to set time aside to look back before looking forward.

Here, we aim to provide a model for evaluating your strengths and weaknesses that will allow you to see which elements of training need priority as you move forward.