Looking back before you look forward to your 2023 targets

Now that we're at the end of 2022, it's the time to evaluate your progress from the year before you plan for 2023.

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.

With much GPS technology available to help with numerous metrics for things like, pace, cadence, distance, sleep length and quality, you will have an array of statistics at your fingertips to monitor progress.

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. 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.