Benchmark your progress

Why do you run? Are you in it for the long-term or is this just a passing fad? Hopefully you are a runner for life (and we all know the reasons why you should be!) but you are more likely to stick with it if you achieve success and see improvement. Read on for tips on how to ensure your motivation levels remain high.

The first thing you should do is to review the progress you have made so far. Check your runbritain profile page and make note of the achievements you are most proud of. The next thing to do is to assess the progress you have made. What does your graph look like? Is it on the way up? Is it climbing steadily or are you on a plateau and are there any reasons for the profile of the graph? Have you just started running and enjoying big improvements or have you been running for a while and so the increments are smaller? Have you had consistent training or has it been disrupted? By assessing your performances and the reasons for satisfaction or disappointment you will be able to set realistic future goals.

Once you have assessed your previous year or 'season' it is time to set long, medium and short term targets, in that order. Your long term target could be a year away. If you have been inspired by watching the Virgin London Marathon, for example, and have decided that you want to do it next year then that is your long term goal. However, you need a few milestones along the way and these should help with your build up. For example, you may target a 5km event to take part in within two months of the beginning of your training programme then a 10km event a couple of months after that. Once you have those under your belt you may work towards a half marathon and then put in a few more 5kms and 10kms before tackling the event itself. These shorter races are your medium-term goals. The short-term goals may be key training sessions that you have been set or have set yourself where you can measure improvements in between the races you are doing.

Alongside the measurements you make on your race and training performances you should assess your training capacities, running ability and commitment to training. Use the tables below to indicate where you are now and then go back with a different coloured pen and note down where you would like to be. It may be that you rate yourself as poor at running on smooth, flat surfaces but your motivation levels are low for this because all of your running is off-road so you are not aiming to progress in this area. There will be some areas where you really want to get better and others where you are not concerned. It is very difficult to improve in every area so you should now use the chart to prioritise the areas that you will work on over the next year or so.

Training capacity	Very poor	Poor	Satisfactory	Good	Very good
Aerobic Capacity	1	2	3	4	5
Anaerobic Capacity	1	2	3	4	5
General Strength	1	2	3	4	5
Specific Strength	1	2	3	4	5

Aerobic Capacity - How good is your engine - your heart and lungs? If your endurance is good and you can run for a long time without fatigue you should score yourself high.

Anaerobic Capacity - How fast can you run over the distance. Do you have a high anaerobic threshold and good speed-endurance?

General Strength -  Do you run well on the hills or into the wind and keep good posture and control?

Specific Strength - How well conditioned are the muscles, tendons and ligaments used for running? Do you manage to stay injury-free?

Running ability	Very poor	Poor	Satisfactory	Good	Very good
On flat, smooth surfaces	1	2	3	4	5
On uneven surfaces	1	2	3	4	5
Uphill	1	2	3	4	5
Downhill	1	2	3	4	5

 

Training commitment	Never	Not very often	Occasionally	Often	Always
Keep to training programme	1	2	3	4	5

This benchmarking should be an ongoing process and should be carried out at least once per year or per 'season' so that you always know where you are and where you are going with your running. By increasing your awareness of where you are now and where you are likely to be you can be more focused in your planning.

Once you have carried out this assessment you can use our Training Wizard to help create your next programme.