Recently, I have been reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, providing me with great insights and education on how to build effective habits to reach my ultimate goals. To stick to any resolution, you need a plan. This book has provided an easy to understand and implementable insights which I will leverage in 2022 and beyond in both my professional and personal life.
First Full Marathon
For fun and as a healthy habit, I like to distance run. I have established a goal for 2022 committing to completing my first full marathon. I have targeted the Calgary Marathonin May 2022. Yes, a full marathon – 42km (26 miles). This is a whole new challenge goal for me. I have run 5 km races, 10 km races and have completed 4 half marathons. But, since I started running as a hobby roughly 4 years ago, I never ever even considered a full marathon. It is clear for me to make completing my first full marathon in May a reality, I will need to have a plan.
Three-part Plan
Over the next 5 months, I will implement and put into action the following:
1. Implement a 20-week marathon training plan
There are various marathon plans available, but an informative book to check out when planning a race of any distance is “Running, The Complete Guide to Building Your Running Program” by John Stanton, Founder of the Running Room. This book provides a base to help you in your running goals. I started with the Running Room with my 5km race goal and have stepped up all the way to this year’s goal of a full marathon.
2. Incorporate strategies from the book Atomic Habits
One golden nugget I will implement will be habit tracking tools. These tools assist in breaking down large objectives into more bite-sized strategies and tactics.
3. Leverage apps and wearable devices to track my progress.
For me, this is my Garmin Forerunner235 wearable device which measures my raw activity data such as Distance, Time, Heart Rate, Cadence, Steps. In addition, I will use MyFitnessPal to track my nutrition.
This is going to be a fun and challenging journey. I’m looking forward to regularly sharing my insights along the way to help anyone else who might be considering running or walking in their first race.
Please feel free to reply and share. What are your 2022 goals? Are there any other insights you have? How are you planning to turn your resolution into a reality? Do you have any insights from your running goals that could help me in my journey or others?
Happy New Year in 2022 and all the best in making your resolutions come to life!