Released On 26 January 2026
Anushka's blog: New Year's Running Goal
Why My New Year’s Resolution of improving my 5km running time was not as easy as I thought.
I am not sure I believe in New Year’s Resolutions.
I think if you want to change something, you could do so at any time. That said, we have a family tradition of spending New Year’s Eve each listing out our goals and predictions for next year and then putting them into a cracker to open the following New Year’s Eve. The kids’ predictions when younger may have included what height they would be, how many teeth they would lose or who their teacher would be next year. Goals would be a music exam or sports achievement perhaps. I’d always keep my goals sufficiently vague and non-committal like ‘being more plant-based’ or ‘getting more sleep.’ One goal was to ‘improve my 5km time’. I had a hoped-for time in mind but was scared to be too prescriptive in my pledge and therefore meet my prediction that I wouldn’t meet my goal!
As I was scrolling social media, with fitness coaches offering running advice, one offered a free* 15-minute consultation. He asked me the question every coach should ask: ‘What is it you think you need to do to achieve this?’. This fairly obvious question showed how so many New Year’s resolutions fall at the first hurdle. They say ‘if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail’ and they are right! The basic question made me reflect on my casual goal which assumed that if I just ran a bit more and tried to run a bit faster, I would naturally improve without much thought.
Unfortunately, what worked initially when I only ran once a week, would be unlikely to do so now that I already run several times a week and am more ambitious. This seemingly innocuous goal to improve my 5km would require organising my work and life so I could run twice midweek and still have enough time to sleep (two things at which I am failing miserably at present, but for good reason: a new job). It would require me to eat better to have the correct nutrition for performance, no alcohol already being a given, and re-prioritise or detox myself from elements like social media that sneak into my day and hijack my time. It forced me to diarise in the calendar time for things that are important to me, including spending time with family and friends so these other aspects of my life wouldn’t slip. And finally, seeking help for niggling knee issues and making time for some strength and physio work too to support my running.
Suddenly this goal to improve my 5km is not looking so trivial when it provoked such a life audit in general. But maybe shaving a minute off my 5km time will shape up my life in general!
(*it won’t be 15 minutes and there will be a hard sell)
Anushka is a full time lawyer, parent of two teenagers and running and writing hobbyist.
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