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Last year was a mess. I don’t have to tell anyone that. Very few races happened in any way we would have pictured racing in 2019 or earlier. With that, for many runners, training changed significantly.

Maybe you focused on something you hadn’t done before. Maybe you continued training at least somewhat as normal (if so, I suspect you were in the minority). Maybe you took a step back. Some even took a step up.

Whatever you did, with some hope that racing will return to something more like normal by fall, if not (hopefully) summer, you might be wondering what to do now. Racing as normal might be some way off but it’s not too early to begin laying the groundwork, especially if you’re optimistic and holding out hope for some summer races.

It’s a simple question. The answer for most people? At least sometimes, no.

So what do we do about this? If we’re at least sometimes not running easy enough on our easy days, what do we do to convince ourselves to back off?

If a runner from 20 years ago was to look at what almost every single one of us has on our wrists and could comprehend all of the data these magnificent watches record, they would be floored.

The irony of this is that many coaches, myself included, are now worried that many runners are too fixated on that data and have forgotten how to listen to their bodies.

So how do you use all of that data that you have readily available in a productive way?

Recently, I’ve been dealing with an ankle/lower shin issue. I’m on the road to recovery, in large part because I think I found the primary cause of the issue and have corrected it.

However, the primary cause wasn’t where I was expecting it to be and it was where most runners don’t tend to look. It had to do with what I was doing in my leisure time, not when I was running or, for that matter, doing anything physically demanding.

Minimal shoes. Maximal shoes.

Low volume. High volume. HIIT.

Low fat. Low carb.

Regardless of the topic, it seems like there are trends that will take you on a pendulum. It can be easy to get swept up in these trends. Avoid this temptation.

Did you do your goal setting for 2021? To be honest, I wouldn’t blame you for not doing so yet as we’re not totally sure what the year will look like yet.

However, I do want to address an issue that I see with some people who are going through goal setting. They don’t differentiate between goals and targets.

I have an admission to make. When I’m writing training plans for the runners I coach, I don’t even look at the weekly mileage I have them running. As I know can frustrate some, especially as we are just starting together, I very infrequently talk about specific paces to target.

Why don’t I do these things? Because your body doesn’t know numbers. It knows effort and duration.