Can We Please Share the Road Until Springtime?
For a brief time every winter, we runners are forced onto the roads with the rest of the world. Can't we all just get along and share the road?
Aim for consistent training in 2026 with these helpful insights.
It’s tempting to think about your running goals from a perspective of “discipline,” but I’m here to say that using that approach is most certainly setting yourself up for failure. Real, attainable goal-setting is not about sticking to the perfect plan, it’s about honing in on your direction, making incremental changes that keep you on course and having a plan for how to handle the moments (inevitable moments) when life steers you off plan.
As we head into 2026, there’s no better time to clarify what you want from your running in the year ahead—and to do it in a way that actually helps you get there, regardless of what life throws your way. If you have the time, I recommend using this article as a worksheet. Read it slowly, bookmark it, then take a moment to reflect on your own goals as you go.
This approach has a way of carrying over into the rest of life, too.
I recently led a webinar for the Six Minute Mile Run Club in which we talked a lot about this. We all wrote out one word or phrase to define this. It’s what I call an identity goal, and it’s the very thing that helps us to stay consistent when motivation wanes. And you can count on motivation to wane here and there throughout any training cycle.
It’s a mantra about who you are becoming as a runner. And it’s different for all of us. For me, as I ramp up training with two small kiddos (my oldest is 3 and my youngest 8 months) and very little free time to fully execute all the training on my schedule, my identity goal is simple: lower the stakes for myself in order to be more consistent.
Sometimes that means I just run a mile even if I was supposed to do a 10-mile workout because I only slept 4 hours and both my kids are sick. For me, the showing up part is more about getting out the door no matter what it looks like.
My identity goal? Be a healthy runner who shows up even when the plan changes. That’s my path to consistent training even amid a complicated lifestyle as a parent.
This helps me to not give up or abandon the workout when I can’t execute it perfectly because of time restraints or illness or any number of things that pop up when you have little humans relying on you.
Take some time to think about and identify the type of runner you want to become. Doing it at the end of the year (or at the start of the new year) in what most people consider the “offseason” is a great time to do this because it’s typically between big training segments and at the start of your new goal-setting and selection of goal races.
If you know who you want to become as a runner, it’s much easier to zero in on the actions you repeatedly take to help you get there.
These actions are process goals. Which is just a fancier way of saying they’re habits that help you move from having an intention of doing something to actually doing the thing consistently and reaching big goals. They compound over time because small actions make big differences.
It could be running even slower on your easy days because you have a track record of running too hard all the time. Or it could be incorporating just 20 minutes of strength training once per week, fueling better before or after a run, doing a few minutes of pre-hab and mobility before workouts, or getting in bed without a screen before 10 p.m.
Whatever you decide, the key here is to make small adjustments. Even if you want to do every single thing I mentioned above (if you’re like me, you could easily benefit from doing all of those things and more), the system only works if you narrow your focus in order to give yourself the best possible chance of success over the long haul.
Then, spend several months just focused on improving consistency in a single area. Not perfection. Consistency. What does this look like in practice? Let’s say your goal is to do strength training twice per week. While you may strive for a 30-minute routine at each of those sessions, you might find it hard to make time for them. Or you forget. So, consistency could mean doing a five-minute routine in place of the 30-minute routine instead of abandoning it. The more you do this, even when the exact execution varies, the more consistent you’ll become. And once one habit sticks, you know you’re ready to tackle another.
It’s easy to want to try and chase a PR at every race. But that’s not realistic or sustainable for most of us. Instead, pick one event in 2026. It could be spring, summer, fall or winter. Yes, race more if you want, but use other events as practice for the big event.
This doesn’t mean you can’t set goals for all your races; in fact I think it’s important to do so. Just avoid the pitfall of aiming for a PR every time you toe the line.
This is a framework I use every day. It’s a way of thinking that supports doing the best next thing to help you reach your goal. It could be adding in 5 minutes of mobility, skipping a run altogether and going to a yoga class, taking a nap or reading a book. It could also be pushing harder for the last two reps of a track workout. You get the idea.
But it’s important to help you maintain forward motion in a supportive way. And it almost always means that you’ll end up doing something that isn’t written into your training plan. And for many goal-oriented runners, knowing that sometimes not following the plan is the plan … is helpful.
Coach Greg McMillan, the lead coach of the Six Minute Mile Run Club, recently said that he has never coached an elite athlete who didn’t deviate from the training plan he had written. That’s affirming for the rest of us!
A goal map is simple and it only contains a few things that you can easily read through. Your 2026 goal map should include the following:
And put this map somewhere where you’ll look at it on a weekly basis so that you can hold yourself accountable. Better yet, join the Six Minute Mile Run Club, because we’re starting monthly accountability groups within our community where we’re doing this very thing for each other. And that’s so helpful. Sometimes it can be as simple as telling someone, “Here’s the first small step I’m taking this week.”
It’s too easy to put off change until next year. And sure, while next year is right around the corner, it’s better to go ahead and start today. So, answer this now, before you move on to your next thing: What is one small step you can take this week that supports the direction you want to go in 2026? And, it doesn’t matter how small of a step it is. Remember, very small steps make a very big difference.
Here’s to clarity, being consistent, and a grounded, fulfilling year of running. You’ve already begun, and you’re on your way.
More from Coach Greg McMillan: Consistency is King in Run Training and Strategies for Consistent Running
RELATED: Come Run With Us: All-New Six Minute Mile Run Club Debuts!
Senior editor Ashley Arnold is the director of brand at Fleet Feet and an ultrarunner who lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and two young children. She tells stories through video, words and photos, and is most at home running trails, adventuring in wild places with her family and sipping coffee while eating cake.
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