You guys, it’s a new year.
 
Everywhere you look, you’ll see something that says it’s also a time for a new you. New look. New outlook. New whatever.
 
That’s true – a new year can feel like a new shot at whatever you need a new shot at. The key to making any change is dedication. Commitment. And an understanding of what motivates you, how to set goals and then to be fearless enough to try to meet them.
 
That’s why I sat down with Jacqui Meadors, a local runner and running coach, to talk about how to make this year your best running year. She coached middle and high school girls in track and cross country and now coaches women with Sioux Falls Women Run. And she’s an accomplished runner in her own right, so you know she understands when you tell her it hurts.
 
 
Name: Jacqui Meadors, coach with 605 Running Co. and Sioux Falls Women Run
Age: 36
From: Sioux Falls
Family: Rob (Husband), Claire, 3; Nora, 2 and Lauren, 9 months
Favorite race: New York Marathon, which she and her husband did on their honeymoon
Favorite distance to race: 10-miler
 
I don’t think she’ll mind if I share all her secrets. Here they are:
 
On goals: I always think it’s good to re-evaluate your goals and where you’re at short-term and long-term. … What do I want to do this year in terms of my running, or what do I want to try, and how do I want to challenge myself?
 
On the value of the little picture: When people have big, huge goals, they get scared to go for them. If you have a short-term goal, you can reach it, and then that’s the building block for anything. … If you can reach it, you have that confidence in yourself. The mental set is such a big part of it.
 
On the big picture: Sometimes those goals seem unattainable, but they aren’t. You just have to take the steps.
 
On training in cycles: When you break it down into these goals (short-term plans within a larger structured long-term program) and constantly reassess, then that long-term goal isn’t such a big deal. It’s all about the process. This is something I just learned through the help of Grant Watley (one of the owners of 605 Running Co.). There are those days you’re nailing things, and those days you’re not. That really helped me mentally, and it helped me physically. I was never looking too far ahead and never getting too nervous about what was coming.
 
OK, but what about when you don’t make it? I’ve missed my goals, and I think you just realize you’re human. The one thing I was always told was that tomorrow always comes. It’s OK to miss things. You have to show people it’s work, and it’s not an easy process.
 
Wait, is this what they call perspective? Really, you’re the only one who knows. Your close friends know, but it doesn’t change who you are as a person.
 
On not having goals: People don’t always understand why you’re in a race – that’s why you can’t compare yourself. I ran a couple races when I was coming back from pregnancy just to run them, not to race them. You don’t know if you’re going out for a race and someone else is going out for a run.
 
On balance: Running or fitness is just one part of a person’s life. And so to isolate it isn’t a very good choice. You’re a runner, but that’s just one part of who you are. To reach those goals, you have to have your other goals in check, too. What am I doing with my family and my job, and so you have to set other goals.
 
On answering people who say, “I don’t have time to run like you do!” We all have the same amount of time. It’s just how you use your time. If you want to run, if you want to go to church, do whatever, it’s just a matter of allotting your time. 
 
On making excuses: Does life get in the way? Sure. Your kids get sick. You have to readjust. You just don’t want to make it a habit, because then you’re just not dedicated. And that’s OK.
 
On coaching with the Sioux Falls Women Run training team: There’s a real enjoyment there. You’re talking about women who want to better themselves, not just for them, but for their kids. You’re inspiring people behind them.
 
 
We sat and visited for about an hour while her daughters played with my daughter’s dollhouse (because other kids’ toys are always fun). It was a really nice afternoon just talking. Obviously I knew she would be amazing just because of her first name. But she was amazing because she was humble and friendly and easygoing. We moved from topic to topic and shared some of our running stories. Out of all of the notes from that sunny winter day, here’s my favorite bit of advice: “For the men and women who have been running a long time, they have some pretty lofty goals they are afraid of. What could you do if you just weren’t scared? There’s nothing to be scared of. … What am I scared of? I could try.”
 
That’s good advice for just about anything in life.

​Jacqueline Palfy is a longtime runner, reader and writer, marathoner, mom and board member of the nonprofit Sioux Falls Area Running Club. Her contributions to the 605 Running Co. blog will appear each Tuesday. You can follow her on Twitter @runnerJPK or reach her at [email protected]. Story ideas are encouraged.

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As I write this, there’s nothing I can do about it.
 
The end of the year is quickly approaching, and I realize I’m nowhere near where I was last year when it comes to yearly mileage. Actually, that might not be entirely true – I’m afraid to look to see how far off I actually am. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think.
 
It’s kind of like when I look in my bank account. Or clothes closet. How bad is it, really?
 
For the past six or seven years, I’ve tracked my mileage on an Excel spreadsheet created by the Dead Runners Society. It’s a glorious spreadsheet – you can track daily, weekly, monthly and yearly mileage. And if you’re organized enough, your lifetime miles, importing the new base number every year.
 
You can choose which of five pairs of shoes you wore for a run, so if you’re like me and have road shoes and trail shoes and sometimes shoes and old shoes you grabbed in the dark one morning, you can see when you’re quickly approaching max mileage on them (and then peek back into that bank account to see if you can save yourself).
 
My level of fancy with my running log is pretty limited to those features, but if you want, you can add commentary on each run or what kind of workout it is – a race, a tempo run, a recovery day. You can put in a plan and see if you hit it. Or track your weight (worse than the bank account). It’s a pretty sweet spreadsheet – and has something called a “parrot predictor,” which takes the fastest 26.2 miles you ran in a given week and predicts your marathon time. It’s a fun way to see if you’re getting faster or slower over a year, or what your average training paces were a different year.
 
What I love the most, though, is just going back to see what my training looked like at different times – how did I ramp back up after that stress fracture? What was my peak mileage before that race, and did it pay off? Why do I always end up with such a crappy February? I blame the short month, not a waning motivation before a spring panic.
 
Not everyone tracks their mileage – but when I asked people in the 605 Running Co. community, Sioux Falls Women Run and the Sioux Falls Area Running Club if they do, I got a ton of responses. It’s fun to see how many people still adore the red paper spiral-bound log – runners Chris Anderson and Sara Lefebvre have years of them, with notes and commentary from various runs. (Full disclosure: I tried this one year, after being full of jealousy about Chris’ lifelong journal held together by miles, and I stopped writing in it about a month after getting it – shameful for a writer to admit. I blame arthritis. If I could type in it … . )
 
Others use online programs, from relying on the sketchy tracking of Strava to uploading from a Garmin. Others join different social media groups, trying to reach a mileage goal every year – a common one is to run the year, so 2017 miles this year.
 
A year can bring a lot of changes – from injury to motivation to life getting in the way. Ice storms and lightning, heat waves. Sick kids, spouses, work conferences. Lunch breaks bookended by meetings, so you can’t sneak out for an extra 15 minutes and another mile or two.
 
You name it, and it can happen over the course of 365 days. That’s part of why I don’t set a hard mileage goal for myself. Instead I try to get close to a certain weekly mileage, don’t worry too much when I don’t hit it, but I also don’t let too much time pass between, so I don’t get lazier and lazier.
 
But with every instance that can derail us over the year, there are just as many that can push us closer and closer to whatever our goals are.
 
A perfect spring day, the sky clearing as you step outside. A trail run that feels so good that you add on another half hour, just because. A crisp winter day, blue, blue sky and no wind – you have to take advantage. An offer from a friend to take the kids to basketball and the realization that you can clean your house another time, what you need right now are a few miles alone.
 
Runners are made day by day, week by week, month by month.
 
Year by year, mile by mile, uploaded from a phone, written on a wall calendar or scrawled into a notebook next to a box of tangled medals and crumpled bibs, the pins dangling from the corners.
 
However you record it, they’re your miles. Go run them.
 
Jacqueline Palfy is a longtime runner, reader and writer, marathoner, mom and board member of the nonprofit Sioux Falls Area Running Club. Her contributions to the 605 Running Co. blog will appear each Tuesday. You can follow her on Twitter @runnerJPK or reach her at [email protected]. Story ideas are encouraged.
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