Run Your Race: Goals That Actually Fit Us

Run Your Race: Goals That Actually Fit Us

From Back of the Pack Podcast by Kyle Walker

May 15, 2026 · 31 min · Season 4 · Episode 58

About this episode

The episode discusses how to set running goals that align with personal circumstances and motivations rather than external pressures.

This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our accidental-but-apparently-working Run Your Race series continues with a simple question: do our running goals actually fit us? After talking about runfluencers and the comparison traps that come from friends, watches, race results, and old PRs, we shift into rebuilding something better: goals based on our real lives. We look at the many pieces that should shape a running goal, including current fitness, schedule, health history, motivation, recovery, season of life, and the reason we run in the first place. From Death by 5K to Sydney Marathon training, we talk through why a goal can sound exciting and still be wrong for the season we are in. This episode breaks down the difference between outcome goals, like finishing a marathon or chasing a PR, and process goals, like running consistently, strength training, sleeping better, fueling properly, and finishing a training cycle healthy. We also dig into the power of setting A, B, and C goals so race day does not become an all-or-nothing scoreboard. Sometimes the dream day happens, sometimes we get a solid effort, and sometimes just finishing the dang thing is the win. At the…

People in this episode

Host: Kyle Walker

Topics covered

  • running goals
  • fitness
  • motivation
  • training
  • goal setting

Keywords

  • running goals
  • fitness
  • motivation
  • training cycles
  • process goals
  • outcome goals
  • goal setting

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