Outdoor Goals 2023

Over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about my running goals for 2022. There were no reasons to write it all up on this blog but I think spelling it out really helped to stick to my goals. Since it’s only 2 days till the end of the year, I wanted to take some time to reflect on them and set new goals for the next year.
Reflection #
Personal (running) Goals for 2022
- Run a half-marathon (March 2022) ✅
Only managed to run one in December but pretty happy with the time! - 5 km under 25 minutes ✅
My 5k PB this year was 25:05 in April at Tamagawa park run in Japan. I did run 5k in 24:58 on track 2 weeks ago though. Goal achieved! - Run all 400 km of the 66 lake trail around Berlin ❌
This obviously didn’t happen but did run the first leg of the trail. At least attempted. - Run a trail run race ✅
I did a 10k trail race in Berlin ( Herbstwaldlauf) which was super fun! - Do all the above injury-free 😐
There were a few injuries but nothing major. I had some pain in the sole of my feet (plantar fasciitis) from increasing my mileage too quickly. I also have some dull pain in my lower back but I don’t know if it’s from running or from my general bad posture. They were all blessings in disguise though. I learned more about my body, the importance of cross-training, and being patient with my training.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how I did and how I progressed so far!
Outdoor Goals for 2023 #
My goals for 2022 were focused on running but for 2023, I want to broaden them to activities in the outdoors in general (since this is a blog about the outdoors after all).
For 2023, I want to focus on two main activities which are running and climbing.
Running
In terms of running, I want to do more trails this year and travel to more races. Here are some of my more quantitative goals:
- PB in Berlin Half Marathon
- Run 5k under 23:30 (or beat my PB from when I was 14 at 22:37?)
- Run a trail race > 20k (maybe Innsbruck? Maybe Ireland?)
- Volunteer at a trail race/sports event
- Travel for a race
- Enter a marathon relay as a team
- Explore some routes from the 20 Green Walks in Berlin or the 400 km of the 66 lake trail around Berlin
- Walk/run a long trail (Kungsleden in Sweden, 14 days in the summer?)
Other running-related goals include:
- Work on my core to prevent back pain problem
- Train more strategically (strength training, proper training and nutrition planning)
- Work on flexibility and mobility
Climbing
- I’ve been trying to get back into bouldering recently and would love to go more regularly than once a week.
- I would also love to do a top-rope course and a lead-climbing course sometime within the first half of 2023.
- So I can go outdoor climbing in the summer!
- A bit unrelated - I want to take a hiking/ski-mo course offered by the DAV (maybe even in German!)
I guess that’s kind of it for now. I’ll probably be updating this from time to time and will try to do a quarterly/bi-annual reflection on my progress.
Looking forward to the new year ahead!