Reverse Goal Setting for Runners: Breaking Through Limits by Planning Backward

The Strategy That Turned Me From Non-Runner to Ultramarathon-Podium Finisher in 8 Months

I sat on the bench in disbelief. The muscles in my right calf twitched, and sweat ran down my back. Slowly, my heart rate dropped back to normal. Just eight months prior, I couldn’t run a single kilometer, and now I had run 61 — on trails, in a race, and I placed third.

The transformation felt surreal.

How did someone who hadn’t run a single step in over eight years manage to complete — and excel at — an ultramarathon in such a short time?

The answer wasn’t found in some revolutionary training method or genetic gift. It was in my approach to goal setting.

Instead of choosing the more traditional route of looking at my current abilities and deriving the next steps from them — targeting a 5K, then a 10K, maybe a half marathon if progress was good — I chose a different approach.

I worked backward, creating a roadmap that led me from complete beginner to podium finisher in less than a year.

This approach — reverse goal setting — has since become the cornerstone of my running and continues to guide my race selection and…