by Coach Ray Nypaver
High-level performance isn’t just about pushing harder, but rather it’s about making better decisions under stress. The runners who improve year after year are the ones who can regulate effort, recover well, and adjust intelligently when training or life doesn’t go exactly as planned. Goals rooted in clarity rather than pressure lead to better consistency, lower injury risk, and more effective adaptation over time.
The framework below is designed to support both results and longevity. It keeps outcome goals in view while prioritizing the systems such as habits, mindset, recovery, and self-awareness that actually determine performance on race day. Whether you’re chasing a PR or aiming to stay strong and motivated for the long haul, this approach helps you explore what you’re capable of without burning out.
As we start 2026, and soon the year of the (fire) horse, Coach Ray Nypaver wants to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for success in the best way possible and using some scientifically backed research.
First and foremost, it’s important we revisit some of recent our pawsitivity posts:
(Shared on Instagram and Strava)
1) Love makes you brave: When our foundation is unconditional love, we have more willingness to both take risks AND no one it’s time to step back. We know when a goal that scares us a bit is a goal born through inspiration vs. a goal of the ego (I’m not enough as I am/ I need to prove myself). And no matter what, we know we’ll be okay, whether we succeed or fail (make a mistake to learn from)…which also settles our nervous system. And a relaxed nervous system actually helps us be our best selves.
2) Your job is NOT to reach your potential. Your job IS to explore the possibilities of your potential. For some of us, that will mean reaching what we are physically capable of. For others of us, it will mean we learn how to work with our negative thoughts and beliefs and turn towards compassion, which IS reaching our highest self.
Okay, now we can start goal setting:
*If you did each week of the Steps to Adventure plan with me, you’ll realize this is a summary of that, especially the Peak Goal Setting model in Step 5 (attached).
Why/(Big) Intention: Yes, we still want to have an understanding of why your goals are important to you, why they matter. While they don’t have to be profound, they should be deep enough to touch the heart.
It might be something like “I want to experience more joy in my life because I know the more joy I allow myself to feel, the more others in my life will give themselves permission to experience more joy too. And doesn’t the world need more joy?” Or more simply, “I want to experience more joy in my life, because I know I am worthy of it.” (If you do want to go profound, we could talk about the rates of depression in the world and how that is keeping good people from stepping up into their power and ability to influence with voices and hearts.)
The why comes from your heart.
Values: Know what you care about in life! Know your priorities! These will help ground you, especially if the mind/ego gets caught up in a goal. The paradox is, of course, that the more grounded we are the higher we can fly. Becoming attached to our goals puts us into a fear state. Shooting towards them with a loose grip and knowing what matters most in life keeps us inspired but relaxed. A relaxed nervous system means we have more energy to run and create.
Outcome goals: These are your race goals, PR goals, etc. Yes, these are important and we should absolutely set them… but truly, these goals are secondary. They are what inspire us to explore our potential, our energy, and what we can do with our energy in physical form. For those of you who have Instagram, Coach Sandi recently shared this: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTWC05-kQ6T/
Outcome goals are mainly of the mind, but should be influenced by the heart.
Action Goal: These are daily and weekly habits or actions. (On a slightly bigger scale, these might be B races leading up to your A race). It could be running 3-5x each week, but for more of you, it’s more like getting in mobility 3-5x each week, asking yourself each morning before you run: What does my body need today? Or, I’m going to pat myself on the back each time I take 1 minute to practice diaphragmatic breathing during the day. (Little rewards, like acknowledging yourself, activate the reward center of your brain making it more likely that you’ll repeat the activity and increase self-esteem. Contrary to what we like to believe, self-judgment often has the opposite effect.)
Daily Intention: We have this reminder in one of our “Getting Started” boxes in Final Surge, and it’s a great way to make sure you’re not just going through the motions, keeping your love for running, and continuing to improve- even if it’s making sure your easy days are truly easy! It might be running based: I want to work on my form today, or technical trail practice, or a little more personal: I want to practice mindfulness and presence today, so when my mind wanders back to work, I’ll come back to my breath or surroundings. YOU CAN ALSO look back at your values and why, and integrate those more deeply. (From the therapy side of my job, I know I can write down and say all the things I’ve learned all I want, I know self-compassion is one of the best healing tools we have and I know negative beliefs can be composted and rewritten, but it doesn’t mean anything unless I actively integrate these lessons and practice them in my daily life.)
Obstacles: What obstacles do you see getting in your way on your path towards your goal, or potential? Is it a busy life? Work stress? Or knowing you have a tendency to push through fatigue and injury? We want to plan these out, but not without…
Plan How You Want to Work Through Obstacles: If you know you have a busy week coming up, you can coordinate with me/your coach, to have that be a recovery week in running. If you know you’re good at pushing through, maybe set a reminder on your phone that: Rest results in future growth and recovery allows for strength. We need the Yin and the Yang.
Of course, we can’t plan everything…but we can plan how we want to treat ourselves when things are hard and know who our support team is. At Higher Running, we hope you know that we care about each one of our athletes as people first, runners second.
Last, here’s a helpful, 7 minute meditation to get your goal setting started for the year:
(I’ve written enough for this email, but research now shows that self-compassion is beneficial to/can improve performance.)
Wishing everyone a beautiful, magical, and successful (how you choose to define it) 2026!