25 track and field goals for sprints, distance, jumps and throws

Track and field goals for beginners

A first season is for showing up, learning the events and finishing races.

• Go to practice 3 times a week for a full season.
• Try 3 different events before you pick one.
• Run 400 m without walking.
• Do 5 starts from the blocks at every practice.
• Compete in 3 meets this season.

Sprint and hurdle goals

Sprint goals are small numbers: tenths of a second, a few steps, the first 20 m.

• Take 0.3 seconds off your 100 m this season.
• Run 200 m in under 30 seconds.
• Run 400 m in under 70 seconds.
• Stay low and drive for the first 20 m of every start.
• Take 3 steps between every hurdle for a whole race.

Middle distance and distance goals

Distance goals mix a race time with a weekly total you build toward it. The far end of that road is covered in marathon goals.

• Run 800 m in under 3 minutes.
• Run a mile, 1,609 m, in under 7 minutes.
• Run even 400 m splits in a 1,500 m race.
• Run 30 km a week for 8 weeks.
• Run the last kilometre of a 5,000 m as your fastest.

Jump and throw goals

Jump and throw goals are about repeating one movement until it holds up under pressure.

• Add 20 cm to your long jump.
• Clear a high jump bar 5 cm above your best.
• Hit the board without a foul on 5 jumps out of 6.
• Add 1 m to your best throw.
• Do 50 standing throws a week, for technique only.

Season and training goals

Season goals are counts you control, whatever the stopwatch says. For goals that fit any sport, see the wider list of goals for athletes.

• Set a personal best in one event this season.
• Attend 40 practices this season.
• Do the full warm up drills at every practice for 12 weeks.
• Lift 2 times a week for the 12 weeks before the season.
• Qualify for one championship meet.

What is a good track and field goal?

A good track and field goal is about what you do, not only about the mark you want. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport measured three kinds of goal. Process goals, about how you carry out a skill, had the largest effect on performance (1.36). Performance goals, like a time, came next (0.44). Outcome goals, like winning, had almost none (0.09).

So keep the time, and put a process goal under it. "Run 400 m in under 70 seconds" is the target. "Stay tall through the last 100 m in every rep" is how you get there.

More hours are not the whole answer. A review of sports studies found that deliberate practice explained 18 percent of the differences in performance, and only 1 percent among elite athletes. What you do in practice matters, so decide it in advance. Research on if-then plans found a medium to large effect from choosing when and where you will act.

How to track track and field goals

Track the work every week and the mark every meet. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that writing it down beat keeping it in your head.

Practices attended are a day count. Kilometres run or throws taken are amounts, the same shape as a running distance goal. A personal best is the result of those two, so it does not need a tracker of its own.

A season is long and most of it is training. A picture that fills up one practice at a time shows the work even in a week with no meet.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good goal for a first track season?

To attend every practice you can and to finish each race you enter. Add one small skill goal, like 5 block starts a session. Times improve quickly in a first season, so there is no need to chase one yet.

Should my goal be a time or a place?

A time, backed by a process goal. You control your own time more than you control who lines up next to you. In a review of 27 studies, goals about beating others had almost no effect on performance.

How many goals should I have for a season?

Three is plenty: one mark you want, one skill you practise, and one count, like practices attended. More than that and none of them gets looked at.