SMART Goals: Setting Up A Successful Season

Training Tips
Written By Sarah Portella

It has been a couple of years since I did a post on setting goals for the upcoming season. So, let’s dive in. Having a roadmap for your season is critical in helping you navigate your training load in relation to life, work, vacation, and all the things! By knowing where you want to go, you plan accordingly and do everything in your power to arrange training to be most beneficial to your long-term goals for the season. Today we are going to recap SMART goals to help you get there.

Defining SMART Goals

  • Specific

  • Measurable

  • Attainable

  • Realistic

  • Timely

Using this method can help because it turns vague ideas into something more tangible. The method can help provide clarity and motivation as the framework is now more clearly defined.

If you’d like a more details of breaking down the above listed goals, you can visit my post from 2023 where I define each goal.

Putting SMART Goals to Paper

Whenever I onboard a new client, I send them a document that helps them list out their goals for the season. In it I break down SMART goals. Their job is not just to come up with goals for their A race(s), but also goals throughout the training season. We break it down by Base Phase Goals, Build Phase Goals, Peak Phase Goals, and Season Goals. The roadmap becomes much more clear when we add checkpoints along the path to our main event. Were the goals hit in Base Phase? If so, then it’s pretty likely we can continue on and Build Phase goals are realistic. And so on. This also gives a chance to pivot throughout the season and hone in goals. Didn’t hit those Base Phase Goals? Okay, so what kind of detour do we need to take to get back on track? Are Build Phase goals still realistic? What about the season or A race goal?

Once all of my clients goals are on paper, we discuss if these are truly SMART goals for their current fitness, their time to train to reach these goals, etc. We fine tune if needed. If all looks good, we build the plan.

Circling Back

We’ve made our goals and built the plan. Now what? The final piece is to keep these goals somewhere they can be seen often. Whether they are taped up on the fridge or noted in a calendar, it’s important to keep them visible in order to continually be working toward reaching them! It’s now both the athletes job and the coaches job to work together to make sure training stays on the right path.

Have questions? I’d love to chat about how to properly set up goals for the season with you! Reach out via email: sarah@boltonendurance.com

Happy Training!


Sarah Portella
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