Thursday, January 03, 2008

DAUNTING

The good news is that it warmed up to 13 degrees this morning. The bad news is that the wind picked up. Right now it says it’s 17 mph with gust up to 26 mph. There’s talk of temps in the mid-30s to 40 this weekend. That’ll be nice. Hopefully it’ll be enough to clear the snow off all the paths.

Anyway, I managed an easy 10 miles this morning. My left hip is still sore to the touch, but okay to run. I think it has more to do with falling while skiing, rather than skiing itself.

I haven’t seen a lot of New Year’s resolutions in blog-land – maybe runners tend to avoid that stuff and just go with the goal setting instead. I haven’t set any resolutions either, however, I’m going to try and cutback on eating my way through all the crap in the office. Hopefully, now that the holidays are over, that’ll be a lot easier just by not having as much around.

As for goals, I’ve mentioned a few here and there. I suppose I put a little more thought into them and write them all down in one place. Here’s what comes to mind;

Mileage Goals:
3,500 miles for the year
1,000 miles during a 3-month stretch this winter (i.e. November – January or December – February)
1,000 miles during a 3-month stretch this summer (i.e. May – July or June – August)

Time Goals:
Sub-17:30 5K
Sub-29:00 8K
Sub-36:30 10K
6:00 pace for 15K
Sub-1:21 half
Sub-2:50 marathon

Other Goals:
Sub-3 at Boston and TCM would mean I’ve run sub-3 on every marathon course I’ve run.
Run the Pavvo Nurmi Marathon for “fun”.
Run a 50K for “fun”.

I’m sure there are more, but that’s a good start. Now that I look at the list, it’s kind of daunting. My highest yearly mileage is 3,204, I’ve only had one 3-month stretch of 1,000 miles in my life, and I haven’t run any of the times for 5K – half since my college days. However, if I can run the mileage goals, I think the time goals will come. Probably the safest goals are the last two.

Quote of the day;

“It’s a practice in not quitting.” – Pat Williams, Orlando Magic coach on why he runs marathons

5 comments:

  1. Hey Chad, I'm getting ready to move to Minneapolis this weekend. I'm trying to decide on a spring half-marathon in preparation to run TCM this fall. Do you have any good thoughts?

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  2. Well, there are lots of good races around. You can find most of them listed here; here. The "schedule" tab on the left isn't complete for 2008 yet, so it's probably best to look at the "results" tab to see the list of races in 2007. Holler if you need more help - and welcome to the Twin Cities.

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  3. I have similar goals, minus the 2:50 so I have one more reason to read your blog, which is always an excellent read.

    Are you running Boston as well? I'll be there.

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  4. Ambitious goals! They sound very similar to the ones I posted last night! Good luck in '08.

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  5. Hey Adeel, yeah I'm planning on running Boston. I don't know if I'll be in 2:50 shape by then though. That may have to wait until the fall.

    Nathan, there's no sense in having goals that aren't ambitious.

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