Looking back at my goals from the beginning of the year, it’s obvious that I’m either not goal-oriented or I’m just not very good at setting realistic goals. Here’s a look at what I wrote and where I’m at;
Mileage Goals:
3,500 miles for the year – I’ll be lucky to get 3,000 miles
1,000 miles during a 3-month stretch this winter – Kind of achieved if you count my skiing mileage
1,000 miles during a 3-month stretch this summer – Got up to about 850 miles
Time Goals:
Sub-17:30 5K – Ran one 3M and one 5K, best of 18:30
Sub-29:00 8K – Ran one 5M and one 8K, best of 30:02
Sub-36:30 10K – Started one 10K, DNF
6:00 pace for 15K – Ran one 15K at 6:25 pace
Sub-1:21 half – Ran one half in 1:24:38
Sub-2:50 marathon – Ran 3:12 at Boston
Other Goals:
Sub-3 at Boston and TCM would mean I’ve run sub-3 on every marathon course I’ve run - Not looking good.
It’s almost laughable to set time goals when I only run a certain distance once or twice a year.
During this morning’s 8 mile trail run I was thinking ahead and wondering how nice it’d be to just run without any worries of racing. If I want to run 80 mpw for the hell of it, so be it. If I want to run 30 mpw, that’s great too. I was ready to write racing off all together. Then I came to an intersection and there was a guy about 10 seconds ahead of me. Of course, I had to pick up the pace and not let him pull away from me. So much for ridding my competitive spirit in the course of one run. That didn’t last long.
I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on these topics once TCM has come and gone.
Speaking of TCM, they put out another fine press release today, highlighting their elite field.
Quote of the day;
“Olympian Dan Browne headlines a strong men’s field that will compete for the USA Men’s Marathon Championship. The field features over 20 runners that qualified for last November’s Olympic Trials Marathon, including 6 runners who finished in the top 25.” – TCM press release
A question you may or may not know the answer to, but with TCM being the US Championships why can't they get a better elite field? Granted the elites coming in have some solid times and I see we've got 6 of the top 25 from last year, but it's frustrating that we can't get guys like Abdi, Kannouchi, Meb, Rohatinsky, etc... Another way to put it is they're missing 19 of the top 25 from last year. Is it a prize money issue? If so, it sure would be nice if USATF would step up with some serious prize money to put the national championships on par with NYC & Chicago. Maybe some of these guys I mentioned are just taking time off
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. My guess would be that some of those top guys (like Meb and Abdi) don't "need" the money.
Here's the prize structure at TCM;
Place/Amount
1 $25,000
2 $15,000
3 $10,000
4 $7,000
5 $5,000
6 $4,000
7 $3,000
8 $2,000
9 $1,000
10 $500
Plus mabye Abdi had a long year if you think about TC10 last year, Marathon Trials, 10,000m trials.
Finally, I imagine some of the top guys will be at Chicago or NYC.
Overall it seems like a pretty strong American field. If you look at any US Championship race, 5K on up, the fields are often lacking depth. Maybe those guys don't put a lot of emphasis on National Championships.