Tuesday evening, once again I was asked what my running goals were for this year, and once again I did not have much of an answer. I'm not so goal-oriented (duh, like we haven't figured that out before). The process is fun, so do with that what you wish. Nonetheless, in the back of my mind (figuratively speaking, as I don't know for certain if it's in the front, back, side, or spread all around like a fragmented file), I have some ideas which might qualify as goals by some definitions.
Most of all, I want to remain physically able to run twenty miles a week or so, at least eight months out of the year (Sept-April) for at least another twenty years. A worthy goal. Why this number? The past few years it's been working out well. Spread over three runs/week, this mileage has proven enough to help with my weight management, and provide enough fitness to prevent embarrassment in the local races.
Not that this qualifies as a goal for this year or anything, but any goals I establish need to mesh with this one. Which brings us to the marathon question. I explained to the questioner, who happens to be my LMT and an elite athlete herself, that even though I've been running off and on for years, 2007 was the first time I'd ever done a race longer than 10k, and thus still considered myself a sophomore in distance running. Doing a marathon this year was a bad idea. Her response? "Doing one ever is a bad idea." Part of me agrees with that thought (actually several parts, notably both knees and the soles of my feet), but I responded that of course a marathon was still on the life checklist, just not yet.
This year, cycling goals are more important. I won't be in the younger third of my age group much longer, so now is the time to see if I can become competitive again. Running, especially in excess, hurts the cycling, so I want to give the road scene a better shot before focusing on marathon training. There's also the problem of timing. I don't run at all during the summer (at least not yet), which makes prepping for a fall marathon a problem, and winters around here tend to suck, so I'm not all that keen on an early spring race either. That leaves late spring, which would f-up the cycling season, so until I care less about bike racing, no marathon.
I've been asked a bunch of times if I'm going back to the New Bedford half this year. The answer is I don't know. It falls pretty early, so I could probably do it and bounce back for April cycling, but I may want to wrap up the running sooner than that. See where I'm going with this? No goals yet. I've looked around for a "destination race" but nothing has jumped out at me, and I'm not sure how robust the travel budget will be anyway. During that search, I found some interesting duathlons, but nobody seems to care about those. I see them as a good way to push the fitness envelope though, so I haven't ruled them out.
So there you have it, no goal. What a tease. How about this - I need to back up my suspiciously fast time from the Newport 10k. After Raynham, I was pretty bummed because my 6:17 pace over the 15k distance was so much slower than the sub-6 at Newport. After review, I realized this was still the fastest pace I'd ever run for a race over 10k. Furthermore, this was a full six weeks post-Newport, during which time I purposely let my fitness go. So maybe this wasn't so embarrassing after all. The only way to find out will be to validate the Newport time with something similar. I don't have a 10k on the calendar, but I'll settle for a sub 29 (or really close to it) at the Paddy Kelly, or less than 1:01:30 at Foxboro. There you go. Black and white. Real goals. Thanks for reading.
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