It's so easy to get carried away but this year I'll be focusing (some might say obsessing!) on 4 main goals:
- Run a sub-2 half marathon. A no-brainer, especially since it was my main goal last year and I just didn't get there. I WILL do it this year, no matter how many half marathons it takes. I've already signed up for the Southern California Half (7th January), Brighton Half (19th February) and Berlin Half (1 April).
- Complete my first marathon. I've always shied away from marathons, worried about whether I really had the time to train. But after seeing so many of you challenge yourselves at this distance, I just couldn't say no any longer. I've signed up for the Edinburgh Marathon on 27th May. For now, I just want to enjoy the race and finish.
- Compete in my first triathlon. Like the marathon, it felt like one of those things I had to try at least once in my life. I used to swim in high school so I'm not too worried about that (even though it's been decades since I've really been in the water) but the bike TERRIFIES me. I've never taken to riding a bicycle and the last time I owned one I was about 12! I've signed up for the London Triathlon on 23rd September, with a sprint in Seaford to warm up in August.
- Run 1500 miles. I was very, VERY tempted to go for 2012 miles. But I'll probably be working again soon and will likely have crazy hours (more on this later!)...and back at my old job I never really averaged more that 20 miles a week. So for now I just want to improve on last year, and 1500 seemed like a nice, round number!
Plus there's the usual small things I need to do in order to help achieve these things--stay hydrated, eat right, sleep well. But they're a given these days, right? :)
So there you have it. These are the goals I'm going to tackle in 2012. But in line with one of my non-running resolutions--don't stress too much about the small stuff--no matter what happens I'm just going to try and enjoy the ride!
What challenges have YOU dreamed up for 2012?
You're doing Edinburgh! I'm completely jealous! :) I think you have a great list for 2012. Can't wait to see you rock it!
ReplyDeleteLots of firsts for me in 2012--I'm excited. And still working for that elusive sub-2!
DeleteHi DimRun
ReplyDeleteWell done for getting out there and trying mile reps for the first time. There are many reasons why you maybe could reach the target pace, maybe you start too fast and accumulated too much acid lactic, maybe you were tired from your long run + hill reps, etc, etc. But don’t worry; you can try again next week. Maybe in a treadmill like I said, it will do all the pacing for you and it’s slightly easier. You are not the only one who missed on target paces during training. I tried for a long time to do mile reps at 6:25 without success but from last summer I managed to do a few and recently did a 2.5mile race averaging 6:17. Hard work and patience will get you far.
I could talk about speed training and running all day because I love it, twitter is too short and I thought it would be easier if I left a message on your blog. Let me tell a bit of my running ‘career’, in Nov 2008 I ran my first marathon in NY, I was sure I could beat the 4 hour mark. Well, I failed big time, the last few miles were horrible and I did it in 4:22. I felt really sick once I finished and though at time that I would not do that again.
Once I got back to the UK I wanted to know what went so wrong, having spent many years at uni I can be quite academic and I love books, so what I did I got loads of running books on the internet and experimenting with what they’d suggested and doing shorter races. I am very proud that in 2010 I ran my second marathon in Paris and got a massive PB of 3h23, I didn’t tell anyone my target time because I was too embarrassed to fail. But for me that was huge, taking 59min off your marathon PB. During that past year I realised how many things I got wrong when I was training for NY. Since then I have only finished another marathon and that was in Nottingham 2010, I was 15 seconds off my Paris PB but quite happy as there are loads of hills on the first 13 miles. Last year I didn’t run any marathon, I started triathlon racing, and my longest race was a half ironman. I am hoping next year I can attempt my first Ironman.
Well, what I wanted to suggest was a few books for you to buy and start reading, I find that training becomes more interesting if you know what each training session does to your body. The other thing is that sometimes you start listening to people and you get so many different views and that can be overwhelming. The last thing is that every person is different and training has to be personalized, what works for your friend might not work for you.
Here we go:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Racing-Serious-Runners-Rodgers/dp/0880118180/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327565196&sr=1-1 This is a great all around book, it covers distance raging from 5k to marathon and even cross country, I would read this one first.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Marathoning-Peter-Pfitzinger/dp/0736074600/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327565196&sr=1-4 This is about marathon training, written by the same author of the one above. I am using this for my London marathon training. Don’t be intimidated by the title. The difference between us and professionals is the volume of training and their speed, but in reality we have to do the same type of workouts.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nutrition-Marathon-Running-Jane-Griffin/dp/1861265905/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327565439&sr=1-1 This is about nutrition for marathon running, great read.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000UIQLYQ/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0071383085&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1AQVJYYYMD3QAHAQ9BY0 This one a good book too but for some reason it seems to only be available on kindle, it is a somewhat dated but it has a great section on speed training and weight training. It seems like the paperback has a ridiculous price.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Triathletes-Training-Bible-Joe-Friel/dp/1934030198/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1327565817&sr=1-1-catcorr This is an awesome book on triathlon, I read you would like to do one, so here we go. There is an excellent session on planning your season/year as an athlete and the importance of having breaks. Highly recommend.
Let me know what you think. I love to help people out, I am sure you will get to achieve your goals. Just keep working hard and train smart. My email is rodrigofreeman@hotmail.com