The Christmas and New Year festivities are over, now's the time to think about the coming year.
I was able to close out 2009 by getting back to some reasonable mileage. I started running again after the PT visit. While I still have some knee pain, it's less than it was before and the combination of exercises, switching to the newtons, and not pushing things too hard seems to have helped. I was able to run 90 miles in the last two weeks of the month and easily make my previous year's resolution to run 100 miles every month.
When I set that goal last December it seemed like a big stretch. I was coming off my first ever 100 mile month and - truth be told - would have bet against myself achieving it. Last January I was just seeing how things went, not yet committed to a marathon. I closed out 2009 with 1735 miles and over 100 every month. I took the last 2 days off with sore calves (due to the newtons), otherwise it would have been 1750.
Moving into 2010
I want to try to run 200 miles / month. This one is very much injury dependent, so I'd be very happy if I ended up with 2400 miles, even if some months fell short. Realistically some will due to the cyclical nature of training around the marathons.
I want to run the Boston marathon in April, then either Chicago or New York (or both) in the fall. I may even run the Denver marathon too, although that wouldn't be for a time. Then I could sign up for Marathon Maniacs.
I'd like to go below 3.10 at Boston. Having run 2 marathons now I feel a little more comfortable with the distance. In both Chicago and CIM I was on target for below 3.15 and then lost time over the last 5 miles. With an injury free training session and better race and hydration strategy, I'm pretty sure 3.10 is a achievable.
If I do make 3.10 at Boston, then I'd like to shave more time off in the fall marathon. When I was 18 I thought I had a sub 3 hour marathon in me. If I'd run one then, then it's very likely I would have made it. That's still probably too lofty a goal for me, but if things go well in the races this year I'm not ready to rule it out as my ultimate marathon goal. I don't think there's any danger of me breaking that this year though.
I've already run a 1.31 half. To get the automatic qualification for New York I just need to lower that to sub 1.30. My initial half goal for 2010 will therefore be to do that, with the stretch goal to go below 1.28.
As for the shorter distances - I want to beat all my PRs from 2009. I want to get into the AA wave at the Bolder Boulder. That should be pretty realistic. I'll attack that through a 5K in the coming month - needing to get below 19.53. That's only 20 seconds faster than my current PR, set last summer. I didn't run many so this one I'm hoping I can knock off fairly soon.
I'd also like to run the Mount Evans Ascent in June. 14 miles up a mountain to the top of the highest paved road in North America at over 14,200 feet. Far higher than any Tour de France stage ever goes. This more 'because it's there'. I see Mount Evans every day from Denver, and have taken 2 scooters to the summit. It seems a natural progression to run up it.
I want to do this by training smarter. I've just ordered a soft heart rate monitor strap for my garmin. It's hard to know what my 'marathon pace' is - when I'm hoping to knock 10 mins off it, so I'm going to work out my maximum HR and tailor my workouts just as much off that than actual speed.
