Yearlong Running Goals

I started running semi-regularly last February for the first time since middle school (when I was on the cross country team; our races were only ~2 miles). I participated in an 8k and a 5k last summer, but my running schedule was pretty haphazard. I would sometimes go weeks/months in between runs. As a result, my final mileage count for 2013 was only 108 miles. With this in mind, at the beginning of this year I decided that one of my goals would simply be to try and “run more”.

I’ve since made my running goals a little more specific. I would like to try and run three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday). I’ve usually been running a bit faster and working on my speed a little on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while Sundays have been reserved for longer, slower runs. Initially, I was thinking I’d go ~3 miles on the short days and ~5 miles on the longer days, but my distances have been creeping up a little bit. I actually completed my first 7+ mile run (7.26 miles, to be exact) earlier this week. I’m still a little sore from it, but it felt pretty amazing to be able to run that long. At the beginning of the year I was pretty pooped after just 5 miles. I will say that while I’m not running super fast, my pace isn’t too ridiculously slow. I managed to complete my 7+ mile run averaging an 8 minute, 49 second mile pace.

In addition to running more regularly, I also want to set a mileage goal for myself for 2014. I was thinkin’ 500 miles would be reasonable (if I averaged 3+3+5 miles a week, I’d leave myself a nice 72 mile cushion in case I miss a few runs due to travel/sickness/weather/injury). But then I thought that maybe it’d be more interesting if I planned a virtual route to run along, instead. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that my goal would be to run 544 miles this year. This is the same distance as running from my parent’s house in Oberlin, OH (where I went to high school) to my freshman dorm at Alfred University (where I went to undergrad) and back again. With this updated goal I have a slightly smaller margin for error (28 miles vs 72 miles), but with my runs getting longer I don’t anticipate any problems.

As of today, I’ve run 44.8 miles in 2014. At this pace I’ll only hit ~430 miles by the end of the year. Seems like I need to pick up the pace a little. But that should be easier once milder weather rolls around; I have missed a few runs already due to cold/ice.

44.8 miles also means that I’ve run from Oberin to southwest Euclid. Only 500 miles left!

running feb 8 2014

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Miles run in 2014: 44.8
Books read in 2014: 12

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