3 Down, 1 To Go

Quarters of the year that is.

I started the year 2009 with some pretty firm “resolutions”.

*I wanted to be more consistent with my running than I had ever been previously, and completely fill out my training log.

*I set a mileage goal for myself, which seemed steep at the time.

*I even set a few time goals for race distances I knew I’d be running this year.

Now that 3 quarters of the year have passed, I have 1 left to go to fulfill my ambitions. I decided to reflect on what’s happened so far and make sure I’m on track for the last 3 months of the year.

*As far as consistency, I give myself an A! Taking a quick look at my 2009 log book shows runs about 4 to 6 days per week. From the beginning to now, I’ve averaged 15 – 25 miles per week.

*My mileage goal was 900 miles for the year. As of today (10/7/09) I am at 820 miles. I give myself a A+ on this one.

*My time goals / PR’s for races. Well…… See, this is where I’m lacking. My fastest 5K for the year was a good 2 minutes slower that my PR 5K. I hit a 10K at 30 seconds slower than my 10K PR. And on and on and on… my race times aren’t spectacular by any means for 2009.

Although, if I were to grade myself on the fun and experience of all the races I’ve run in 2009 I would definitely go for the A range. That part of my running IS important and I have enjoyed all of it to the fullest.

That’s where I started pondering some things….

Do I want to get faster and see better race times? Yes….

Am I getting any faster on my own? Nope, it doesn’t look that way.

I’ve managed to go FURTHER, by simply adding mileage to long runs slowly week by week. That’s easy. But, how do I get any faster?

That is the weak link in my chain. The way I was plodding along was something like this: I’ll decide to run faster tomorrow during a run. Then the next week I don’t “feel” like doing anything but logging the miles. Then the next week I would forget I even wanted to get any faster. I was getting very good at logging the miles. Sure, that is hard for some people, but for me I would just write down how many miles I planned to run each day of the week and do it. Although looking back, they were mostly what I think are called “junk miles”?????

Here I am today, in the first week of October. What Now?

Chuck and I both have been talking about wanting to get better, faster, and stronger with our running and race times. Last week we did something I am so happy we decided to do. I am also grateful that the opportunity was there for us. We met with RC for the first time and were pleasantly surprised and highly impressed by his knowledge of the sport, his passion about the sport, and his willingness to help others with a mutual desire to improve as a runner.

We’ve officially been schooled:
Learning very specific information and given some pretty clear rules to follow. He gave us guidelines on creating weekly training and plans all the way down to what paces to run specific distances and HR levels. Not to mention some AMAZING spreadsheets to pour over. I love spreadsheets!

Although I have this huge resource now, I think I have even MORE questions. Luckily Sam is very helpful and so nice about giving advice. I’m sure before I know it I’ll be confident in my training and have a clear plan and direction from the big picture down to my planned mile split times.

I CANT WAIT!!!!

More to come……