Setting My Goals

With this new adventure of racing I have come upon one of my biggest challenges.....setting goals. You see, I have this personality flaw, I tend to not just think big, but think too big sometimes, and that can be detrimental at times. My two major problems with this 1) I tend to push too hard, which resulted in an injury for the WBR in June and 2) I compare myself to others and their accomplishments. Don't misunderstand me, I think it is a wonderful thing to allow the energy and ability of others to help us focus on improving our own abilities, but for me, keeping that focus realistic is challenging.

Over the past few days I have thought long and hard about the intricacies of training for this half marathon. How do I keep myself focused on pushing to better my running abilities and at the same time stay healthy and injury free? My solution? As hard as it may be for me, baby steps. Plain and simple. This is going to be my first half marathon, and longest run to date, and I have to come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be the best/fastest runner there. What I do have to focus on is finding a pace that works for me and running MY race.

To do this I have begun to take my training in a new direction, still keeping it simple, yet challenging. I have started to incorporate weights into my workouts, to help with strengthening, and I have changed my thinking on how I actually run. Before I decided to start racing I would just go for a run. I never had to think about being quick or pacing myself. I just ran. I still have days that I just run, but I have also started to add some speed workouts to my schedule and have plans to add some more hills soon. I also need to start adding longer runs. My typical run has always been between 2 and 4 miles. That distance is not going to get me into half marathon condition! So, next week I will run my first "long" run. (Stay tuned for that recap).

So, now, it is time to reel in my (too) big thinking and stay realistic! And to help with this I found this really great quote. (those who know me know I love a good quote).

I try not to dance better than anyone else. I only try and dance better than myself.

-Mikhail Baryshnikov