Running... 2012 style!

I've been thinking a lot over the past week or so about my running goals for 2012. 

I like goals.  Goals keep me moving in a direction.  They keep me moving forward.  They give me something to look back on and feel a sense of accomplishment about.  (Here's a link to last year's goals...) I accomplished almost everything off my list from last year.  Which makes me feel great!

I ran the Flying Pig... unfortunately I didn't break the 2 hour mark.  It was a crappy day and several things led to it not happening. But overall: I was pleased with the day's effort.  I ran the Air Force Marathon... and did better than I thought I would.  I broke the 24 minute mark in the 5k not once, but twice.  I didn't get a chance to run an official 10k.  My weight thing is doing pretty well... I'm hanging right around 230.  I could use to lose a few pounds... but we'll see how I am after the holiday sweets are out of the house for the season.

All in all... 2012 was a successful year running for me. 
Plus, I destroyed my goal of running 750 miles.  I actually racked up 1201.43 miles for the year.  That's incredible to me.  I ran 217 times over the course of the year making my daily running average about 5.5 miles.  Counting all the days of the year, including non-running days, I still averaged 3.3 miles per day.  Awesome!

So... where shall I go in 2012?
Half Marathon:
This will likely be the last year that I set out to run a half marathon and train for it.  That's not to say that I will never run the half distance again... I'm just finding it difficult to think about training.  I'm in winter maintenance mode (which means I'm really not running hard or pushing it) and I'm currently running more than my half training schedule instructs.  But I'm going run the Cap City Half in Columbus in May with Jackie and Donnie (our worship minister).  That will make it extra fun!  My plan is to train for it like it's a marathon and smash the two hour mark and maybe hit the 90 minute mark (we'll see). 

Full Marathon:
I'm planning to knock another race off my bucket list... the Chicago Marathon in October.  My bucket list contains the major marathons... New York... Boston... Chicago... I thought I'd go ahead and knock it off! I'm planning to break the 4 hour mark in the marathon while I'm at it.  Additionally, I will be running to raise funds for Active Water. I'm joining their "Team Chicago."  But more on that later...

Times:
As I already stated... besides breaking the 2 hour and 4 hour marks in the half and full respectably, I have my eye on breaking the 22 minute mark in the 5k.  Hopefully I'll be ready to test my time at the Caldwell Fireman's Festival in July again.  In my last 5k, I was only 57 seconds from breaking that barrier...

Run Streak(???):
I caught on a couple of days late... but I picked up on the Runner's World Run Streak Challenge.  It was an unofficial run streak challenge to run every day (at least a mile) between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The idea was to fight off the effects of the holiday cookies, parties and sweets with a run every day.  I thought it was worth a shot. For me, today was day 36. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue it or not.  I like the rhythm of running every day... but it is also time consuming.  We'll see how long it continues.

10k
I have never run a 10k race.  I'm hoping this will be the year that changes.  Maybe I should go and see if I can find one.    

So... there are a few things that are running around in my head as I begin to run into the new year.  We'll see how the new year goes.  I'm excited about what it holds. 

JC


Tweet