New Beginnings

I have never been one of those guys that can train non-stop all year long. I can usually stay pretty strong from January - October when I run my fall marathon. After the marathon, I can sometimes extend things for maybe a month or two, but at some point I need to just stop. I need to reacquaint myself with David Letterman and other late night TV viewing. Well, OK. Maybe not David Letterman, but at least the 10 o'clock news. I need to wake up at 7AM and not worry about the fact that my window to run for the day has probably already closed. I need to eat a normal lunch at work and not worry about hurrying off to the gym. I have to be normal. At least for 1 month out of the year I have to be.

And then, when that month or so is over, I need to start running even more than I needed to stop running a few weeks back. The drive returns. The drive to wake up and feel like I am accomplishing something, or at least working towards something. The desire to feel lean and fit. And fast.

This will be my third year following a higher mileage plan. During the first year, I was basically just surviving the mileage. Despite that survival mode, I PRed in every distance that I raced that first year, which showed me that this high mileage stuff really does work. The second year, I feel like I was really able to do high mileage AND train, which wasn't always the case that first year. I was able to PR in 5K, 8K, 10K, and Half-Marathon. Unfortunately, there was no marathon PR last year, which really leaves me itching to get one this year. So that's the goal this year.

I feel like there are definitely things I need to improve on if I want to accomplish the goals. First off, I need to be more consistent. Two years ago when I started this blog, I was close to fanatical about getting the mileage in. I simply wouldn't miss my mileage goal for the week. This created some rather lopsided weeks of running where I was chasing miles throughout the week. While that may not seem like the brightest thing in the world to do, it worked for me, because it kept me working towards a tangible short-term goal.

Last year, I was a little more realistic about my running, and allowed myself to back-off every now and then if things were getting too much to handle. This worked OK most of the time, but I'll admit this approach does scare me. It's a slippery slope when you start to give yourself breaks. A day off here, leads to an easy week there, which leads to lower mileage, which kills PRs. At least for me it does. I need to keep piling it on to keep myself moving forward.

So this year I want to more consistent with my mileage, but I also want to be more focused on my runs. I think I sometimes get a little rudderless when it comes to training. I need to make more of a deviation between recovery runs and training runs. Everything should have a purpose. Including this blog. If you see something that doesn't seem right to you, call me on it. I won't be offended. I value the feedback. My intentions here are purely selfish. It's to make myself a better runner.

I won't bore you with what I've been up to so far this year. It has been mostly just getting my legs back under me. I think that has been accomplished. The fun stuff is to follow.

PS...I'm glad to get this first post out of the way. I hate the "I'm back" post. Hopefully this is the only one I'll have to write this year.