December 28 – Achieve. What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today. (Author: Tara [...]This is a tough choice for me. I have two very clear but competing running-related goals and it's hard to say which I want more. And the one I think I want more is actually the WRONG answer. I've been working on thinking of non-running-related goals/resolutions for 2011, but I haven't given it sufficient thought yet and sadly will likely wait until Jan. 1 or 2 to make my 2011 resolutions officially.
Anyway, a friend on facebook had asked the general question: what one fitness-related goal do you most want to do next year. I told her it was tough to pick one.
The two big goals I have for next year are to get a marathon PR and to get a 5k PR.
But the whole point of my friend's question was to pick ONE, which is similar to what this reverb prompt wants. Which do I want more? Honestly, as much as I hate to say it, I think I really want the 5k PR. And I will feel tired and sore from the major effort it will take (and probably thirsty, and maybe hungry and/or like I have to puke) but I will also feel proud of myself, happy, successful, triumphant, blissful, and free (from pressure to improve, even if only temporarily) if/when I do it.
Why do I want the 5k PR more than the marathon PR? Sadly, but truthfully, to beat Adam. We've tossed our 5k title back and forth several times and he has now held it for almost a year and a half. When I had my amazing 5k in September, it was marred only by the realization when I got home that I was 1 second behind his PR. If only I'd gone 1 second faster, I could have tied him! Or a mere two seconds to beat him! I seriously could have done that, why hadn't I pushed just a tiny bit harder??!! When Adam gave a toast at my rehearsal dinner, the 5k title was mentioned, and he admitted that it was in my hands at the time but he was ready to reclaim it, which he did just a few months after I got married. It's high time I took that title back.
But it's more than just beating him. I'm sure as soon as I beat him and get the title, he'll race another 5k seriously and the title will be his. I think he'll likely always be faster than me -- he's a guy, he's younger, and he's completely a natural athlete. He played sports professionally and is just a machine when he puts in the time and effort. Plus that pro sports thing probably gives him a mental edge in terms of competition, drive, threshold for pain, etc.
But if I can get a PR, I'll be so proud of myself -- it will predict an even faster marathon time for me, which will give me the confidence to push harder in a marathon and in training, and really make me believe that it can happen.
And beyond that even, the 5k is my main goal because I loooove running 5ks. It's like, it's just over so fast! I mean, you start running, you keep running, and then you're done, and it hasn't even been that long since you started. Even a fast marathon for the world's elites takes HOURS, plural! And I'm not even close to that fast! 5ks are plentiful, filled with interesting people, and can be fun to be competitive. I'm just not fast enough to be really competing with anyone other than my own goals in a marathon.
A final reason I want the 5k goal the most is that in this past year I met my long-standing marathon goal -- qualifying for Boston. For many years that goal seemed out of reach, and now that it's finally a reality, I'll admit I'm not sure where to go next with distance running. I've discussed that on this blog before, and I've concluded that I'm going to run Boston as hard as I can and then re-evaluate, but I may transition to doing races for scenery and experience rather than time, or move to running ultras and/or running on trails, or just stick to shorter races after I finish the last few marathons that I really want to do.
But having my 5k PR being the main thing I want to achieve in 2011 doesn't fit into my training plan well.
I am going to have a new running coach starting on Sunday, Jan. 2 for Boston. And I had to work hard to be qualified to become this guy's coachee (? at a loss for a better word?). And I am confident from what I've heard from others that this running season with him as my coach is going to be the best and most challenging of my life. It's a privilege to be coached by him and he gets tons of people to massively fast PRs in Boston and other spring marathons.
But the coaching program is very strict. Among the rules, no races unless they're on the schedule or otherwise authorized by the coach.
We had a goals sheet we had to fill out in advance of Sunday's first training session. One of the questions was what our expectations/objectives are for the class. I answered honestly and listed the two goals. A 5k PR at the big St. Patrick's Day race here, and a marathon PR in Boston. He replied and told me basically to drop the 5k goal. He told me what I know, that you can't work simultaneously on speed and distance without a very high likelihood of injury.
He noted that the 5k PR still might happen as my mileage gets high for the marathon training. And it is relevant to note here that I seriously only need to improve my 5k time by at least 1 second to tie Adam (2 seconds to beat him), but ideally 7-8 (if not more).
I replied to my new coach and asked permission to race St. Pat's, telling him I've had a lot of success getting 5k PRs just a few weeks before a marathon (because, yes, the higher mileage of marathon training does work well for me at short distances). And I also told him how St. Pat's is my favorite race in Dallas and how I've done it for several years in a row and don't want to break my streak.
Denied.
He said I can run it as we have 7 miles on our schedule that day, but he did not want me to race it as we have a very tough long run scheduled for the following day.
What to do? I'll likely have to make a game-day decision. I'm definitely going to do the race, and it might be nice to run it easy with no pressure and drink the beer and enjoy the party. But wow, I love that race and I have PRed there on several occasions (though last year was a bust). It will be so hard NOT to race it. And really, by mid-March, if I don't follow my coach's instructions for one Saturday, what is going to happen? Especially in light of what I've admitted above, that I want the 5k PR in 2011 more than I want the marathon PR.
When I got my current 5k PR in September, I failed to stretch well afterward and I was hurting. I felt all the effort I'd put into that race, and part of me worried I'd sabotaged my months of marathon training. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be recovered in time for the marathon a mere 2 weeks later. But when I honestly looked at that possibility, I realized it was okay with me. Though the Boston goal was huge for me, I was so thrilled with the 5k PR that I felt like I'd already reaped the reward of my months of marathon training. Although the 5k PR wasn't my goal during training, it was just as important to me and I was so proud of it. I'd put in months of training for the sole purpose of getting a 5k PR and it hadn't happened. I'd failed. And then to put in months of marathon training and get the 5k PR, it made the training worth it.
So if I race St. Pat's and manage to beat Adam by a second or more, I think in my heart, I'll consider it to have been worth these next few months of training, which I know are going to be intense. Looking at my training schedule, I'm going to be over 50 miles per week on multiple occasions. I don't think I've ever gone over 50 miles in a week before, certainly not in the last two years! Shoot, going over 40 in a week for the first time this year warranted a post! But whether all this training, all this early morning running, all this getting out of bed in the cold, all this going to bed early pays off with a 5k PR instead of my coach-approved marathon PR goal, it's likely going to be all the same to me.
You just might have to remind me of this if I manage to get the 5k PR and then as a result end up having a sucky training recovery week or even a sucky marathon performance in Boston!
Oh, and as for the 10 things to do to achieve the 5k-PR feeling today, I guess I might get that feeling if I set a PR at some other distance, but that's unlikely because I'm not in shape or trained enough to get a PR that will make me as happy as a 5k one will be (and since my 5k PR predicts the best marathon time for me of all my races, it is a challenging goal, any PR I could get right now wouldn't predict me as fast as a 5k one would). So the 10 things to do to achieve that 5k-PR feeling sometime in 2011 all relate to laying the groundwork:
1. Register to work with the best coach in the area (done)
2. Commit to heart-rate based training (ordered garmin!)
3. Maintain a training log (always!)
4. Race short distances successfully (ongoing)
5. Get to bed early to be ready to run on running days (I'm pretty good about this)
6. Get out of bed and show up at all my training runs -- on both group days (no problem-o) and on solo days (which is going to be a real challenge for me since my running success and consistency largely stems from having so much fun running with my buddies)
7. Clean up my eating to eat like an athlete (which will hopefully mean dropping some L-Bs!) (tough!!)
8. Push myself when appropriate on my training runs (tough!)
9. Envision success (I'm getting better)
10. Register for the races (done for Boston, will do in Feb. for St. Pat's)
Really, doing all those things should make me feel proud and happy now that I'm doing what it takes to get me to what I want to achieve in 2011. But nothing I can do now is going to feel as awesome (and maybe painful, but no pain, no gain) as crossing that finish line and seeing my new PR time.
And then calling Adam to tell him (if he doesn't witness it). Haha!
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