Friday, May 24, 2013

Goal Setting

I set goals for almost everything.  The less consequential to my life, the more likely I am to have a goal.  I have zero goals for where I want or need to be financially when I retire.  But I will quickly calculate that I’ll have to empty the grass catcher on the lawn mower 5 times before I’m done and then try and only have to do it 4 times as a challenge.

I’m not sure when the goal of a PR in a race will fade away with the acceptance of advancing age, but it hasn’t happened yet.  I know my PR times by heart for every distance from 5k to 50 miles and it still feels like I can run faster than all of them.  Well, maybe not my 15k PR, that one is pretty good.  I’ve had a few races that I decided to run at a slower pace as a tune up race for something else.  I’ve also had races where I knew I wasn’t in good enough shape to PR.  Most of the time, though, I won’t race unless I think I can do something I’ve never done before.

3:33:26.  That’s it.  Portland Marathon 2008.  I’m not sure how many failed attempts to go faster than that there have been in the last 5 years, but there have been quite a few.  Newport is a good course to run a fast time on, though I’ve never run very fast there in my 3 previous attempts.  8 days away and the weather forecast looks almost perfect, mid 50’s, partly cloudy, no rain.  It’s the Oregon Coast, that will change 8 times between now and then, but right now it looks awesome.  My training has gone really well, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in the last few years.  Now I just need to be smart for 20 miles, tough for 6 and look good for the last .2!