2005 Running Goals

It's time for a public list of goals for my 2005 running year. They are at once simple and complex:

1. Stay injury free. Missing all that time and conditioning in May and June last year was a real drag, and it set me back a good bit.

2. Race Goals:

• 2005 Buda 30k (1/16/05) - Break 9:00/mile pace, or 2:47:42. PR, and it would fit in with the prediction tables for my Freescale goal. I'd also like to really kick those last 3 miles of that race, where I've suffered in the past.
  
• 2005 Freescale Marathon (2/13/05) - Any time beginning with "3." 3:xx:xx, where "x" is any digit or series of digits, would be a lifetime PR, a step through the 4 hour barrier, and an improvement of over 20 minutes from my best marathon since turning 40, and over 45 minutes improvement from my Freescale 2004 time.
• 2005 Indy 500 Mini Marathon (5/7/05) - 1:50:00, which would be another step improvement at that half marathon distance, and a 12+ minute improvement over Indy 2004.
• Break 49:00 at 10k (next round number barrier) and 22:00 at 5k (ditto)
• Break race/course PR's at 2005-6 Distance Challenge races

3. Do The Workouts: Gilbert sets up a schedule for a reason, and it would be nice to actually do the workouts that he schedules, even the recovery runs that sometimes seem unimportant. Consistency of effort. I'm good at attending the group workouts, but I sometimes don't get all the workouts done in between those group outings.

4. Add Weight Training in 2005: Again, this is something that I know, but I need to get stronger to improve my running, so join a gym, and do the workouts. Twice a week would be sufficient, but three times a week would be nice when possible.

5. A Little Cross-Training, Please: Some cycling and swimming would certainly be a good thing, too. No specifics here, but especially as the weather warms up, adding workouts in these disciplines, perhaps as substitutes for some of the recovery run efforts, or occasionally in addition to them, would balance some of the muscle work with the running.

That's it. Just 5 things, some of them big, some small. And, by doing them, I can achieve one of the Real World goals for 2005, one that all of us seem to make this time of year: Lose 5 pounds.