Goals

Retrospectively I probably should have written this at the beginning of my training, but better late than never! With the Colfax 1/2 marathon just about a month away I thought it might be time to formalize some goals for myself. Writing these things down makes me very nervous because there is always that chance that I will fall short.

This will be my fifth 1/2 marathon and i'm following a new training plan that i've never done before (it's the Advanced 1/2 Marathon training plan from The Marathon Method by Tom Holland for anyone that's curious). The start of my training was a little crazy in that I had originally planned to train for the full marathon. Trying to be a successful student on top of getting ready for this move to Cleveland i'm completely satisfied with the decision to drop down to the 1/2 marathon. Trying to do a Full would have been too much at this point. Overall i've liked the training program. I'll be the first to admit i've skipped a few of the runs here and there, but overall I think i've done a good job of following it. This is the first time i've incorporated speedwork into a 1/2 marathon training plan, which i've enjoyed and it has made the longer miles seem less monotonous. This plan has a longer taper (almost 3 full weeks after my 12 miler) than i've ever done before.

Now for my Goals for the 1/2:
1. Obviously I want to finish
2. Ideally I would like to run it under 2 hours. However, I have only ever accomplished this once before. With the speed work I think that it could be a possibility.
3. If I can't finish under 2 hours, i'd like to run under 10 minute miles.