Finishing the Year - and 'Other Stuff'

Well the year is almost over and tomorrow is my 2nd Annual Birthday Race (2nd ABHBLD 5k Run for short). (See this for last year's report). Even though I through out the challenge for people to join me tomorrow, I haven't been contacted by anyone that they will show up. Hmmmm I don't know if I should be depressed or ecstatic that I'll be first overall again this year. Last year I completed this in 30:45 missing my goal time of 30:30. So to set my goal I look a gander at my log and noticed that I've only run this particular course three times, two of these have been races:

7/4/08 - 36:27 (RACE)

12/26/08 - 32:10 (TRAINING)

12/29/08 - 30:45 (RACE, last years' ABHBLD 5k Run)

Funny I haven't run this course this past year. I was going to run in on the 4th of July, but they changed that 5k course this past year. I didn't blog about that race but long story short, I thought I was going to run this course and didn't check the web site before I left. Beth brought the kids to the lower end of the 'old' course (closest to our house) while I went out for a warm up. I didn't know the course had changed until we took a left turn instead of a right turn. Poor Beth and the kids never saw me since they weren't on the course...... It took a while for me to live that one down. :)

Back to tomorrow's plan, I'm planning on running this after 8 pm tomorrow since I'll be playing golf, and then having a birthday dinner at my parents. I might try to squeeze it in after my golf game but I might not have the time to do that. I'm going to have to play it by ear, but that's ok since I'll be running alone.....

Race goal time is going to be a PB attempt to break 28:27 (9:11 pace) which ironically was set at that 4th of July race I mentioned above. Yesterday on a different course (slightly longer and steeper) I clocked a 9:13 pace over 3.19 miles so I think this is totally possible on this course. My stretch goal tomorrow is going to be a sub 28 mins. I really don't think I can do this because I haven't really trained for a sub 28 but physically I feel pretty good so I'm going to throw it out there as a stretch.

Naturally I'll post a race report so please stay tuned, I'll try to get it up within 24 hrs.

On to training - I basically took the week off. I'm not sure why I tend to take complete weeks off and I really want to change this tendency about my training this upcoming year. After tomorrow's race, I'm going into 10k training mode, with plans to up my mileage to 30 miles per week for the next 10-12 weeks. The 10k I'm planning to sign up for will be Newport's Spirit Run in late March. So far I don't have a race goal, but I'll set that after the New Year.

Keep Steppin'

Bob