Let's Try This Again

Today was the running of the 2012 Boston Marathon. Technically, I qualified for this year's race in New York last November. But, while I ran faster than the qualifying time, the race was already sold out and with the new tiered entry system, my time wouldn't have been fast enough to make the cut anyway.  I still choose to look at it as though I qualified though... no matter how little it mattered when it came to actually running in Boston.

Pic Source

Since New York, I've continued to run regularly, but I've been lacking... direction. I developed some potential goals for myself but one by one, they each fell by the wayside. I thought about trying to run 2,012 miles in 2012... I almost immediately fell way off pace and it's not likely to happen. I thought about running the Kentucky Derby Marathon in April... I missed the early registration deadline and eventually decided not to run it this year. I thought about running a 'virtual track season' (a friend of mine that coaches track was giving me daily workouts) to make an attempt at a sub-five-minute mile... that lasted about a week before we both realized our busy schedules weren't working with that plan.

I also haven't written in this blog at all in 2012. I have about a dozen mostly-written entries that I never posted (and probably never will at this point). I'm not sure if my lack of blogging influenced my difficulty sticking with a goal, or if my lack of a clear goal influenced my lack of blogging, but I decided it's been long enough! Time to get back in the saddle.

I'm afraid if I make too many of my posts too long, I'll get intimidated by the time demand and want to quit writing again, or I'll write everything interesting I have to say in one or two posts and then later updates will be boring. So for today, I wanted to explain my absence and get back into the swing of this. I'll be updating my page with some new info as I go along and I'll map out my newly formed goals in later posts. I'll also stick with a brief update of my daily training unless I feel there's something worth writing more about.

So today was our weekly trip to the Rec Center for a run and a swim. I was at work a little late, so instead of running around Fenton, I went straight to the treadmill and got in 3 miles before Liz showed up and we went down to the pool. We swam 4 x 200 meters in the pool and finished just before the water aerobics class would have kicked us out. The run on the treadmill was relatively short, but felt great with consistently faster splits every half-mile. The swim felt a little tough after that, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Tomorrow is back to running hills on Top Notch.

Monday
Goal For The Day: Run & Swim
Run Distance: 3.00 Miles
Time: 20:23. 6:47 Avg. (7:23, 6:51, 6:23).
Route: Fenton Rec Center Treadmill.
Conditions: Right by a fan!!! Nice!

Swim Distance: 800 meters. (4 x 200m).
Location: Fenton Rec Center Indoor Pool.

Notes: The run felt good. I dropped 15 seconds off of the pace every half-mile (7:30, 7:13, 6:58, 6:44, 6:31, 6:15). Having the fan blowing on me made a huge difference. The swim was good. I almost skipped it in favor of running outside in the amazing weather, but I look forward to my weekly swim with Liz!

Daily Miles: 3.00 Mile Run. 800 meter Swim.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 261.39 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 6,550 meters.