Thursday, February 18, 2010

Adapting Goals

Good morning beauties! I am feeling fantastic today because I started off the morning with a "speedwork" treadmill workout at my gym! I didn't really want to lug myself out of bed this morning at 5:55 (I like odd numbers) but I'm glad I did! I'm currently trying to improve my 5k time (I'll get into that in a bit) so I started with a mile warm up at 6.0, then rotated a quarter mile at 6.7 with a jogging recovery period of 5.1 for two minutes. I did this until about 2.6 miles and then finished off the workout with a cooldown from 5.5-6.0 until I hit 3.1 miles. It was a fantastic workout and went by super quickly! I was a sweaty beast by the end. :-) I came home and stretched, rocked out 25 "jumping pullups" (ha) on the bar in the basement and called it a (workout) day. This working out in the morning thing is great!





I was at Barnes and Noble this past weekend with Bri and I picked up the "Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running." I first saw this book on Linz's blog and thought that it looked really interesting.
source

I have to say that so far I am impressed with the book. I wanted to share a quote I came across that I found to be really inspiring:

"Not meeting a goal is not failure. In fact, if success were a certainty, you wouldn't have much of a challenge to begin with. There is little point in setting an easily attainable goal. Goals are meant to stimulate and inspire greatness. A goal that is obviously attainable is without value. That means that any worthy goal comes with the implication that you may not meet it. Learning and growth come only in the struggle to attain your goal." (Emphasis supplied).

This quote really struck me for some reason. You set goals to see if you can achieve them. Once you meet (or don't meet them), you reevaluate where you're at to figure out your next steps, which is where I'm at now. In my pre-running past, my goal was to run a 5k. Once I met that, I was officially bitten by the running bug. I set my sights on longer distances to see what I could accomplish. My ultimate goal running-wise is a half marathon, but I may or may not be putting that on the back burner, given certain life circumstances. I originally planned to run the VB half in September but that may pose a minor inconvenience, location wise. Let's just say I've fallen into the role of military wife quite swiftly ;)

Technically, I could continue on from my 14k training and run a half marathon somewhere in May. However, with the wedding coming up and the honeymoon after that, I don't necessarily want to be worried if I can't get the miles in. So, my goals from here on out to the wedding are as follows:

  • Run 10 miles a week, with a "long" run of at least 4-5 miles to maintain endurance
  • Attend yoga every Tuesday
  • Attend body sculpt every Wednesday
  • Complete two of Jillian's Making the Cut workouts per week
  • Work in the 100 pushups workout
  • Continue with "jumping pullups"
  • Ensure that at least one of the runs is a speed workout to increase my 5k speed

Once I get back from the honeymoon, I'm going to start working on my running game again. I definitely plan on running the Boilermaker 15k in July. I am contemplating doing the Iron Girl sprint triathlon (!!!) in Syracuse on August 7th. Ideally, I would like to run a half in September or October. For whatever reason, running a half in Chicago sounds awesome to me. Does anyone have any recommendations for a half?

How is everyone else doing? Have you had to change your goals because of changes in your life? I hope that everyone has a great weekend! I get to spend some time with my girl Kristin so I am super excited :) Happy Friday!

11 comments:

  1. Def. do the triathlon. I did my first last August and it was amazing! Totally loved it. I'm training for a half right now and I keep thinking about how I'd rather be training for a triathlon. I might be switching goals to make my life a little more pleasant. I think it's a smart choice.

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  2. I love the quote on goals + greatness. It's awesome that you want to keep aiming higher! If life gets in the way, don't worry about it. There are plenty of opportunities in the future to sign up for races (my dad is 45 and he JUST started doing them). But if you sign up for the half marathon, there's no doubt in my mind that you could do it!

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  3. Sounds like you have some great goals set for yourself. I think leaving things open like that is the right thing to do-- you never want to feel pressured to do too much, and you can always do more in the future when your life isn't changing so much!

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  4. Not anywhere near Chicago, but you should run the Silver Comet Half Marathon in October in Atlanta with me! It's cool because it's completely flat.

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  5. Your goals are great! You have a lot going on and the last thing you need is to worry about getting mileage in for a race. I don't have any recommendations for a half in Chicago...but if you want to stay local the Marine Corp Half is 10/10/10.

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  6. I really enjoyed what you wrote about goals! :-)

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  7. Hi Katie,
    Oh, thanks for reminding me that the new magazine is out...I will have to go and purchase it:) I think your goals are doable. I would love to run a half marathon with you so if you do decide to do Chicago let me know. Chigago is within driving distance for me:) I would love to meet you:) I am going to have to e-mail you to get your address...I have something for you and would like to send it before your wedding:)

    Katie I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!!

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  8. I love the goal quote. It's so true! I need to remember that when I look at my half marathon goal and start thinking that I can't run that fast ;)

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  9. I really like the quote. I am adding that book to my book-list. The goals are great!

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  10. Have you done the Boilermaker?? I love it, it's so much fun. I was thinking of doing the Tri in August myself, but I'm going to tackle a marathon first. You should go for it!

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  11. Sadly, yes. Due to the multiple blizzards that hit Baltimore, a week of unexpected travel, and other things that have popped up in my life, I've had to lower my expectations for the upcoming 5K. I'm still training as much as I can but no longer expect to run the whole thing. Which is very disapointing but a reality I need to be okay with so that I can just enjoy the accomplishment of finishing!

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