Fall 2012 Goals

Earlier this week I met with my coach, Darren de Reuck, to set my goals for the rest of 2012. First we looked back at the races/goals we set back in January:

Houston Marathon: 3:10:05 – met (3:09:52, PR)
Arnold Pump and Run 5K (19:49 – PR)
Platte River Half 1:30 – missed (1:33:05 under less than ideal conditions – still a PR)
Bolder Boulder sub-42 – met (41:39, only 16 sec off my PR)

It was good to look back because I’ve focused on that miss at the Platte River Half and not seen the other accomplishments I’ve achieved.

We set my goal for the Columbus Marathon in the fall: 3:05. I’d gone into the meeting thinking that was what I wanted to aim for, so I was happy when he suggested it. I remained pretty strong through Houston and I think cutting off some 10 seconds a mile seems reasonable.

He told me that I should go sub-1:30 in the half before October though, so we put the Rock and Roll Denver Half on the schedule. I’m excited about that; that’s where I had my great breakthrough race last year that actually prompted me to seek out a running club and join the RRBs. When I finished last year, one of my first thoughts was “how hard would 1:30 be?” I think it’ll be a great tune-up race, and it’s a month before Columbus, which is about perfect.

Prior to that, I’ll do Superior Downhill Mile AND the 4 on the 4th races on July 4th. Darren said to do the 4 miler around 5K pace, so around a 6:20. I’m actually pretty excited about that, just hoping my legs will be nice and spritely for it after the Leadville marathon this weekend and the mile race that morning.

I expressed a desire in increasing my mileage: back in January he’d given me a guidelines of 45-50mpw. He said that could only help, but asked how my mileage had been leading up to Houston. I said something about how having only joined the club in November, and how I was relatively low mileage leading up to Houston. Darren expressed some surprise; he said he felt like I’d been with the club for much longer! That actually made me feel pretty good; I feel like I’m still new with a lot of room for improvement. So for the next couple months I’ll be inching up to 50-55mpw and then going up to 55-65 in the fall. Once the weather drops from this crazy 100F+ weather, I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem. I did finish off June with over 200 miles, even with a fair amount of run-free days.

Being a runner in Boulder has been a lot of fun so far, I can’t wait to see how the summer/fall goes!