What are your (immediate) goals?

[ilanarama]

Let's talk about running goals. These can be simply time or distance (like, to be able to run 10 miles, or to be able to run 3 miles without stopping, or to run a mile in under 10 minutes), or a time goal for an upcoming race.

I've got a half marathon coming up in just under two weeks. I've been really focusing on this one, because I've run it twice before, each time with a time a bit more than two hours. This spring, I have been training really hard, and I have a number of goals:

Fallback goal: better than 1:56 (my current half marathon PR)
Stated goal: better than 1:50
Seekrit goal: 1:48:xx
All the stars align and someone throws magic pixie dust on me: better than 1:48

I try to set multiple goals for every race. Usually I make my stated goal (but not always; last time I did this race my goal was 2 hours, and I missed it by nearly 4 minutes), sometimes I make my seekrit goal, and I have never made my pixie dust goal but that doesn't stop me from trying!

Comments

[lyras]

Now that I've reached my goal of being able to run 5 km comfortably again, I want to reduce the time it takes (I'm currently ridiculously slow). So my next goal is to run 5k in 35 mins.

Good luck in your half! When I was running longer distances, I set myself three goals: one I'd be happy with if I had a bad day, one that I should be able to achieve, and one I'd be delighted with. It definitely helped me to be realistic on the day.

Also, I love your icon.

[ilanarama]

That's a good goal! I have been simultaneously working on extending the distance I run, and on running my shorter runs faster. It's amazing how really working at it has made me improve: this morning my workout included several 2K intervals at a pace that a month ago I couldn't even reach for a short distance.

And my icon is my footies crossing the finish line of a race I did 3 years ago!

[lyras]

That's great that you've seen such a difference in your speed. I'm looking forward to getting faster now. *g*

I saw that your icon was of you when I looked at your journal. It's a great pic!