last year's accomplishments, next year's goals

[ilanarama]

A year ago I posted:

Since December's about over, I figured it would be a good time to think about/imagine/dream/plan goals for 2011.

Any running-related goal is valid, whether it's to run a 100-mile ultramarathon or to run 2 miles in a row. It can be to complete a distance, or race a distance, or attain a speed, or run a certain number of miles per week, month, or year. No judging anyone else on their speed or their slowness. These are all personal goals, relative to where we are now and where we want to be.

Feel free to put your goals in comments, or to post them in your own journal and link them here. This is mostly a placeholder and reminder so you can come back in a year and see how well you succeeded!

So, how did you do? Did you achieve your goals? Did events conspire to prevent you? Did you completely punt on them? What have you learned about yourself and about running through your successes and failures?

What are your goals for next year?

Comments

[ell]

I just checked last year's post and apparently I didn't put my goals in comments. But, my goals were all races to finish and all of those goals were met.
They were:
Shamrock 1/2 Marathon
Eagleman 1/2 Ironman
Frankfurt City Tri
Frankfurt Marathon

all accomplished :-) (along with the marriage and the international move :-)
In addition, at 25:40 I got a 5K PR at the Frankfurt AIDS Run. The second mile of that 5K I ran at a 7:49 pace which is the first sub 8 minute mile I've ever run in a race (well, since I was in HS) and by the Garmin I actually ran 3.2 miles for an overall 8:01/mile pace.

My goals for next year:

Races already signed up for:
Frankfurt 1/2 Marathon
Worms 111 Tri
Wiesbaden 70.3

Additional goals:
Frankfurt Marathon in 4:10 or less (that's only 6 minutes less than the last one which was 12 minutes faster than the one before that)
Write up race reports within a week of races :-)
Get a 5 km in under 25:20
Run the Frankfurt 1/2 in 1:55 (all my 1/2's hover between 1:56 and 1:58, so I think this is totally doable)
Train smart and take care of injuries.

Things I've learned this year:
No matter how I plan it, something is always going to get in the way of the perfect race day prep.
I love long slow runs and should probably do more of them.
Biking is easier than running
Swimming is harder than either of those
I absolutely need to add speedwork in if I want to get faster.

[ilanarama]

Yay! It looks like you had a great year!

I agree a 1:55 half should be totally doable for you.

[ell]

I felt really good writing that summary up. Because I hadn't set any time goals, the disappointments for some of the slower races were very short lived.

But the 1:55 - I'm glad you think is reasonable and doable, unlike my stretch goal for the last marathon...

(About that last marathon - I kind of went into it thinking I was going to go slightly too fast just so I could see what the wall felt like. So in that respect, I succeeded! The wall sucks! Had I gone out only slightly slower I most likely would not have blown up completely at km 32 or so and actually finished faster. But it was my second one and I really wanted to know what would happen. And I found out :-)