A New Year

I love the beginning of things.  I love the anticipation of penning a new goal and then slowly over a long period of time work towards achieving that goal.  In 2012 I plan on pushing myself past my comfort zone and resurrect my inner competitor by training longer, harder and faster than 99 percent of the country's other age group runners.  I am stuck on the idea that an average runner who trains like an elite athlete will realize amazing results.  This year I am going to put this theory to the test.  I am limiting my racing goals to two major races this year.  In May I am running the 53rd Riverbank 25k, and in October, the Chicago Marathon.  In between, I might jump into a few other races of varying distances as tune ups, but I am looking forward to focusing my training on peaking in May and in October.  I hope to use the Riverbank run as a qualifying race for a better starting coral in Chicago.  I would have to run a 1:53 25k in order to be able to line up behind the big boys in Chicago.  This might be a lofty goal for me this early in the season, but I like the challenge of trying to train outdoors all winter long and hit a PR in the spring.  So far, I am 9 weeks into my slow post marathon season endurance build up phase.  I am slowly and carefully building up my mileage as we move into winter.  I have a month or so left to this phase before I start to focus on more 25k specific training.  I love the gentile mileage build up with its focus on technique and form.  Slowly, my middle miles will be run at a faster pace, my shorter runs will be run at a pace that pushes my threshold ceiling, and my long, steady runs will be, well longer.  I plan on rewarding myself with new routes, no doubles until summer, and my secret weapon of taking 3 days off at a time after I hit a mileage goal.  I plan on coming out of spring a monster endurance machine and building a nasty beast from my winter base.  If all goes well, I would like to see myself creep up into the 75 mile per week zone sometime around the beginning of September.  I plan on coming out of winter with my 40 mile per week base firmly in place.  Yoga, nutrition, cycling, and rest will play a huge roll in being able to maintain this level of work.  I have it in me, I know this.  I want to take this to another level and see what happens.  All you have to do is try.