2012 Running Goals

Well, it's halfway through 2012 and I'm just finally putting down my race goals for the year. I'm a bum! It's okay, because the big targets for this year are still to come.

Goal #1: Finish my first Ultra Marathon
Earlier in the year I achieved goal #1 which was finish my first trail ultra distance.  At the CRUD 8 Hour Trail Run, I covered 26.5 miles in the 8 hours so I have goal number one in the bag.  One of these days I get a race report created for the blog and hopefully get you to consider making the trip to this fantastic event.

Goal #2:  Complete a 50K.  

I have two races scheduled to achieve this feat.  The first will be more of a scenic training run with the sole purpose of getting my money's worth from the run.  I will be running the Headlands 50K in Muir Beach, California on August 25. After getting an opportunity to do a trail-running vacation with my wife out in Sonoma Valley in March, I'm really excited to get back to the Bay Area for a trail run.  The climate is perfect and the scenery is 2nd to none.....at least compared to running in the flatlands of Central Illinois.  ;)

My 2nd 50K attempt will likely be the Evergreen 50K 2 weeks later back in flatland at Evergreen Lake near where I live in Normal, Illinois. I may work on pushing the pace on this attempt, provided I've recovered well from my scenic training run at the Headlands 50K.  But even though I'm open to running for a time at my 2nd 50K, my focus is on training for my 3rd goal of 2012: finishing a 50 miler.

Goal #3:  Finishing a 50 miler.

I'm definitely nuts. That's the only thing that can explain goals like running 50K or finishing a 50 mile run, right?  This old decathlete would have never dreamed (or nightmared) of running that far for "fun" back in the day, but now I'm training for it.  

So what race will I'll be attempting?  I have my eyes on attempting the Farmdale 50 Mile Trail Run in October. Last year I attempted the 33 mile race but only made 2 of the 8.25 mile loops before having to drop with knee tendonitis that ibuprofen couldn't solve. This year, I'm confident that I'll have two 50K's under my belt by October, and will finally have the base to attempt a 50 miler, but it will be close.  You see, although I'm a former All-American decathlete and high jumper in college, I've only been All-American in being "Dad", husband and beer-drinking since then.  I've only been running consistently since June 2011, so to get a 50 miler accomplished with a 18 month base of running will be quite a accomplishment.......and also a good indicator that I should enjoy some rest during the holiday season this year.

Goal #4: Keep on running injury free!
Finishing Ultra Marathons is cool in all, but if I can't stay healthy, what's the point?  I hope to be running till I'm an old, old man, so training smart is definitely part of my daily mantra.  Last year, I suffered from long distance running exuberance syndrome and don't want to do that again. Cross training when needed and resting when needed are all part of my plan for keeping healthy this year.  It's also critical to know when to pick up the pint of homebrew instead of running 6 miles with a bum achilles.  :)

So those are the goals for the year. Hoping this all sprinter's body can adapt into some sort of a distance runner.  Time will tell.

Go Clydesdale!!

Clydesdale Running Phase 1 - Get off the couch!

Warning: Someone forgot to hit the publish button 7 months ago.  Please forgive me, but enjoy.

Happy New Year! This post is dedicated to phase 1 of the Clydesdale Running Program, getting off the couch. If you are a fellow Clydesdale that is already off the couch, then I'm not really talking to you in this post. But please feel free to add your $.02 for tips on how to get Clydesdales started running.

Get off the couch NAOW!!

Sorry for the in-your-face welcome, but that's step 1 in turning your Clydesdale body into, well, a Clydesdale race horse. As you are sitting on the couch watching the college bowl games or catching the first all-day Star Wars marathon of the New Year, you're probably thinking the same thing right now and are contemplating heading to the gym or making plans to start tomorrow or next week. But as you are sitting there eating your fourth bacon wrapped sausage of the day let me just make a suggestion that will be critical to reaching your fitness goals whatever they are: "Get off the couch and get moving."

You might not have any concrete fitness goals or any workouts planned yet, but that is really secondary at this point. You just need to get moving doing something: walk, bike, job, swim, or even just standing up to eat your bacon wrapped sausage. You just need to something to break the static friction of couch potato-ness. As you remember from high school science class, once you break static friction to get an object moving, it takes less force to overcome sliding friction.  Since our focus with this blog is running, I'm going to recommend a walk-jog (mostly walk) of a nice round 1 mile. Whatever you do, don't sprint, run too much or carry a 50 lb sacking of grain during this initial workout. It's going to take more than one workout to meet your goals, so DO NOT GET HURT! For this first workout, you just need to establish a starting point to build from.  Future workouts will add effort to this workout and we'll also be adding what's as important, well placed rest periods (day's off).

We're in this for the long haul so take your time to turn up the intensity.  Your body will thank you for it.