Despite my best efforts putting together a training plan about a month ago, that basically fell apart after less than two weeks. Perhaps it was my fault for starting a training plan during the holiday season. That being said, I did get a solid 20 mile run and several 10 mile runs in over the break so I'm probably still on track to be in condition for Relay for Life in April. I'm also planning on going to Kentucky for the Land Between the Lakes 50 miler on March 12 so that gives me an intermediate goal to keep me motivated.
Speaking of motivation, I haven't really had much lately. This is despite that feeling of obligation to set some goals that I always feel at the beginning of the year. Part of that feeling of obligation certainly stems from the talk of New Year's resolutions that permeates the media for the week following New Year's Day. Also, since my birthday is January 5th (yes, tomorrow) I tend to get a little introspective in terms of what I would like to do before another year passes. So do I have any grandiose plans as a 35 year-old?
Not really. I'd like to do a little more cross training. I'd like to finish the Kentucky run under 10 hours and to raise $5,000 through Relay for Life (there is an organizing meeting in a week or two so I'm going to start pushing for more donations soon). I plan on entering the lottery for Western States again, but that's out of my control so I don't really consider that a goal. Honestly, this all feels a little unspectacular when I consider the last few years of my first 50 miler, my first 100 miler, my 50k solo run on the Great Wall, and so on.
Perhaps 2011 will be my year of non-goals. 35 seems like a pretty good age to coast for a little bit--enjoy time with my family and enjoy running just for the sake of running. The only problem is that I'm not very good at coasting and I keep thinking of other new things that I could be working on or striving for...
