Half Marathon Milestone #1

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to running in the cold.  Anything down to 25 degrees is fine and I’ll even push myself to go outside for a really short run (like 5 feet) when it gets close to 20.  The concept of doing anything but sitting inside curled up under a blanket when the temperature drops into the teens, on the other hand, is completely beyond me. 

Needless to say, I did not go outside and run last Saturday.  I did, though, make it to the gym to run on the perfectly climate-controlled treadmill, complete with a personal TV and multi-speed fan.  Where’s the big achievement in that?  I ran 4 whole miles!! 

I may have run those miles at a snail’s pace and I might have still been too sore to do a full swim on Sunday or run at all yesterday, but that’s more than I have ever consecutively run in my life.  Even better, I didn’t really start getting winded, tired, or sore until more than 3 1/2 miles into the run.  Still better, I’m now starting to think of a two-mile run as “just 2 miles” instead of my long run for the week.  Kind of a new concept for me.

With today’s balmy temperatures around 40 and my muscles well-rested, I should have no excuses not to repeat my triumph outdoors.  Next step will be to add the interval training I’ve been conveniently avoiding.

PS. I’m really sorry about blog’s strange layout.  Something has gone seriously wrong and I’m still trying to figure it out.

New Year, New Goals

I know its been a while, but I’m not making any official proclamation of being back in the blogging world – the last time I did that, it was embarrassingly short-lived.  Nonetheless, looking ahead to the 2011 season, I’m looking forward to putting an injury-plagued 2010 behind me and check some serious goals (or 1 goal with a couple of milestones along the way) off my list.  Hopefully, that will give me way more incentive to share my “Tri Tales” this year than I had last year.

2011 Goal: Half Ironman!  As I’ve mentioned in the past, I dream of the day when I can add the 70.3 bumper sticker to other tri-related stuff on my rear windshield.  This year, I’m setting a major goal of completing the Beach-2-Battleship 70.3 race in October.

Milestone #1: 10K.  Yes, I’ve done 2 Olympic distance races, but I’ve never run 6.2 miles consecutively.  In fact, I’ve never run the entire last leg of any tri I’ve done.  It’s always been a little running and a lot of walking.  I refuse to let it be that way forever.  Therefore, I will be running my first 10K President’s Day weekend.

Milestone #2: Half Marathon.  If I’m going to do a Half Ironman, I need to be able to run a consecutive 13.1 miles.  Walking 6.2 at the end of an Olympic distance tri might be acceptable, but walking 13.1 miles at the end of a 70.3 just sounds tedious.  If all goes well at the 10K, I’ll be running in the Buffalo 1/2 Marathon at the end of May.

Clearly the big challenge will be getting from my current 3.5 miles up to 13.1 in the next 4 1/2 months, but, if I can do that and discipline myself to train hard for during the summer and fall, this year could be way more exciting than 2010.