J and I had a discussion Monday night about exactly what my running goals are. Her concern is that I'm aimlessly running, without any purpose. Also, since I've known her, I've pretty much been steadily running more and more. She doesn't always see me increasing my mileage as a positive.
In the near future, my goals are identifiable: break 17:30 in the 5k and 37:00 in the 10k and then break 3 hours at Richmond in the fall. Further out, it's harder to identify goals because new goals depend on breaking old ones. My ultimate running goal, however unrealistic it may be, is to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon.
Reaching my goals will take hard work and dedication. In addition to running, though, I have other commitments--family, work, etc. How do I reconcile my goals with those commitments? Why am I having such a hard time accepting that those other commitments could prevent me from reaching a goal?
1 comment:
I felt like I was in a similar situation in the weeks before my marathon in June. I think my wife was more tuned in to how my running was affecting me than I was (I was a bit overtrained and under-rested).
In my case I realized that while I thought my wife wanted me to run less, she really wanted me to enjoy it more (which would put me in a better mood the rest of the time with family/other commitments). I started running a bit more with others and began to forge some new friendships with other runners (in real life and with the blog) and soon enough my wife saw that running in fact made me happy and wasn't something I just did to punish myself (I started enjoying it more too).
I think for most runners that 90-100 minutes a day (weekly average) will bring out just about all of their potential as the miles accumulate (years not months). Getting up an hour before everyone gets you 60-75% there, and I believe every married adult can reasonably ask for and get a half an hour to themselves if they are willing to reciprocate with their spouse.
You do have time on your side Brian, which is certainly something I'm envious of. Good luck this year.
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