It's Almost Over

Break, that is.  Huge bummer.  Since I can't seem to focus on much of anything, I thought I'd come here for one more wrap-up/kick-off post before it all gets going again.

Since my previous post summed up the year nicely I suppose I don't need to do that again.  December ended well - a trip to PA threw off my running plans a little, as it always does, and once again I managed to forget how tough those hills are.   We really don't have anything here that even remotely compares.  So, I didn't time a single run while I was there.  I'm base-building anyway so who cares about time, right? RIGHT?  Yeah, I thought so.  I finished the month with 40.33 miles making that my third highest month of the year.  To me, that seems to bode well for 2010 - at least I was headed in the right direction at the end of 2009.  That made a whopping 315 miles for the year - 885 miles short of my goal.  Ha!  Nothing I can do but laugh, that's a huge number.

Of course the end of 2009 and reflection on goals means it's a new year and thus, time for new goals.  It's been tough for me to figure out how to approach this year.  Last year didn't exactly give me a good idea of where I'm headed.  So, basically ignoring 2009, I went back to look at my logs for 2007 and 2008.  Based on those two years I've decided to set a conservative goal of 750 miles for 2010.  Truthfully I think I can exceed that, but I don't want to ask too much of myself in a year when I'm supposed to be recovering.  That, and the fact that I hope my running mileage is going to lose out to SKIING mileage for the next few months.  This week that has been the case - I've run 5 miles and skied 9.8 miles.  It's been a good snow week.

As far as a racing schedule, I don't have one.  I'll do the Race for the Cure again in April (and hopefully have a much better showing) and I'm considering the Dances with Dirt trail half marathon in WI on July 10 (I think).  There local running store organizes a half marathon/marathon training group that I'm 75% sure I'll join.  The kick off meeting is tomorrow and I've decided to go to the meeting and decide then.  I won't be running their goal race because of another commitment that same weekend, but I think training with the group would help me meet my general goal of improving my aerobic base and getting back to decent weekly mileage without pushing me to ramp up too quickly.  I'm a bit bored right now and these runs get lonely, so I'm excited to potentially meet some local people to run with.  We'll see.  This won't be The Year Of The Marathon, but we'll see about 2011.

So, the semester starts on Tuesday.  Considering meetings and just plain needing to buckle down, it basically starts Monday.  All that fatigue last semester left me with a take home final that still needs to get done and is in front of me on my desk as I type.  Holy cats, did I fall out of school mode.  I needed this break and frankly I'm not mentally ready to move on to another semester, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty about not having this done yet.  I do, however, need to finish it before all this new work piles up on me...

Happy running!