A note about goals

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. ~Lawrence J. Peter

I am a person who loves maps. And lists. And plans. Really, anything that brings order to my universe. I’m the one who knows exactly when the plane takes off and lands, exactly how far we are travelling, and exactly when we need to be at the next gate or train station to make our connection. It is both a blessing and a curse. Just ask my friends. (Or, uh, maybe it’s better if you don’t.)

So it may come as a surprise to know that I’m kind of scared of training plans. I think my perfectionist tendencies lead me straight to a fear of failure when I see those beautiful, calculated workouts all laid out neatly on a calendar. And yet I am drawn to them like Christina Yang to Owen Hunt (any Grey’s Anatomy fans out there…?).

The last time I followed a plan was when I trained for 2 half marathons in 2006. It still shames me to think that I only really managed to do the long runs prescribed each week – and none of the mid-week runs… I love training plans, and yet I don’t have a lot of success sticking with them.

This is a long way of saying that right now I don’t have any crystal clear running goals, and I’m not sure that I’m okay with that. Or maybe I am. I’ve been avoiding thinking too far ahead because I want to build a solid training base before I decide what comes next. But without a target race on the horizon, it is hard to get myself out the door as often as I should.

Right now I’m doing pretty well with fitting in 3 runs per week, slowly building the mileage. I’d like to push that up to 4 runs per week, about 25 miles total, with a long run of about 10 miles. At the rate I’m going, I should be there by the middle of June. I think if I can hold that base for a good 3 months, I should be ready to tackle a more formal training plan of some sort.

The marathon is my ultimate goal, I won’t deny it. It’s fun to pick out races. Vermont City, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, maybe even the National Marathon if I can get a qualifying time. There are a couple of half marathons in Charlotte towards the end of the year that are on my radar and would be a good test of my fitness.

I guess all this rambling is me reassuring myself that even if there is not a single, monumental goal to my running (right now), there is still a plan in place. (Albeit, a relatively loose one.) I am still on my way somewhere. The rest of the details will come into focus later.

And I’m okay with this.

Really, I am.

Sort of…

(sigh)