The Year of the Goal

I am officially calling 2016 the Year of the Goal. Last year, I set my sights on just running and finishing races. At the outset of the year, my goal was to run at least one race every month … a goal that I almost achieved but deviated from once I scheduled the Chicago Marathon. This coming year, I want to set my sights on improving my race results, which I indicate in the following table.

Race	Current PR	2016 Goal
5K	0:24:09	0:23:00
10K	0:53:18	0:50:00
Half-Marathon	2:11:45	2:05:00
Marathon	5:04:36	4:59:00*

*In all honesty, my goal for this year's marathon (most likely the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis, IN) will be to run all 26.2 miles without stopping. If that happens, I will easily have a sub-5 hour race.

I'm not entirely sure if all of these are realistic. For example, although the difference with the 5K does not seem that much, to drop my time by an overall minute, I have to run 20 second faster per mile! I want need to say that I think they are achievable with some hard work and a more balanced routine and diet.

What's my plan? Hills, core, and quad strength. This means lots of hills, lots of planks, and lots of squats, lunges, and wall sits. I’ll throw in a few speed workout too. Basically, more running with some strength training tossed into the mix. Should be fun!

In addition to the major races, Strava, one of the several run programs I use to keep track of all my runs (I also use Garmin’s run tracker and MapMyRun), also monitors other PRs for various other distances, such as 400m, 1/2 mile, 1k, 1 mile, etc. Looking at the data, it has been a while since I have set any new PRs for any of these distances, so it would be nice to put a few new times atop my personal leaderboard. This might happen as I become stronger and log more miles.

Despite my efforts to improve my running this year, the "Year of the Goal" will not consume my life. I intend to use these measures as the proverbial carrot to keep me moving; to force me to get out of bed in the morning and lace up the runners. However, I'm getting married and will be going on a honeymoon, thus my running will take a distant backseat to these events and the events leading up to them.

Bring it on 2016!