New goals

Today was the six mile "long run" with Team in Training. It was great. Never before did I think I would say it was "only" six miles. But I said it today. It felt like a short run. I wanted to run more. I think this taper is good for me; it's leaving me wanting to run longer so that will be handy when I have to run 13.1 miles two weeks from tomorrow. :)

I signed up today for the Bayshore Half Marathon, which takes place in beautiful Traverse City the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I figured it would be a good idea to get another race on the calendar to keep me motivated when the Phoenix half is done. I'm excited about it. My dear boyfriend David will go with me and we'll make a fun weekend out of it. We snagged a great hotel room overlooking the bay and within walking distance of downtown. Also within easy walking distance of the race shuttle and the end point of the race. Yay!

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I did set some fitness goals for 2009:

1) Keep running at least 4x per week and complete at least one more half marathon in addition to Phoenix. In fact, my goal is to run at least 1,000 miles during 2009. I think this is totally feasible, just 20 miles per week. I will exceed that during many half marathon training weeks. I suspect I will sign up for another half marathon or two later in the year.

2) Lose the last 25 pounds. Possibly I'll stop before I reach 25 pounds; it really depends on how I look and feel. I won't starve myself to reach an arbitrary number. I do need to lose at least 10 more pounds to get to the top of the healthy weight range for my height, so I'll achieve that at a minimum.

3) Do strength training at least 2x per week. I've kept away from strength training for far too long and I need to get back to it. Woman cannot live by cardio alone!

4) Remain injury free. Other than my weird foot problem that I experienced a while ago, I've been really lucky not to hurt myself and I dearly hope to continue that. Just means I can't get stupid with my training.

That's it! I think they're good goals - a little challenging but certainly not impossible.