Goals, goals, goals.....

Now that I am in week two of my training plan, I guess it is time to try and come up with a 'goal' time for the marathon. My real goal is to cross the finish line, go to Fleet Feet and buy my 26.2 stickers and rediscover that joy that is a half marathon. However, in order to come up with some sort of target paces for training, I think I ought to work backwards from a goal finishing time.

I have run three half marathons, all between 1:55 and 1:57. These were run on fairly hilly courses and the last one was extremely hot as well (Thanks to Flemming arranging the weather at the Greer Earth Day Half...). My natural instinct is to set a goal of four hours and move on. The one thing I learned in my failed attempt to make it to the Myrtle Beach Marathon last February is that 26.2 is more than 2 x 13.1. I think I will set a goal of 4:30. I am pretty sure that if I am healthy during my training, I can beat that. In fact, I may set a reward system up that I get a certain treat for every minute under 4:30. That could be interesting.

I got my six miles in today. Once again, I ran in the heat and it was pretty much miserable though I did manage a decent pace. Tomorrow is a 'rest' day. I may put in 30 minutes on the elliptical just for some cardio....