What's Next? New Goal, and it's SMART!

I read that many people feel a little lost once they conquer their half marathon goal, and I was no different. I took it easy at the beginning of the week, letting my body recover and allowing some aches and pains to subside. In the meantime, I continued to look for races and tried to decide if I wanted to do another half marathon, or if I wanted to tone it down. Neither were good options.

Then I questioned whether or not I even wanted to race anymore. I will never "win" against anyone else. Is it smart to pay money just to run? But then I thought about the few races I've done, and it's been FUN! They each have a flavor and feel to them, and it's a great way to measure yourself against...well, yourself!

So what would it be? I finally figured out my next two races, and from there I made a goal. My next race is in 3 weeks, and it's an 8K. I am not taking this one very seriously. I mean, of course I will do my best, but my goal really is to finish in under 55 minutes. Today I did that easily on a treadmill (OK, not easily, but I did it).

My next race is in my mind "The Big One". It's a 10K on August 25th. At first my goal was to run it in 1 hour. So this morning I read up on it and researched running plans, and I realized THIS IS DIFFERENT than training for the half. For the half, I wanted to finish. Now I've set a time goal, so this is a much different intensity. I have to make my legs go faster. I have to do intervals, speed work, and I'll be honest, I don't know that I'm going to like this. But nevertheless, I made an 8 week plan. The farthest I ever run is 8 miles, which seems really funny to me, but today I did 10K (6.2 miles) at intervals of 10 minutes and 11:20 minute paces (alternating songs, nothing scientific), and it took me 1 hour 6 minutes, which is the best time I've ever run 6 miles in actually. It was an average of 11 min miles (which doesn't make sense either, but who knows...)

Which brings me to SMART goals. I had to ask myself:
S--Specific--yes I have a specific goal--10K on Aug. 25
M--Measurable--yes, I have a distance and time to measure
A--Attainable--Maybe?
R--Relevant--Yes, a good balance of the intensity and distance I desire.
T--Time-Bound--Yes, 8 weeks

So let's visit that A for Attainable. I am not sure that in 8 weeks I can shave 6 minutes off my 10K. I think I can run 6 miles in 1 hour. I don't know if I can get that last .2 in under that hour. So I have come up with a new goal.

On Aug. 25, I will run 10K in as close to 1 hour as possible. I'm actually thinking 1:02 is a good goal. That would be 10 min miles. We will see how these 8 weeks go, trying to train while camping and other summer events.

Again, this is MY goal. I know many people look at this and probably laugh. I'm not laughing. I'm dead serious. In fact, I looked for pictures of myself, and there are very few because I hated to be in pictures. But here are a few.

Aug. 09 Getting ready to leave China

Taking Ty for a walk after palate surgery.

And at my heaviest, 1 year ago, June 2011. This was 6th grade moving up, and I cropped out the students. This one is hard to look at for sure.

And this was last week, one year later, June 23, 2012:

So as long as God stays with me and keeps me healthy, this is my new goal. I'll keep posting when I can. This blog is to ENCOURAGE others because believe me, I have every excuse NOT to work out. I have every excuse to be lazy and lay around. I have every excuse to eat what I want when I want (I DESERVE to eat junk, right?). But my thinking is not about deserving those things...it's that I DESERVE better. My body, my husband, and my kids deserve better. But I have to want it. God has given me a potential, and I'm pretty sure it isn't 7 minute miles. So what is it? There's only one way to find out!

Thanks for reading, and I encourage you to get out there and do it! If I can, so can you, and I truly mean it. It's taken a almost a year to see a true difference. There were/are days I don't want to do it. If you're just starting, and you don't like to run, find an exercise that works! Maybe that's for another post...

Jolene