Sunday, January 07, 2007

Wishing and Hoping

I've finally chosen some running goals for 2007. It wasn't easy. As I've been way short of achieving my goals for the past two years, I agonised over whether to make them moderate or challenging.

In the end, I've gone for challenging but realistic. In setting these goals, I've used the Age Equivalent Times Calculator to come up with some times comparable to those I regularly ran in my thirties. I haven't gone for PB times as I'm not as driven to achieve PBs as I was back then. I've gone for 'average good racing times'.

So... here are my goals for 2007:

1) Track times - 1500m in 5:27, 3000m in 11:40, 5000m in 20:46.
2) Road times - 10k in 43:33, Half Marathon in 95:29, City to Surf in 62 minutes.

In addition to these, I plan on running the Nail Can Hill Run and the Six Foot Track Marathon. This will be my fourth Six Foot and my plan this year is to enjoy it and finish comfortably under the 7-hour time limit. Secretly, I'd like to run under 6:30, however, I don't want to spoil my track season by doing ridiculously long, hilly runs in training. I plan on running with Steve's group on Saturdays, but doing the smallest long runs I think will get me to Jenolan Caves.

By the way, my new profile photo was taken in eastern California at the Imperial Sand Dunes. It's a self portrait as Joy and Mal didn't want to get out of the car. It was hot!

18 comments:

Samurai Running said...

Well thought out goals. I'll be watching to see you check them off one by one this year.

Nice self portrait, you must have long arms. My self portraits are a much closer affair. As my mate Frosty says I've got "short arms and long pockets."

Tesso said...

I haven't been brave enough to post mine yet but, gee, our goals are so similar. I also consider mine to be realistic.


PS Let's nail that City to Surf!

Anonymous said...

HA!! I knew it. Tesso is doing SFT! She just outed herself.

Good goals Ewen. I am looking forward to seeing what the smallest long run is that will get you to Caves House.

Nice melon in the new profile shot. Bearded men are certainly the sexiest on the planet. Of that there is no doubt!

Anonymous said...

Nice goals Ewen. Hope you achieve them. I guess I'll be seeing you at Six Foot then.

Ellie80 said...

great goals indeed! might see you round sydney soon :)

2P said...

I always knew Tesso would do Six Foot :-)

Nice goals mate - but I reckon there is still a sub 20 5k in the old dog yet :-)

CU in March!

2P said...

I always knew Tesso would do Six Foot :-)

Nice goals mate - but I reckon there is still a sub 20 5k in the old dog yet :-)

CU in March!

Anonymous said...

Nice you are doing Six foot too!
I wish I could say the same :P

Thanks for helping me all the time. About my HR it has been happening lately it seems it means then some gain then.
I will focused on those runs during the marathon training, I will coach!

Anonymous said...

Did someone say that Tesso is doing Six Foot??

On a serious note I hope you meet all your goals this year.

TA and the Gnome said...

6ft & C2S, here we come! :-)

Gnome

Anonymous said...

They are sensible and realistic goals, which is no surprise given that is your very commendable apporach to running in general I think.

There's always something for all of us to learn every time we read one of your posts, Ewen.

Stu Mac said...

Nice goals Ewen, I hope you enjoy building towards your goals and having fun running and helping others achieve their best!

Stu

Vicky said...

All the best on reaching those goals Ewen. Its always good to have them - whether you choose 'realistic and achieveable' or to push for harder, riskier ones - is a personal choice.

Besides, any plan that includes SFT is not a soft one!

Great idea to use the AET calculator - will have to check it out myself!

Appreciate all of your advice and comments on my injury - lets hope its behind me (like my tight glutes!) for good.

MAR.

Don Juan said...

Hope the calves hold up for the new goals. It would be good to catch up in Sydney.

I like the new photo. It no longer looks like you're manufacturing amphetamines.

Anonymous said...

Great goals Ewen. I never thought about setting goals for the shorter distance ... great idea. Best of luck meeting all of these.

I really like your new portrait. I thought the background looked familiar (I assume you are talking about the dunes to the west of Yuma Arizona, on the California side of the Colorado River. Looks fabulous.

Spud said...

All the best with your goals Ewen, thanks for your support too.
See you at 6FT!

miners said...

good work on the goal setting - I think I'm still there with Tess at the moment, and haven't quite worked them out yet.

Love the photo :)

Rachel said...

Great goals. You've built back a sound base now so can't wait to see what you do this year. So what half marathons do you think you will do? Oh, and good luck with 6FT. The 6FT buzz is certainly building fast at the moment!