No Looking Back

Its the end of the year and a natural time to start setting goals. You'll hear a lot about don't use resolution, don't wait until the New Year to set goals or whatever the latest word for resolution is. But here's the thing...do what works for you! For a lot of ultra runners the New Year does start our new training season. I typically take Oct-Dec off from formal training. I'm still running, its just not structured training, so yeah the New Year, whether its actually Jan 1 or not, is a great time to get back to training and to start thinking about goals for the coming year.

The last couple years I tried not setting goals, due mainly to being pregnant and lots of life craziness going on. But for me, it didn't work. Without having a real goal to work towards I lacked motivation and just never felt like my running was really coming together. So this year is going to be different. I've got goals, some lofty and big, some not as much but all excite me. That's one other thing you'll hear a lot. Goals should scare you. That might work for some people, but I believe a goal or a goal race should first of all excite you! If you're not excited about it, it doesn't matter how big a challenge or how scary its probably not going to turn out well. So find a goal that excites you regardless of how scary it is.

My goals for 2020 are exciting and I've been excited building up to the start of training.

• High Lonesome 100: this is my A race of the year; I was so excited to get in! This race is big and challenging, a bit scary, but mostly I'm so excited to see the course, to challenge myself in another big mountain 100, and to challenge myself against a really high caliber women's field. I have some rough time goals, but I'll hone those in as I study the course a bit more over the next few months. But I'm pushing it for this one.
• Sub-3:00??: This goal is a bit more questionable. I've always wanted to train for a sub-3 marathon, but honestly I'm just not sure I'm excited to really put in the work needed to go sub-3. I'll be running the Milwaukee Marathon in April so we'll see how training goes, but I'd really like to push for a sub-3:10 and then see if I can stick with the sub-3 training. Of course the first long workout run I set out on a couple weeks ago I made it 7 miles on the roads before I turned and ran up a snowy trail.
• Shorter races: This goal is a bit more vague, but in town we have a great trail series of shorter distance races. I did some this summer and they're so much fun! The thing is I have no idea how to run at a redline pace. Every time I would start I pulled back...ultra training has me scarred. So I'd really like to push it in a few of these races and see what I can do. This is a tough goal with High Lonesome, but I really think spending some time working on my speed this spring will help me in the longer distances. If I can run the flats and downs faster I will overall be faster...and that's the goal. So this goal is really to keep it fun and fresh and get out of my comfort zone.
• Fall: fall is still up in the air as I want to see how recovery from High Lonesome goes, but I have some plans floating around in my head so expect something else big.
• Non-running goals:
• read more: its been so hard to read, I think I read one book in 2019 and I miss it, so I want to make this more of a priority
• get organized: our house has zero storage and has been really hard to organize the way we like to have it organized, but I know if I can figure out how to make this happen I'll be a much more relaxed and happy person.

So cheers to whatever you start dreaming up for 2020! Just dream big for something and something that excites you! 

#seeyouinthesawatch