Saturday, January 12, 2008

Goals for 2008

For me, most of 2008 comes down to the July-August time frame as that's when I'll be running the Masters Track and Field Meets.  I also plan to run some 5k's and 10k's, and I will likely go for a time in the 5k sometime in the Fall.

One thing I need to keep in mind when setting goals for this year is that this is just my first year of running, and my aerobic fitness (no matter how hard/well I train this year) won't be very good.  I expect that even though I ain't gettin' any younger - my best Masters times will likely come in 2009 or 2010.  

The 2008 season for me will essentially be a learning experience.  What I hope to do this year is to better understand what types of training work well for me, build my aerobic fitness, slowly and steadily increase my weekly mileage throughout the year (except for the period of time where I'm trying to peak for the track season), and get some good racing experience under my belt.  

With that said, it's pretty damn wimpy to title something "goals" and not throw some numbers up there, so here they are:

  1. 800m -  sub-2:13
  2. 1500m -  sub-4:40
  3. Mile -  sub-5:00
  4. 5k -  sub-18:00

Are these times aggressive for what will be a 40yo guy in his first season who hasn't run for 20 years?  Yes they are. . . but I need something to shoot for.  Needless to say, I won't be terribly disappointed if I don't hit all of these times.  But I do expect to hit at least one of them, and come very close on the others.  If nothing else, it will be interesting for me to track my progress to see how close I can come to these goals.

2 comments:

Ruslan said...

Hi Mike! Thanks for a comment! I guess I'm about 6 years younger but.. but your Goals for this year makes me think more about my shape. Good luck with your goals in 2008 and I will try to be just closer to couple of them.

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Some pretty impressive goals - but obtainable.

40 is just a number - don't sweat it!