i2runner

2010 i2goal – enjoy running

It took me a while to decide what goals to aim for this year. Now last year, I believe I have been ambitious for my actual abilities and though I did accomplish them, I have really suffered at the latter part of the year with injuries. I learned my lessons the hard way. 6months after the marathon, I feel that I’m back to square one, that I no longer have any benefits from my previous high mileage training. I gained 10pounds, and couldn’t run on hilly terrain.

So for 2010 I am going to make my goals more enjoyable and more realistic. Whenever I ask Beth what motivates her to wake up early in the morning and run alone, she always tell me it’s because she simply enjoys doing it. I realized her reason for running is way better than mine–training for faster endless PR’s. (Sure, running have endless benefits like weightloss, lower blood pressure, improved cardiovascular system, stronger endurance, improved mental health and reflexes, improved cellular energy metabolism… and oh, more social life both real and in blogosphere and cyberspace.) So perhaps I should run because running like life, is enjoyable (perhaps this is Patrick Concepcion’s secret for 30years). So I did, and whenever I run again, I enjoy it more. Even the after-effect of running, the runners’ high, feels so great hours later whether I’m in the office or playing ping-pong.

So in summary, here are my top goals to enjoy my running life:
1)Add feel-good intervals of up to 12×400meters, 5×1,000meters, 5×1mile with recovery jogs of half the distances or less.
2)200 to 400meter repeats at paces where I could feel life is at its most precious.
3)Tempo runs to make me realize life is short.
4)Long Runs to make me realize life is really short.
5)Repeat steps 1 to 5 all year round.

Now here are my less important goals for the year:
1)Sub 6:30 mile – I’ll be racing with Patrick and Ritchie next week. If I couldn’t do this, I’ll be attempting another one next month, or the next.
2)Sub 20minute 5K – Hopefully I could do this by April. If not, maybe next year.
3)Sub 45minute 10K – Piolo who?
4)Sub 4hour marathon – Oh did I already do that last year? Ok why not Sub 3:30hour marathon. No pressure here, maybe I’ll experiment with the Galloway’s Run/Walk method.

Lifetime goal:
Run/Walk Ultra-Marathons.

Running should make life fun, not the other way around.