As mentioned on a previous blog post I am running the Surf the Murph 100 mile race in October. As I prepare to take on this challenge, I will be providing monthly updates on my progress. This is as much to hold me accountable to my training as it is for anything else, but I’m hoping others find this interesting and maybe inspirational as well. I will also be mixing in some advice on goal setting I’ve learned over the years for running and exercise that I hope will be useful for anyone interested in starting or continuing an exercise routine.
February was a rough month for outdoor training in Minnesota. Given that we had a record snowfall amount as well as very cold temperatures, running long outside was a very difficult task. And running 15+ miles indoor on a treadmill didn’t sound too appealing either. I did my best to keep up with training but several workouts were skipped due to bad weather, not enough time because of snow shoveling, or general lack of motivation (MN winters tend to wear on you around February). I did manage to do a decent amount of indoor biking though as an alternative to running.
Nonetheless, on March 3rd, the Napa Valley Marathon was on my schedule so there was no slowing down. Having races on the schedule creates relentless motivation to keep pushing forward.
The Napa Valley Marathon was a moderate success
I finished the Napa Valley Marathon in a time of 3 hours, 35 minutes, and 13 seconds. This time fit comfortably between my last two marathon times in late 2018 of 3:28:11 at the Twin Cities marathon (my current personal best marathon time) and the 3:37:52 time at the Pensecola Marathon. Overall, I consider this time a moderate success for me since my main goal throughout the winter was to maintain fitness and not lose fitness and have to rebuild like I normally do. I hoped for a new personal record (PR) and at the very least hoped to best my previous Napa Marathon time from 2016 of 3:39:45 as well as my Pensecola Marathon time, both of which I accomplished. Two out of three ain’t bad!
I could definitely feel my lack of recent long runs in the later miles of the Napa Valley Marathon. During the first half, I felt great and cruised to a roughly 1:43 first half. I even briefly passed the 3:25 pace group around mile 12 (if you’re not familiar, some races have runners who run specific times in order to help other people pace effectively). However, around mile 14, I could feel my legs begin to break down. It’s pretty depressing to have tired legs knowing you have 12 more miles to go but I pushed through the best I could and ran the second half in 1:52. Needless to say, I was happy when the race was over.
It is still snowing heavily in Minnesota and very cold, but knowing where I’m at and where I need to go has re-energized my training desire. Here’s to a stronger month of training in March!
Goal setting for races
I eluded to this a little above but I wanted to elaborate a bit more here on my thought process for race goal setting in 2019 and also in general. Setting goals is important because it creates something to strive for. I also think that goals should be something that are easily measurable to determine success. For example, having a goal to “get in better shape” is difficult to measure, whereas, “lose 10 lbs in 2019” is easily measurable. Lastly, setting tiered goals (e.g. a “realistic” goal and a “stretch” goal) can help you stay motivated without having a goal that is so impossible you may never reach it.
If you’re running your first race at a distance, especially if it’s something as long as a marathon, having a goal of finishing is perfectly acceptable. I also like to have a time goal in mind as something to shoot for. Throughout your training hopefully you will have a good idea of roughly how fast you think you can go. As you race more and more, the times are easier and easier to predict. Another good way to set goals if you are new to a distance but have done shorter distances in the past is to use a race time predictor similar to this one. Keep in mind that the race distance you are trying to predict should be in the ballpark of a recently completed distance; using a 5k time to predict a marathon time probably won’t be the most accurate.
My goals for Spring 2019 marathons
As mentioned, for the Napa marathon, my main objective was to stay in shape throughout the winter, hence the goal to finish better than my previous marathon time. My stretch goal was to beat my previous best marathon time of 3:28. Looking ahead to future races, my big two are the Fargo marathon in May and the 100 mile in October. My other races scattered throughout the year are more for “fun” so I’m not setting specific race goals for those. By the way, the Twin Cities marathon on October 6th is now added to my race schedule as a “training run” leading up to the 100 mile two weeks later.
For Fargo, I’m hoping to, at a minimum, set a new marathon PR by going under 3:28 with a stretch goal of 3:15 which would allow me to qualify for the Chicago marathon which I would consider doing in 2020 if I qualified. The goals for the 100 mile are a bit more complicated. I’ve been advised by someone who has completed one already that just finishing should be the main goal for a first timer, so I will go with that as a starting point. After that the goal is to finish under 24 hours (yes, this sounds as crazy to me as it probably does to you to run that long). There are a lot of unknowns and variables at this distance so I would be happy hitting either one of these goals.
How do you go about setting goals, in races or any other areas of life?
