Goals. It's all about goals. Big goals, little goals, even super-nuts goals like deciding to do your first Ironman. But it's the little goals--even the silly, private ones--that keep you hitting the road and the pool day in and day out.
For more than 20 years I have had my private "to-the-corner" running PR goals. They exist in various configurations and distances depending on what loop I do. I know the particular cracks in the pavement that denote the start/stop of each "corner challenge." I know my PR times for each and every one. Obsessive? Maybe. But it's one of this tricks I use to gauge progress, fatigue, or just to make a run more interesting.
Today I had a "to-the-corner" PR bonanza! I have never made it to corner #1 in under 16 minutes. Today, 15:20! From corner #2 to my house, I've been trying to beat 2:48. Today 2:22! That's on a EZ "frequency" run! Psych!
I know this is a direct result of my hard work in the the Endurance Nation out-season program. In this block of training, I ran the intervals to improve my 5K time. I biked VO2max "puke-effort" sessions for eight weeks. I was consistent and gave the training my best go. And there you have it--work works. Today was just an easy run for frequency, nothing more expected, and I raised the bar for myself with new "to-the-corner" PRs. Can't wait to demolish those times when doing some fast intervals! Oh yeah!
