And Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Or in this case, a mile every day before I sleep. To boot, I have some woods that are lovely, dark and deep in Central Park. Sort of. Okay, fine, it's a weak metaphor. I don't know what made me read that poem today but I did and am glad about it. Read it, if you haven't. The last verse is beautiful and a little haunting. Plus, considering the ongoing brutality of this winter, it's refreshing to read something that still treats the whole season with a measure of wonder rather than the disgust and annoyance I've adopted.

Jared and I worked out today. Circuits, as usual, but with a mile to begin. I did it between 7:30 and 7:35. Along with improving my mile time, I think I'm ready to begin increasing the distance I can run at this pace. I've gotten to the point where running a 7:30 mile requires a standard amount of effort; therefore, it's time I tackle a couple of goals. I've mentioned at least one, possibly both. The reason I feel like they need to be restated is that I now have a clear plan of action to achieving them. The first is running 2.5 miles in 20 minutes. This will come into play for the remaining two indoor triathlons in the JackRabbit series. As I've mentioned before and is easily calculated, 2.5 miles in 20 minutes works out to be an 8min/mile pace. The key here is increasing my distance steadily at the 7:30 pace. Maybe increase by a tenth or quarter of a mile every day? Or maybe somewhere in between. A quarter mile per day might be overly ambitious.

My second goal is really an extension of the first. I want to run a 5K in under 24 minutes. I did it in high school and I'm sure I can do it again. It's just going to require lots of discipline. If I can achieve these smaller goals and the approach proves successful, it may be that I can revamp my whole running strategy and be much faster than I thought possible. One step at a time, though.