Motivation is Suffering

I've started to experience the effects of the winter on my training and motivation.  I had been so proud of the running I had accomplished this winter.  While my first two months were nothing great, I had a decent January of training and was ready to really hit it hard in February.  Unfortunately, I've been able to talk myself out of running more days that I would have liked.  Today would normally be an overview of my week of training, but since all I was able to manage last week was 3 runs and 22 miles total I'm not going to brag too much.

Part of the reason for this, besides just the weather, is the fact that my confidence in the plan I laid out is really starting to suffer as well.  While I've gotten in good mileage, my workouts have been few and far between.  I had huge goals of running a blazing fast debut in the half-marathon in April, but I'm sitting here just over two months away from that race and realizing it will take a miracle to hit  my goals.  Because of this, I've decided to overhaul my plans for 2014 completely. 

The half marathon is a funny thing for me.  Most people can't believe when I tell them that while I've run 2 marathons, I've never run a true half marathon.  Part of the reason for this is because I've never really been in shape for the one major half marathon in town in April.  But the real reason is a bit of arrogance.  I've always felt the half marathon can probably be a very good distance for me, and I want to make my debut something special.  I want to run a time that has my stands out to people.  Back when I was at my best, a time near 1:10 was a reasonable goal, and nowadays I really think I would like to be able to shoot for a time close to that in my debut. 

So with that in mind, I'm going to skip the Derby Festival Half Marathon and focus on my favorite distances.  My 5k PR stands at 15:18 from 2006.  The closest I've come to that time in the last 7 years was a 15:43 in 2011.  I really think that time can come down, even at the age of 32.  As I mentioned before, my winter has not been good but it's still been better than most years, meaning I am in better shape to start doing 5k specific workouts now than I have been in several years. 

So the reason for this post is to say that today, February 10th 2014 will be the start of my march to a PR.  I haven't run a PR at any distance since July of 2006, and I want to know that feeling once more. 

With that being said, I'm heading out for a run (it's another snow day and there's absolutely NO excuse to take the day off running).  Thanks for reading.