Week 14 Goals: This week I'll just keep on keeping on. Today I will be running home from work (should take about 90 minutes to 2 hours) since I had to pick up my mother from the airport and I just used her car rather than having to drive all the way back home and then back to work. Tomorrow I'll be out on the trails, and Wednesday will be speed work in the Back Cove race. Thursday I don't plan on running much with the group I coach, but I will probably get a morning or lunch run in. I am planning on volunteering both days this weekend, so I am not sure if I will have time for a speed workout. Hopefully on Saturday, since I'll be busy all morning Sunday and then heading to my wife's grandmother's birthday party directly from the race. Not sure if I'll find any time to run at all. I should still fall in the 100km to 115km range for the week.

Week 14: I fell off the wagon this week. My hip was bugging me all week, so I took it relatively easy. I only ran 75 kilometers total, and had a couple of days where I only ran about 5 kilometers. I skipped the 12x400m workout due to the sore hip and ran an easy 10k instead, combined with 3-4 hours of yard work. Had fun watching the race on Sunday; my wife wound up running, and I just climbed to the top of the mountain to cheer folks on and then change the race course halfway through so that people could get to the finish line. (It was a 2 looper, and the runners take a different trail at the end of loop 2.) So, not much going on last week. Got the foam roller, and been using that pretty regularly, which has been helpful. Week 15 Goals: Well, this week started out with a fizzle. I took Monday off completely and used it as a hip regeneration day. It is still a little tight, but not quite as sore. The week is already half over, and I've run about 40k to this point with one 5k tempo run thrown in (17:10). Today and tomorrow I'll be taking it relatively easy and just getting some miles in, and then weather dependent I will be doing the 12x400m on either Saturday or Sunday morning (whichever looks better.) Since it has been raining non stop for the past month up here, I might have to do it in the rain, but I'd prefer not to. Whichever day I don't do the speed work, I will be going for a long run. I'd like to be around 100k this week rather than cutting back from there, because otherwise I'll have trouble maintaining my speed through the end of September like I want to. I should be taking it easier leading up to my race in week 16.

Week 16: Failure... Details to follow. Next goal race is 3 weeks from today.

It's too bad about not breaking 16 yet. However, I still think you are already capable of doing it, I think you just had and off day. I recall a couple of weeks ago you ran an interval workout where you covered 3 miles of 400's in about 14:30. My humble suggestion would be to run 1 maybe 2 tempo runs in the next couple of weeks that consists of a fast 3k at 3:10/km pace. This will get you comftorble with running at goal pace for a good duration and will be a good gauge for how prepared you are. I also liked doing 1200 repeats, with full recoveries. These will help carry you through the last couple of kms in the race. Finally do an easy workout of sprints for leg speed. Like I said before, I think your already fit enough to do it, it's just a matter of getting used to that pace for a duration while maintaining you overall fitness. I was in a similar situatuation this passed spring where I wanted to run a sub 50 10k or a sub 40 8k. My 10k time was only about 52:20 due to an off day, 4 weeks later I ran an 8k in 39:02. Also get inspired by this guy! Bekele!

Week 18 Goals: Long run tomorrow morning. It's a holiday, don't have to work, so I should have plenty of time for a 25k-35k run. Wednesday I plan on running intervals. I may be building a bridge over the weekend on one of the trails that I run on regularly, so I'm not sure how that will effect the running. Normal runs the rest of the week, probably just over 100k total is my guesstimate.

Week 18: I ran a bit over 90k this past week. I got my long run of about 27k in on Monday morning, but I forgot to bring shorts with me on Wednesday so I just did a tempo run using some cheap basketball shorts I bought on my way to the race. I ran home from work on Friday to get about a half marathon distance wise in, took it easy on Saturday, and then didn't run on Sunday. I was too exhausted from 4 or 5 hours of trail maintenance. Had fun though, other than almost losing an eye while try to break a tree that was blocking the trail with my mattock. Week 19 Goal: Sub-16 5k. I'll run some intervals Wednesday, and have 2 runs slated for today. Other than that, I plan on running every day and not taking as much rest as I did last time, but still not going to do anything outragous or stupid leading to Sunday's race.

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks. Failed again. 16:27.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but don't you think you set the bar a bit high for yourself going after sub-16:00 right now. Looking at your other race times this year you should be in the 16:30-40 range for 5K. The fact that you have gotten down to 16:27 says that you have achieved a higher fitness level than at any point this year so far and that should be looked at as an achievement not a failure. I understand about setting goals that are difficult so they mean something when you get them, but setting a goal that is a bit out of your grasp (for now) not getting it and then calling it a failure when you still run a really good race is a bit self-defeating. Good luck, keep training, you can get there.

I don't think that sub-16 is out of my reach. My earlier races this year were in preparation for a May marathon, which I ran (and won) - my training schedule since then has been for the sub-16. The races between the marathon and the end of August were during the early training cycle, since I used May as recovery and then began base building again in June. I definitely wouldn't have been in shape then to do the trick. Given some of my workouts, I don't think that the time I am shooting for is out of range. And I don't use failure to mean that the race was a waste. It just means I failed to do what I wanted. I raced well, I placed well, I didn't have a bad time. It just wasn't the time that I wanted and that I thought that I was capable of. Every workout and race I go into I have some sort of goal. I rarely just go out to run. Running too fast or running too slow can mean that I failed to make that goal.

Week 19 Goal: Sub-16 5k. I'll run some intervals Wednesday, and have 2 runs slated for today. Other than that, I plan on running every day and not taking as much rest as I did last time, but still not going to do anything outragous or stupid leading to Sunday's race.

Week 19: Mostly stuck to my game plan. I ran twice on Monday, and then had a tough day at work on Tuesday and was tired enough on the way home that I decided to bag the run. The cat wanted to take a nap with me, so I told her that if she laid on my legs and kept purring I'd nap, but if she got up then I was going to go out and go running. My wife got home late and had to shake me awake to find out why I wasn't cooking dinner yet. Wednesday's intervals was a fartlek session in the last back cove race. I'd run hard until I caught a specific person, then I'd back off until I counted X number of people pass me (X being a random number I chose at the start of each easy period.) Was a pretty good workout. Easy runs the next 3 days, and then the Dan Cardillo race which I got into a little above. It was raining and a bit windy, and the race went out a little slower than I expected it to. I hung on the shoulder of the eventual winner, and he took out relatively easy (3:10 first 1k) until a couple of other guys got in front of him and tried to put the sag on. Ethan then said screw this and just took off and left everybody behind. I got into a decent pace with a few teammates, but in order to run my time I would have had to place 3rd and I didn't have it in me. Looking forward, I have (now) less than 2 weeks until my next goal race at Eliot. This is a fast course, with a very fast first mile, a flat second mile, and a decent hill in the third mile that leads to a half mile downhill finish. Week 20 Goals: I have no goals this week, and I have no plans. My schedule is so messed up that I will take what I can get. Ran at lunch yesterday and after work today. I'll probably run at lunch tomorrow. Thursday I'm driving down to CT and as I plan to go into work early and want to spend as much time as possible with my nieces and nephews when I get down there, I doubt that I will have time to run. Friday and Saturday I'll be at fitness seminar. I imagine that I'll have time to run Saturday morning before it starts, but I have no idea if I'll be able to sneak a run in Friday. I'll have an hour drive to get there first thing in the morning and won't be able to check into my room until 3:00, so I might have time to run afterwards depending upon the schedule. There'll be a networking event in the evening so I may or may not have time. Saturday night I drive most of the way back to Maine to stay with friends in Massachusetts, but then Sunday morning I'm up at the crack of dawn to drive the rest of the way back so that I can cheer my wife on in her half marathon. It would have been nice to stay in CT and visit with family and friends, but hopefully I'll get a chance when I'm back down there in October. I think that my wife will be happy that I'm at her race. This is a women-only event, but they have an SO 5k that if I'm feeling up to it I might jump in, but at this point I tend to doubt it. If I do jump in, it'll be a workout and not a race.

[...] by setting success or failure by that goal is setting yourself up for failure. [...] I would say don't set yourself up for disappointment by setting a goal that is for now a bit out of reach, [...]

I don't see failure as a bad thing. I just see success as a better thing. I'm not afraid to fail. There's one race left. I'm confident that I can run sub-16 and I am going to base my race plan around that. If I don't make it, then I keep the monkey on my back until I decide to set up a new training cycle with that goal. Maybe next year, maybe not. As for disappointment, that is why I plan my major goals well in advance. That way I don't get depressed after I make a goal (or don't, which happens once in a while.) I have something else to start planning out while I recover from the goal & the season that just passed. I don't like being depressed; gives me migraines.