2016 Almost-Halfway-Goals!

A few months back I bought new running shoes and set myself the ambitious goal of running a marathon before the year's end.  I have a fully customized training plan and I feel that goal is 100% attainable.  Frankly, if I did a walk/run marathon and didn't care about finishing time, I could probably do it today.

But I wouldn't want to do a 6 or 7 hour walk / run / take a break marathon.  If I want to run a marathon and be proud of it as an accomplishment I want to run a marathon.  The mental goal I set myself was to break 4 hours which is a decent speed for a first timer who really isn't a dedicated runner. 

But what I've found as I've been slowly increasing mileage of my runs is that to do it the right way means putting cycling to the side.  Instead of cyclng 4 days a week and running 2, it would have to be more like running 5 and cycling 1.  

I just won't do that.  I made a promise to myself that in pursuit of my running goals I wouldn't compromise my cycling and I've started hitting the point where I realized that further progress will come at the expense of cycling.  I ran a 10k on Saturday at a decent pace for me and my bike ride Sunday was pretty hard.  I was sore from the run and I realized that if I was going to have to go significantly harder and longer on the run and thus my cycling would suffer.

Sell your soul to the open road

After re-evaluating I will not be doing a marathon this year.  So what are my goals for the year then?

• Hit my annual cycling mileage goal.  I set myself the goal of 5,000 miles this year.  My mental goal is 6,000.  I'm on pace to hit about 7,000, and that's what I'd love to do.  Considering that in years' past I hit almost 12,000 miles this isn't peak insanity.

• Continue to ride a century each month.  The 2015 Horrible Hundred hurt.  I rode with fast guys and we pushed 250+ watts for the first 40 miles, which is basically riding uncomfortably close to threshold for me.  The last 60 miles were pretty painful.  Since December, I have ridden a century every month in order to increase my endurance on long rides and I am happy to report that as of my May century I am barely bothered by them.  Hopefully this trend improves and this November when I do the HH, I'll be a fresh as a crisp fall morning even after 100 miles and 5k feet of climbing.

• Mount Evans.  I'm going to Colorado this summer and I plan to bike to the top of Mount Evans, elevation 14,000 feet.  It's the highest paved road in the US and the elevation is absolutely insane.  It's a 27 mile ride to the top and conservatively it will take me 3.5 hours to ascend and probably 45 minutes to come down.  I challenge myself to do something "epic" every year and this will be my 2016 epic ride.

• Use running to supplement my cycling.  In Florida it rains a lot, especially in the summer.  Getting mileage in on the bike week to week can be sketchy and though I'm ahead of pace I could easily get two weekends in a row where it simply rains too much to get my miles in.  I won't be marathoning but I have no problem using running on those wet mornings where cycling is impossible to keep the engine warm.  It won't contribute to my cycling goals but running a 10 or 15k on a morning when I can't bike is better for my cycling than being a coach potato.  

So those are my goals for the rest of 2016.  What are yours?