When you build a house, you need a solid foundation. When you are planning on having a financially secure life, you need a good budget. When you're working to be a great long distance runner, you need that mileage. The firm foundation is what you need in order to take the right steps and build to your goal. Without a firm foundation, it is impossible to create a situation that allows you to reach your goal. If you have a high goal, you need a firm and strong foundation. If your goal is not as high, you won't need as big and strong of a foundation.
My goals for my running is high and so I need a firm foundation in order to support me and my goals. Now I have to make sure that I create a strong foundation and not tear myself down. The reason I have to make sure to build a firm foundation for my running is because I just had a race. After a race, especially an ultra distance race, a runner's body is especially weak. In order to compensate for that, I need to make sure that I get back into it slowly. I'm figuring that tomorrow, I'll just go out for an easy 5 miler and if my body feels like it needs a break sooner, I would make sure to stop and walk so that I won't have to deal with me hurting myself. For the next few days, I'm going to get back into a little distance, but as soon as I feel that I am ready, I'm ready for my challenge to myself. In order to run fast in an ultra distance race, you would need to be able to run fast in a shorter race. I have made myself a goal which involves me running distances from 5k to 100 miles. Within one year, I would like to be able to run a 5k in 14:00, a marathon in 2:30:00, the 50 miler in Atlanta in 9:00:00, finish the 12 hour race with more than 70 miles, and finally... to finish a 100 mile race. Since it's my first 100 mile race, my goal would be only to finish the race.
Driving myself towards a high goal will achieve good results because I'm pushing towards it. However, the hardest part about these goals is that they are going to be difficult to achieve. Running a 5k and running a 100 mile race is totally different, and require a different kind of training. This means that I'm going to be confusing my body and forcing it to run in different kinds of races. I have to make sure that I'm doing both short distance strength training as well as long distance training, but I figure that if Olympic runners can run a 14:00 5k for the whole marathon, I would be able to do it for just a 5k. The hard part is going to be the fact that I'm going to be running a 2:30:00 marathon. This is a pace that can get 1st place overall. I'm still at a crossroads to which direction I feel like I ought to go. Some part of me wants to do well in running a marathon and seeing how fast I could get in a marathon, but another part of me wants to go far beyond the marathon and see how long I could run.
Sometimes, you have to take each step as it comes and depending on the outcome, it may lead you in a slightly different direction. I feel as if my goal towards ultra-distance running is more than reasonable, and compliments my character, however, I am curious to see what my limitations are in the marathon. I figure that this year might be the year that I would attempt to take steps towards seeing how fast I could run my marathon. Should I finish a marathon under 2:30:00, it might be a good decision to work on my marathon time to see how fast I could get and see whether or not I could compete in a world-class level. It's a fun thought, but I need to take things as they come. I have these different goals, and I'm going to work to see how close I can get to all of them. The important thing to me is to push myself as far as I can and as fast as I can. I want to push my limits and achieve these goals, and I need the firm foundation to back me up so that I would be able to take steps towards my goal.
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