Rain Day - Target Setting

Today's rainy so I'm using the weather as an excuse to let my lazy side win the day. As I rest and get my body ready to go back at it tomorrow, it's time to take a step back and plan for how high I want to reach.

As you may already have seen on the left, my next race is the Ottawa Half Marathon (21.1km). As I approach this race, I feel excited with the possibility of reaching further than ever before. I've raced the Ottawa Half Marathon a few times in the past:

• 2008 - 1h50
• 2007 - 1h43
• 2006 - 2h08

Last year, I was recovering from a bad case of plantar fasciitis so my objective was merely to finish without injuring myself. And my next race after that was a marathon, so my training focused on building my endurance instead of speed. I had to manage all this training while also tackling a new challenge: cycling to work for a total of 250km a week. That summer I biked on average four days a week and ran once (only on the way back, I would bus into work!).

This year should be fun as I add swimming to the mix and try to get my speed up. My challenge is a new PB at the half marathon with a hope of finishing under 1:40 (yeah, right!). I know I will regret having announced this already but I think it sets a target at which to throw everything I've got.