Resolute

I've kind of missed the boat on New Year's resolutions, but it's February 1st now and I figure better late than never. I started the year bemoaning the fact that I injured my back during Week 2 of my half marathon training plan, essentially putting the kibosh on doing the Burlington half marathon in early March this year. But after wallowing in sugar cookies for a month, I snapped out of it and am moving on with a plan.

My plan for this year originally included a lot of races and then after I injured myself again, I sort of settled down and said I just wanted to be healthy enough to go out and do things - not necessarily train for anything in particular. Well, that didn't last very long. I am still going to go easy on the training (i.e. I will not attempt another speed workout on the treadmill anytime soon, because while I pleasantly surprised myself by being able to complete it... the injury came 4 days later... and I am not entirely convinced that the two were not somehow related.)

Instead, here is a list of the events I hope to complete, not for time but for fun, assuming that I get the training in for them, and if I don't then I don't and there is always next year:

January - Pub Brrrrun - check! (OK, fair enough - a run like this can't really be considered a goal race!)

April - London half marathon - it's on April 29th so if I start now, I still have time to train for this one
May - Muddy River run (maybe)
June - Tomatoman sprint triathlon
July - Bluewater Olympic triathlon (twice as far as a sprint... so this is my stretch target for the year)
August - Bulldog sprint triathlon - I have something to prove on this course this year
September - maybe Lakeside sprint triathlon; maybe the Harvest Run
October - Detroit half marathon
November & December - resume wallowing in sugar cookies

I've been enjoying using the Garmin I got for Christmas for the last few weeks. I put it on, go for a run, come within a few meters of my computer and my run data is instantly zapped onto it - a map of my route, my pace, etc. It's pretty cool and pretty accurate - you can even see on the map (pictured) where I crossed the street to run on the other sidewalk. A gadget like this and some cool tunes downloaded from iTunes make going for a run a lot of fun these days. Hopefully I can keep it up and stay injury (and pneumonia) free this year.

(PS - while I am definitely a sloooow runner - this screen shot was taken from a very snowy run with superbad footing. While I am sloooow, I am not normally THAT slow. But hey, it's still moving faster than sitting on the couch, so I will take it!)