4/4/14. rest day. but about my need for speed.

its a day of rest, so I typically don't journal.  but i have been thinking a bit about running, and about running goals. this mental dialogue was spurred by a conversation with my best friend Manuel.

I think, after having run for a little while and having a few marathons under your belt, you have a choice as to what you do with your running.  I had proven I could complete a run of 26.2 miles, and that i could recover in a reasonable amount of time.  but where to go from there?  I think I feel the options for me were:

1. maintain status quo. a little running now and again.  maybe some races/runs planned from time to time.  but running is basically maintenance and supplement to overall fitness goals.
2. run faster.
3. run further.

I followed choice number 1 for over a year.  it wasn't really a choice I made, but I just got lazy.  number 1 is the easy way out.  you can decide running is no big deal, that it's just something you do from time to time, and just go with the flow.  this is the path of least resistance, the path you take when you have other fitness goals, the path you take when you are wandering around with no goal in mind, or it could even be the path of cowardice.

number 2 and number 3, on the other hand, are real.  they are big time.  these are things that will not happen on their own.  this year, I chose number 2.  You cannot think that you can do what you have done before, and expect different results.  it is unrealistic to expect that following the same plan i did last time, or working to number 1, will make me run faster.  i have made a conscious decision that i want to run faster, and I have chosen an event to train for.  based on this, I have selected a running plan designed to help me improve.  For the first half of the plan it has interval training, hill repeats, tempo runs, and fartlek.  for the second half, it puts in more miles per week than i have run previously.  This is different than any other plan I have run, and it is specifically designed to help you get to your personal best.  I have to have faith that this training will develop me to where I want to go.

This is a little scary to commit to, and it is is a huge pressure, and it entails a lot of personal sacrifices.  But I think that more than a year after my last marathons with no real running since, it was time to make a decision.  So for 2014, I choose speed.