Goal Setting

I started running around 2007ish after years of slogging away on the elliptical machine, trying to get to an ideal body weight and failing miserably. Under the conventional wisdom of "calories in, calories out," I had reduced my food intake dramatically right after college. Weight certainly came off fairly quickly at first - but then when I plateaued at a BMI still considered overweight, I assumed my body had just adapted to doing the same thing over and over again (ignoring the fact that  - given the lack of adequate nutrition I was taking in - I'd often collapse after a workout into a pile of donuts.)

Running seemed to be the answer. I remember my first 'run' on the treadmill might have been 10 minutes long at about 5 miles per hour. I never thought a half marathon - or five for that matter - would be in my future.

You'd think after eight years of running, I'd be right up there with the rest of the running 'elite'; but if you read post 1, you know I'm up there with the running 'mediocre'.

November 2013 - this race was a blast and I do have a lot of positive memories from it - but the Wine and Dine half marathon has the honor of holding my worst record: 2:10:somethingsomething.

Why do I think I can suddenly reach my sub 2:00:00 half marathon goal?

Because it's my only goal. Alright, looking good in a bikini is still a powerful motive, but I'm not going to sacrifice overall health to do it.

Plus I'm empowered with some new ideas about maintaining health that laughs in the face of the conventional wisdom that got me into the sorry state I'm in today. It may be counterintutive, but I can't just focus on running alone as I have been doing all of these years. Nutrition, sleep, stress - it all plays a part.

So to get started, let's break down whether my goal is reasonable or not. Most self-improvement resources suggest that the goals you set should be "SMART" - and I don't think it gets much smarter than mine.

"S" - Specific. As in "I will run 13.1 miles on April 17th, 2016, in under 2:00:00." I could be even more specific and add that I will start running around 5:30am and stop at water stations 2 and 5 with no bathroom breaks while wearing an R2D2 costume, thus finishing around 7:29am.

"M" - Measurable. As in less than 2 hours.

"A" - Awesome. Running the Star Wars Dark Side challenge is pretty awesome. I don't really remember what "A" stands for.

"R" - Realistic. It was just three years ago that I ran my very first half-marathon in about 2 hours flat. I can do it again.

"T" - Timely. I know I have 203 days to make this happen. Having a solid training plan can get me to my goal.

203 days left.

Today's Exercise: Running for Brews - 2.48 mi @ 10 min/mile (approx)*

Today's Meals:

Breakfast	Lunch	PWO	Dinner
2 Eggs Scrambled w/ Spinach Coconut Oil Coffee w/ Cream	Tuna Quinoa w/ Kale *New Starbucks Toasted Graham Latte (this was a huge mistake and likely the cause of a poor training run tonight)	GNC Puredge Energy	GNC Puredge Protein