Next Phase

There's not really another conveniently located 10K anytime soon.  Also, I'm going to be working a good proportion of the upcoming (aka until April) Saturday mornings due to the nature of pediatric research (kids have to go to school on weekday mornings, unfortunately for me).

So instead of lamenting about my decision to skip the race, I'm moving into the next phase of my running life - winter training.  I'm following Hal Higdon's plan for the next 13 weeks.  It's not exactly winter yet but I'm ready for running to run and not for any super-specific purpose.  I'm following the plan to keep me honest because if I don't have a run *scheduled* sometimes I just "don't get to it" and when that happens several days in a row ... well, you know what happens.

My overall goals for this "training" phase is to:

1. stay comfortable with my runs

2. increase my "comfortable" pace - this means tempo runs on Thursdays and/or other mild speedwork. I don't have any expectations for where this new pace should be, but it's something I'm going to work on.

3. keep running and keep ENJOYING running.

and 4. use the short easy days on Monday and Wednesday to "train" my roommate into continuous running using the couch-to-5k plan.  This will (1) keep me from getting bored with the short runs (2) be good for roomie's health and fitness & (3) get me a running partner for Mini training!

My next "big" race will be the Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon - but that's not until May.  I want to increase my weekly mileage slightly (aiming for 15-20 miles a week instead of 12) but will probably not be exceeding 7 or 8 mile long runs until training for that race officially starts in February.