2017 plans

Based on last years plans and how it didn't really go according to plan. It was quite tempting to "wing it" again this year. But then I thought, even though things didn't go to plan and I ended up doing other stuff.  The plans I made still got me out the door, maybe not to the extent I needed to, but they still got me out the door.  So I am going to set goals and races for this year and just see what happens.

For the first 5 months of the year I want to focus on my endurance.   Build up the long runs and hopefully do some longer distance races starting with Alloa half marathon in March.  Then if things go well I will look at going longer and longer in April and May.  Now I know I can't do parkruns full out, then do long runs the next day, so there will need to be a compromise.  So the plan is to take parkruns easier which I have started doing in December anyway (although sometimes it wasn't intentional lol).  Also, I'll take more of a turn volunteering than 2016.

June should be named National race month as there just seems to be an unbelievable amount of races. It will be a toss up what I end up doing this month. But in July I'll definitely be back at Crieff 10k.  Then in October I fancy Great Scottish Run and then the finale for the year being the Southside six. A much hyped 16 mile race around 6 of Glasgow's southside parks which are right on my doorstep.  That's if I get in though as it sells out very fast!

On to goals.  Last year I set the target of 500 miles and didn't quite achieve it. But this year I've decided to up it to 600 and I really want to totally obliterate it.  The next goal which will be in the summer, is a sub 25 minute Pollok parkrun. This will be more tricky as I won't be doing 5k efforts every week like the last few years but hopefully my speed and endurance will improve with some good blocks of training. For the half marathons I have a record of never being over 2 hours out of 11 attempts but I have a funny feeling that however well my Alloa training goes. Realistically I could very well be over the 2 hour mark. But later on in the year Sub 2 hours is my target.

For challenges I may end up doing the 10,000 step a day challenge for 100 days again and the Marcothon I want to do as it really does keep you running through a month where its probably the most hard month otherwise.