Goals and the fallacy of being guided by them

Over the next few months, okay the next 9 months, I am going to be embarking on a personal quest. A quest to be a faster, better runner than I am today.

Last year I ran in 17 races, 10 as part of the MRTC Road Race Series, 1 5 miler (the Overton Classic, 1 4 miler (Cooper Young), and 4 5ks (Meowathon, First Tee, Rotary Club, and the True Blue), and the St Jude half, I was forced to pull out of 3 races due to weather or wife illness. This year I have already registered for 6 and plan to register for at least another 5-10 plus the RRS, a mix of 5k, 10k, half marathon, full marathon, and various other shorter distances.

My times last year were good for someone who had never run competetively, and let's be honest, will never be a high end runner, but someone who can compete in his age bracket and the overall, so long as the entrants level is small. My goal is to finish at a minimum in the top half of my age, and the top quarter overall. Last year, I was able to do that easily. Next year will be more of the same I hope.

These were my best times last year based on the races

5k: 22:44 (7:20 per) tru blue
4m: 31:14 (7:49 per) Cooper Young
5m: 42:14 (8:27 per) RRS 2nd
10k 50:10 (8:06 per) RRS 2nd
10m 1:26:21 (8:39 per) RRS 2nd
hm 1:58:15 (9:02 per) RRS 1st

What is funny about these times is that I run faster in competition than I do in training. Two weeks ago I ran for an hour and beat the following 4m, 5m, and 10k times. My goals these next year are going to be hard to do in competetion due to going out too fast and not closing fast like I do when I run, but I think I can do them.

5k: sub 22
4m: sub 30, preferably closer to 29
5m: sub 40, as close to 39 as I can get
10k: sub 49, preferably as close to 48 as I can
10m: around 1:22, preferably close to 1:20, note on this, the RRS 10m are beasts
hm: 1:50
fm: 4:10

Over the next few months I will post my times, talk about my runs, links to photos, etcs. There will be other things discussed, but look for at least 2-3 running updates a week.