Why I pound the pavement?
There are many things I love about running…in a hectic lives that we all live today I find a great pleasure getting out for a run, reconnecting with the nature (and sometimes with some fierce nature here in Wisconsin) and enjoying some uninterrupted peaceful time.
I also like competing…this forces me to set the new goals, better myself as a runner and take the boredom out of any workout.
Finally, the health benefits of any type of exercise including running cannot be discounted…my goal is to stay fit and healthy for my two kids and my lovely wife for a long time to come. I should say that I am insulin dependent diabetic and exercise plays important part in my life. Although this condition poses a great challenge, especially for endurance sports, it keeps me very motivated to prove to myself that anything is possible if you only believe it can be done.
Every year I set new goals for myself. In 2009 it was qualifying for Boston and I achieved this by running 3:05:05 marathon at the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon.
I also set the goal of breaking 1hr for 15k and accomplished that at Milwaukee Lakefront Discovery run. My final goal for 2009 was running at least 1500 miles. This got checked off as well.
For 2010 I am setting a new set of goals:
a) Run Boston. Ok, I will say this now and will try to stick with it. There is no time goal for Boston. I will train through the winter but take conservative approach. Boston should be enjoyable experience, doing some sightseeing, spending few days with my wife (no kids) and finally doing the run but taking it all in. So, my goal is to get there (no injury allowed) and enjoy it. If I take 4 hours to finish it…so be it
b) Run sub-3 hour marathon in Fall. Still need to decide where and when but this should be a very tough and challenging goal.
As far as spending time to update this blog, well, there are many reasons I decided to do it…keeping track of my workouts, sharing my training/racing highs (and lows sometimes) with family and friends and also to solicit any advice from other runners.
Thanks for reading,
Igor
