Planning Plans.

I'm racing this Saturday, but not race-racing.  It's my first trail race, so no matter what happens, I get a PR.

I am planning to race-race the Columbia half in March.  This is the race I was training for last year before I got sidelined by the stress fracture/shin splints.  It's pretty hilly, but I've got the hometown advantage, and I will definitely be doing some of my training runs on the course.  

When I started making my training plan and counting back 12 weeks from race day, I realized... oh crap... I'm gonna have to start training on Monday!  That was not very well planned on my part, but what can you do? (You can look at your calendar when you plan your race schedule, that's what.)  Anyway, since I haven't been running very much the past few weeks, I don't want to jump into too much too soon and end up sitting out this race for the second year in a row.  Also, I will be in Florida for like 9 days at Christmas, so the first 3 weeks less intense - more rest days, no speedwork.  We'll see how it goes.

The Make My Day 12K is a trail race, and I'm hoping that some of my weekend runs will be on the trails as well.  I definitely slow down on the trails and use different muscles, so hopefully mixing in that off-road time will add something to my training.  Plus, I just love being out there, especially since J seems to enjoy it too, so it's something we can do together.

The Columbia half is the first goal race for 2013.  It's also part of a larger plan, which isn't finalized just yet, but if everything works out like I'm hoping... 2013 will be the year of the marathon! Eeek!  That's the whole reason I started this blog, to document getting to the marathon.  Running one has been something I've wanted to do for a looooong time, but I never actually did anything about it because it seemed so overwhelming.  Hopefully next year will change that, but first things first.  I'll be Rampaging this weekend, then we'll take it 12 weeks at a time.