She Runs by the Seashore

In 2021, I was successful in meeting three of my four goals. The year seemed to go well, so my 2022 goals are pretty similar, with a few tweaks. They are challenging but reasonable.

1. Keep up the monthly 1600-meter runs for speed and run sub-8:00 by the end of the year. Back when I was going into high school (in 2004… it’s been a while!), I had to run a sub-8:00 mile (1600-meter run) to make it onto the soccer team. I did that, but I didn’t make the team, and not being that great at other sports was what led me to running. Since then, I’ve always seen sub-8:00 as an ideal fast mile standard for me. I just looked back on my running logs, and the last time I ran a sub-8:00 mile was in 2016. However, with these regular efforts and an added focus on speed, I am going to try to make it happen again in 2022.
2. Beat two of my distance times from 2020/2021. Since I’m not close to my personal records at this time, I can really only compare my current running race paces to more recent years. So, I’m bringing back the goal of beating two of my times for standard distances — 5K, 10K, 10-miler, half marathon and marathon — for 2022. However, instead of just looking at my 2021 times, I’m making the goal to beat my fastest time at that distance from the past two years.
3. Finish the Algonquin 50K. In 2021, I set a goal of beating my time from 2017, but this year, I really just want to finish the Algonquin 50K, since I wasn’t able to finish last year. The cutoff is 8 hours, so I will be happy if I come in at 7:59:59, as long as I finish. If I beat my time from 2017, that’s an added bonus.

Here’s to 2022!