My running carrot

I just finished reading The Way of the Runner: A Journey into the Fabled World of Japanese Running by English journalist Adharanand Finn.

He travels to Japan and visits a monastery where monks run a thousand marathons in a thousand days in search of spiritual enlightenment; and trains with university and corporate teams who compete in the lucrative and prestigious ekiden - a long distance run covered by a team rather than an individual.

He surmises that the team environment of the ekiden encourages competitors to beyond what they could as an individual, and vows to test this theory. But...

2015 goals... 2016 goals... it's all the same to me.

It's that time of the year when all good athletes set their physical goals for the year.

I could just repost my "Goals for 2015" post as "Goals for 20156". I didn't achieve my main running goal last year so it's still good to go.

But it seems I didn't write a post about my goals last year. There are probably two reasons for this.

Goals for the year of the horse

So I never got around to writing this post at the start of the year so I might as well do it now at the start of Chinese/Lunar New Year.

I set my goals for 2013 before 2012 even finished so I'm even late by my own standards.

I am looking forward to 2014 because I've set myself a new goal that I'm a little bit frightened of.

The magic eight

The Kurrawa2Duranbah website is telling me there is 21 hours and something to go. (Because I'm a slowie I've got an early start so for me it's 20 hours and something.)

I'm feeling like my physical preparation has been pretty good. Mentally, though, I've probably done less than for other events and my strategy is all about the magic eight.

Bring on 2013

I had envisioned my final post for this year to be a little more reflective, as is my normal style.

But I've just had a good week of training so instead of all that contemplative, touchy-feely stuff, I'm using this post to brag a bit.

Silence...

I know, I've been a bit silent after my last post, when I was full of bravado about my next Ironman. Can I just say my plea for people to train with was greeted with, well, not much interest. So, what's a girl to do?

Here's what. Up the stakes... who wants to race with me? There's only 400 or so places left so get in quick...

Talk about a way to guarantee some more silence...

In other news, I've officially started my campaign. The key till the end of the year is consistency. Don't worry about what to do, just do it. Run, ride, swim, whatever. Six training sessions a week minimum.

So, since my last post I've been sick for a week, completed the BlackHeart Sprint adventure race at Karana Downs (lots of fun), started swimming after a l-o-n-g hiatus and dusted off the mag trainer for some bike sessions in front of the TV.

Bring it on I say.