Saturday, December 06, 2008

Of Goals Not Met: Now With More Shame!

CNN is Calling it Early...
I know the year isn't over yet, but it's 8:00 p.m. EST on election night and a comeback is a mathematic improbability. I'm calling it. I missed my yearly mileage goal. And that might explain part of why I sucked so bad at the Seattle Marathon. Now that I've officially come up short, the pundits can tear into my past mistakes and analyze them with the precision of hindsight...

Today's 5 mile run through the ghetto of Kenmore put me at 803 miles for the year. Unless I do nothing but run from now until New Year's Eve, I'm going to come up short of the 1,000 mile goal I set for myself. So that sucks.

I'm shooting for 1,000 next year, and how much do you want to bet that if I get there, my marathon times will improve along the way? Sucker bet, I know. Mileage is the key to those long races, and I just didn't pack in the miles this year. My best months were October and November, at over 100 miles each, but those included all of my long training runs AND the Seattle Marathon, so you would expect those to be high. I should be running consistent 100 mile months (more like 150, actually, if my weekly mileage is where it should be).

Obama raised his campaign fortune $5 at a time, and I think there is a lesson there for everyone. I need more frequent little runs packed around my long weekend runs to build up the miles. 5 here, 6 there...that's the ticket. Anyone care to make a small donation?

So in addition to not making my goal pace at the Seattle Marathon, I am now shamed by missing my mileage goal. I also didn't cure AIDS, discover any physical principles, or bungee jump from a bridge in New Zealand. Oh well, there's always next year.

Hey GVB, What's Up Next?
Another chance to come up short! The Vancouver Marathon is on May 3rd. Cap'n Ron will be there again, and so will Former Fraternity Acquaintance. Anyone else? Early registration ends December 15th. After running Seattle, I am actually looking forward to Vancouver for its organization, support, and attention to detail. They put together good races up there.

I'm really going to train for this one. Speed work, hills, and distance. The whole ticket. I'd like to get this Boston Qualifying monkey off my back. He's heavy to drag around the course.

What's Up at The Factory?
Well, let's see here...
  1. Our union president is a complete idiot
  2. The Colleague's computer is magically downloading porn on its own
  3. Our dean has lost her mind (and, apparently, her hairbrush)
  4. We get to teach more students in more classes for less money!
  5. I might be going to Florida for 3 days to do focus group work on a textbook
  6. The Colleage and I have officially announced our exit strategy for the department chair work
  7. Sweater is expanding
  8. Pear is expanding
  9. Mysterious Math/Science Tenure Abuser is expanding
  10. The Factory itself is shrinking. Something has to give here...
  11. Everyone is carefully studying the RIF list...

3 comments:

The Colleague said...

To be fair, my laptop also downloads advertising for travel and restaurants. So at least this full-service virus has done its market research on my leisure-time preferences.

Andy said...

Now Playing at the Factory:

"Apocalypse Now"

"Lord of the Flies (Academic Version)"

"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"

GVB said...

So, when your laptop is seized as part of the lawsuit against our dean, they will find your porn AND your sushi habit document in web form? Awesome.

Now if you'll excuse me, my mailbox is over its size limit.