Running towards a goal

It's less than 2 weeks before the 5K and I can say I feel good. Tonight I got my longest run in yet, 3.5 miles, and surprisingly, I felt pretty good, like I could go a bit farther.

It was a nice night to run after work. Mid 50s, a bit breezy when I was heading north, but lucky for me, I was running with the wind on the way back to my apartment. I had to take advantage of today, especially since their forecasting the evil stuff that starts with an "S" and ends with "now" for later in the week. Guess that means I'll have to renew my friendship with the treadmill.

But back to that 2 week thing. I'm glad I ended up signing up for the 5K. I've really come to enjoy the days that I run, especially now that I can do it outside. And really? The 3 miles isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Granted, I'm not going to break any speed records (I figure I'll probably finish the course in about 33 minutes or so, anything under 35 will be fine by me), but still, it'll feel good to finish.

And the training has been fun. While I run a couple times a week, once a week or so I throw in an extra street or two to make my route a little longer, like I did today. I was on my way home, down to the last mile or so and on a whim I turned down a dead end street that I sometimes take. It only added another quarter of a mile on, but it's a quarter mile farther than I've been running.

Which brings me to what am I going to do once the 5K is done next week? There's one in May in Appleton that I'm thinking of running, which includes a very very nasty hill at the end (lucky for me, the upcoming 5K is a fairly flat course). But otherwise, I'm thinking of starting to add mileage. Make my runs longer. My next goal might be a 5 mile run, now that I know I can do at least 3.5. Or there's always a triathlon. That's been something I've been toying with for the last summer or two.

Whatever I decide to do, I think I need something to work towards. Because having a date circled on the calendar made it that much easier for me to get out and run, even on those days when I had no desire to lace up the sneakers.