Another week closer to Boston

Tommorow will be 20 weeks to Boston 2006! It's almost time for me to come up with a training plan to get me in shape to run a decent race. I also need to consider what my long term running goals and plans are going to be. It seems a little early to start with the New Year's resolutions but here goes with my list:

1. Enjoy running, no if's ands or buts. Number one priority.
2. Develop a long term multi-year plan which builds up using Lydiard as the foundation while staying uninjured and healthy.
3. Improve my running from a to z. Despite consistant mileage and racing over the past few years I've not had steady improvements but rather a kind of plateau in the 3:20-3:30 marathon range. Besides running, there is core strength, stretching, cross training, maybe even some weight loss that may help.
   
4. Short term to long term goals are to get in decent shape for Boston 2006 and then continue to build on this over the rest of the year with a good fall marathon. From there maintain a base to Boston 2007 and then ramp up for a fall 2007 peak.
5. Run shorter distances as tests or indicators of fitness including even marathons run as training runs.
6. Run some longer distances to explore new running territory. My dream race would be to someday do Comrades in South Africa but 1st I need to win the lottery.

Meanwhile, back in the real world we had a nice sunny but cool day with temps around 0C(32F) with light winds. There was a light snow last night with a few cm(1 in) that had partially melted and had to be careful for some slippery spots on the run. Did my weekly long run more or less the same route I did with Andrew last week, but in reverse with less loops in town, and a longer trip out of town. Managed to get in 15mi in 2:08 but the legs were getting sore over the last few miles and so didn't push it or add any more distance (though I was tempted to add a couple to get to 50 for the week). Total for the week was 6 runs for 48mi and 1933 miles this year to date.

So far so good. Now the devil is in the details...