one goal for 2010

(this was meant to be posted on friday at 10, but i guess never hit "publish", so it stayed as a draft. I publish it saturday morning instead.)

I approach 2010 with a bit of caution when it comes to what goals I'll have. Looking back at 2009 I consider it a pretty good year, especially considering the finish I had at the Tetons. However, the goals I set a year ago are a far cry from what I actually accomplished. I ran a mere 817 miles in 144 days over the year. How pathetic! I didn't run a marathon or more every month. I didn't lose any weight at all. To be honest, looking at the numbers I feel kind of like a schmuck for feeling like I had a decent year.

Having said that, I decided that I would have just one goal in 2010: To run every day.

And to make sure I don't cheat, I am going to use the qualifications as accepted by the United States Running Streak Association (Yes it does exist) to define a "run":

A running streak is defined by USRSA as running
at least one continuous mile within each calendar
day under one's own body power (without the
utilization of any type of health or mechanical
aid other than prosthetic devices).

Running under one's own power can occur on either
the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a
treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use
of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on
pools or aquatic devices to create artificial
buoyancy.

In the past, I have had running streaks as long as 61 days, and I found that the streaks really helped me to stay consistent in a way that "I'm going to run 5-6 days per week" couldn't. And my races were better for it, too. A pitfall I noticed when streaking, however, was just doing the minimum every day and ending up with less than ten miles per week. I will have to be careful not to let that happen again.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com