Where I'm at, where I'm going

So tomorrow will be day 45 of P90X. I'm almost half-way through, with about 6 weeks to go. That means it's about time to start planning beyond P90X.

My biggest goal for this fall/winter racing season is to run a sub-2hr half marathon. I'll have three shots at it. I'm planning to run a half in October (Boo Run in Cleburne or Allstate in Dallas), another in November (Azle Lake Run), and another in December (White Rock Dallas half marathon).

A 2-hr half marathon is about a 9:09 pace. So that's the target.

This morning I headed out for a 4 mile run. I took it easy the first mile, then picked up my pace for the remainder of the run. The result was an average pace of about 9:53, which required a moderate effort. So clearly I have my work cut out for me. I need to triple that distance and take about :45 off of my pace and I have about 4 months to do it.

Realistic? Well here's my optimistic thinking: The cooler fall temps are usually good for taking about :20 to :30 off of my pace. It was about 80 degrees this morning. A good fall racing day will be closer to 50 or 60 degrees. It makes a big difference. I'm also on a low-carb diet as part of the P90X program. So my current diet and workout regiment make running a bit more challenging. So once I've completed P90X and I start increasing my carbs a bit, hopefully that will be good for another :10 to :15 off of my pace as well.

So I think the 2hr half is a good challenging goal to reach for. It seems doable, but it's going to take some effort.

My second tier goal is to set a new half marathon PR. That means beating 2:10, which is about a 10min pace. Barring injury, I'll be pretty disappointed if I don't accomplish this one.

So that's where I'm headed, now to get busy finding a good half marathon training schedule to jump on once P90X is completed.