Target One

This year, I'll again run more races than I should. There's no stopping it. The best I can do to keep things sane is to pick a few races to target for my best efforts. Hopefully that will allow me to relax a bit in the other races and not over do it.

In that spirit, I am now announcing my first target race of 2008 (drum roll please). It is the Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K on March 2nd. Why, you ask? Here's why:

1. I haven't run a 5K since last year's Coogan's.
2. My 5K PR is in dire need of an upgrade. It's 30 seconds per mile slower than my 10K PR.
3. I'm still enjoying my post marathon backlash of training for shorter distances.
4. I had a great time at Coogan's last year, and I look forward to running it again.

Coogan's is run in Washington Heights, where I lived for my first few years in the city. In fact the route goes right by my old place. My friend PL lives nearby, and will hopefully jog down to join me.

So what about the races before March 2nd? Well I'm planning to run this Sunday in the Manhattan Half Marathon, but I won't be pushing the pace too hard. I have a different goal: to run negative splits. I've never really done it, and this race provides a great opportunity since it's two loops of the park. I'll just do one loop at training pace, as I've done so many times before, and then pick it up for the second loop. How hard could it be?....