Andrew Schrauben

A while ago I wrote about my 2006 goals, but I haven't discussed the goals I made for 2007. There are currently 36 goals on my list, although that's a fluid number since I always reserve the right to edit my goals if situations change - in fact, I just added one tonight! I won't list them all, but here are a select few:

• Plan a race schedule for the entire year

This has proved almost impossible since many races that I may want to run haven't been listed anywhere yet. However, I do have a huge spreadsheet with all known candidate races which I update whenever I learn of a possible race or commit to doing one. First race of the year will be Feb. 10 - the Heart and Sole 5K.

• Run a 5K under 20:08

This is a HUGE challenge - my "modern day" PR is 22:42 at the 2006 Doggie Dash with Haven. 20:08 is my high school PR, back in the days when speed was easy! I'm just hoping to get under 22:00 at my first race this year.

• Run a marathon under 4:00

I'm pretty confident I could do this if I train for it, but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to "race" or just "run" a marathon this year. We'll see.

• Run at least 250 times

Initially I was going to re-up my "1000 miles" goal but decided to go for frequency over distance. I'm training for speed this year and I didn't want to feel compelled to rack up some slow miles. I ran 27 times in January, so I'm well over pace for this goal. However, I'm sure to replace some runs with bike rides when the weather warms up.

• Track Haven's and Beacon's activities (running, swimming, hiking, etc)

Doin' it. I've run 32 miles with Haven and 10 with Beacon, but they also have their own "training" logs. Haven has gone 55 miles this year with either me, Amanda, or both. Beacon has gone 42 miles plus one session of fetch in the river. A tired dog is a happy dog!

• At work - get into a lead role or other such role that better suits my abilities

This is going to be tough. I recently interviewed for what would've been a big promotion but was turned down; still, at least they considered me despite having far fewer years of experience than the job officially requires. My company isn't very proactive so I'm going to have to be rather assertive if I want to find a better role.

• Write six article-type blog entries

My first one was a review of running socks. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future such articles!

So far, so good, but there are plenty of yet-to-be-undertaken goals on my list. 11 more months to go!