Getting Motivated for 2008

So I’m in the time of year when of course I start thinking about next year. What races we’ll do, how I’ll train differently, but most importantly how is the motivation.

Motivation is obviously the key. Without it, I got nothing. I’ve come to the conclusion over the years, that what most motivates me is improvement. With running improvement can be easy to sense most of the time. If you run faster, you are improving. This works for about 75% of the races.

So I’m using the down period to reassess everything for 2008. What am I motivated for? I’m at the point where a couple of minutes of improvement is huge. Do I train for an entire year for 5 minutes quicker, or 3 or 2? I know I can go faster, but it comes down to wanting it. A nice thing about training for something like a marathon is that you can peak at a more mature age. Time is not the enemy yet. Priorities of course can shift, but for now I think I’m looking at several more years of hopeful improvement

So I’ll spend this next while coming up with the plan for 2008. Tanya and I will discuss future goal races (and maybe vacations around them). I think motivation is at an all time high (for running) so we’ll see. I know one question that’s important as well is “Can I work harder than I did”. That answer is yes, an easy yes. So it should be a good year!