Pace Goal Setting.

I've never worried about beating anybody else. This is probably a gift of beginning running at an older age and with a tangle of kids ~ I never harbored any illusions that I was someday going to win races or be anything special. I just wanted to find a way to get some me time, while simultaneously protecting both my mental and physical health so that I can live to a ripe old age for these kids of mine.

The past few Mondays my Mom has watched my kids in the afternoon. When I say "Watched my kids" I pretty much mean "sat at my house while my kids napped) as she is here from about 1-4. Today when I got home at 4 Jake was just waking up and we ended up having to wake L&J at 4:30. This freedom is just HUGE for me. I have been able to make Dr's appointments, have meetings, do stupid errands that suck with kids along, and now, for the second time, RUN! I started my day with a great 75 minute Vinyasa Flow yoga class while the kids were in preschool, and felt good and had a fabulously healthy lunch afterwards. It was 70 today, and while I could have absolutely scrounged up a few more errands to do, I opted to order a dishwasher over the phone instead of spending 2 hours driving to a store and looking at them.....which freed me to run three quick errands, and then 8.5 quick miles. It was HEAVENLY. Not pushing anyone, not talking ~ Just running. Alone. Up and down hills, getting lost, getting found again, and getting in a glorious, fairly fast training run.

Nate is traveling this week, and in school this weekend.....and I'm thinking of taking a Sunday reward of a 10K race in Philly. I think that it would be a great training run to help me set a goal time for Broad St. Last year I did it in 1:22 (10 miles), this year I'm wondering if I could do it in 80 minutes. It may be too aggressive of a goal (especially given the crowd ~ 30,000 people to navigate), so I'd like to get in a race type situation to see if I can maintain that pace for a shorter distance. Only down side is that I missed on line registration, which is a headache. We'll see.

How do you set time goals for yourself? Do you? Or do you just run every race or every run for the sheer fun of running? I do both. I either am running to try to PR, or running with a friend/for fun. Very different mentalities, going in. I find myself looking forward to trying to go all out in one, and this 10K could be perfect timing as there is still about 7 weeks till Broad St.

I'm also looking for running sunglasses after my recent gross eye incident from running at the beach. Anyone wear some that they love? Link me?