Running Goals

I've spent the last four weeks easing myself back into running! I haven't run much since I spent about 10 months battling sesamoiditis. When I thought the injury was finally gone in May, I started running again and immediately retriggered it. I thought I might never be able to run pain-free again. Luckily, I found a good podiatrist and she helped me beat the injury and get active again!

Now that I've started running again, I've set some overall goals (that I am in no rush to complete):

• Build mileage back up safely and get to 30 miles a week. I miss being able to run farther distances and for longer, but I really don't want to get injured again. If I feel a twinge in my sesamoids, it freaks me out.

• Run a sub 1 hour 10k (current PR: 1:00:43). The best time I could find on Strava was 43 seconds short and during an easy-paced ten mile run, so this goal is definitely doable for me. However, I haven't trained in over a year due to injuries and school, so it would take a lot of work to get back to this point.

• Run a sub 2 hour half marathon (current PR: 2:18). An 18 minute improvement sounds massive, but I ran this hilly race with a ton of blisters and tendonitis. It was very hot and I missed a bunch of training (at least a month) due to injuries. I think if I was healthy and able to complete my training, I could definitely make a big improvement on this time... especially if the course was flat!

• Run my first marathon!

• Run an ultramarathon- on trails!

The last two goals are definitely far away, but I'm excited to begin to work towards them by safely building up my mileage and getting my body used to running again.