Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Plan

In October of 2014, I will reach the age people seem to love to hate, I will turn 480 months old. While there is, as far as I know, no sequel to "What to expect in the first year" that extends to my age to tell me what milestones to expect, I am guessing: increased wisdom, beginnings of hot flashes (me genetic heritage), feeling even more comfortable in my skin, increasing irritation with "today's youth" (hopefully not including the ones I birthed but probably), decreased muscle mass and metabolism, decreased fast twitch muscle, better eyesight, further degradation to my poor beleaguered achilles tendons among many other positives and negatives.

I am determined to make 480 months a cause for celebration and something to look forward to rather than an angst-filled occasion. Actually, my hope is for it to be much like any other birthday with one exception. I would like to run the NYC marathon in November 2014 to put a stamp of "I'm ok with it" on the year. So... working backwards, I need to run a sub-1:30 marathon by the end January 2014 to have a guaranteed entry. I have picked a flat, mid-October half marathon as my target race. I am hoping to run much faster than 1:30....ideally sub-1:25 but with my still unexplained marked decrease in velocity this year, I will take a sub-1:30.

Tomorrow I am challenging myself over a hilly 20 km race to see how far away I am now from being able to run sub-1:30. Hopefully the answer is that I could run a 1:30 half tomorrow (were the race 1.1 km longer); I am cautiously optimistic. Then... to complete the challenge, in the afternoon is the Big Poopa's fourth birthday party - a double header if you will - am: 20 km race, pm: entertaining 11 children and their parents. The biggest question is - which one will take more energy & endurance??

3 comments:

  1. I vote that the party will take far more energy and endurance. First, it will presumably last longer than 1 hour and 30 minutes. Secondly, at the party you are the organizer and in charge of food, drink, fun, the fickle happiness of small children, etc. Much easier to show up and run your own race! Good luck with both!

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  2. I find the milestone birthdays are the easy ones; there are some others that hit like a ton of bricks, though. When I turned 36, I realized that it was legal to date women half my age - and they'd be in college. That was a shock.

    I turn 51 on Tuesday. How'd that happen?!

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  3. haha to Steve - realising you can date people half your age at 36; hadn't crossed my mind but a good point! (as I am now 36). Love your 480 month goal; I am looking to reaching my 480month in some ways as its a great excuse to plan/do something big :) John Muir Trail, Torres Del Paine NP, bike or hike the Alps, hmmmm. Completing a half marathon under 1.30 is physically not possible for me so I'll opt for the "un-timeable" adventure :) Good luck tomorrow! Sounds like you may need to carb load to survive the day (eating a few spoonfuls of the birthday cake mix counts :) )

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