Setting goals.

kingQuez

I'm at a loose end at the moment. I'm still taking things easy after the edinburgh marathon a couple of weeks ago, and as of this week am finally done + dusted with my PhD. Suddenly I've gone from being quite busy to having a dirty big void to fill in the evenings, and I've far too much time on my hands to think about stuff.

I can't decide whats next. Short term goal is to finish an olympic distance triathlon before the summer is out; but aside from what I'm not sure what to do.

I'm not the most consistent at training, but I've been trying to improve on that. I've been thinking about whether I want to try and better my marathon time (3hrs30mins, which im very happy with), or maybe make a longer term goal of doing an ultramarathon, or maybe trying to improve my time over a 5-10mile distance.

I'm not sure I've the motivation to get out and improve the marathon time, because Im really happy with my current time at the moment, and I think Dublin would be too soon for me to make any significant improvement on my current time anyway (I've to do lots of work on swimming and cycling between now and the tri).

Is an ultramarathon an insane idea? Ive only got two marathons under my belt... Maybe I should set a goal of a shorter distance with a better time rather than trying to go longer.

I dont have anything in the long term to work torwards/look forward to, and its driving me nuts. Anyone any comments, or even suggestions for things that would/could be fun to consider?

Odysseus

When I signed up for my first 100k I had only done one marathon. Go for it, you won't reget it. The secret about ultra's is people psych themselves out. If you can do a 3.30 you will do an ultra.

jlang

I'm interested to see what suggestions you'll get as I'm in a similar position - 3h30 marathon a couple of months back and no immediate plan for another, planning an Olympic tri next month (if I can learn to swim in time - turning out to be a marathon task in itself).

scottreynolds

kingQuez wrote: »

I'm at a loose end at the moment.

TBH you should do something which you need to put time into. A 5 / 10 mile would be good but since you have more spare time they you probably ever will again in your life choose something mad.... If an ultra doesn't suit how bout an Ironman Half or something like that.

colblimp

It's easy for me to say but, if you want to go down the mad route, why not train for 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days?:eek:

woundedknee

Why not do pick a foreign marathon and turn it into an excuse for a short holiday. Venice Marathon in October for example

ultraman1

if you reg for the conn ultra 2010 as ur long term plan ,u could use the longford and dublin marathons as urshort term goals....

kingQuez

Thanks for the encouragement Odysseus!

I've been looking about trying to see what ultramarathons are out there.. Obviously there's the connemara ultra; are there any others that push the distance a bit further, but don't require a trip to south africa? maybe I should start a thread asking for reviews of ultras

I like the idea of doing longer distance triathlons, but I'll wait and see how I get on with the shorter ones before I commit to considering anything more serious

Cheers everyone!

kingQuez

Oooh.. just looked at some videos of the connemarathon on youtube, it looks really cool!

The other thing someone suggested to me was a cycling holiday -- Land's End - John o'Groats.

GoHardOrGoHome

kingQuez wrote: »

I can't decide whats next. Short term goal is to finish an olympic distance triathlon before the summer is out; but aside from what I'm not sure what to do.

I've been thinking about whether I want to try and better my marathon time (3hrs30mins, which im very happy with), or maybe make a longer term goal of doing an ultramarathon, or maybe trying to improve my time over a 5-10mile distance.

Is an ultramarathon an insane idea? Ive only got two marathons under my belt... Maybe I should set a goal of a shorter distance with a better time rather than trying to go longer.

I dont have anything in the long term to work torwards/look forward to, and its driving me nuts. Anyone any comments, or even suggestions for things that would/could be fun to consider?

jlang wrote: »

I'm interested to see what suggestions you'll get as I'm in a similar position - 3h30 marathon a couple of months back and no immediate plan for another, planning an Olympic tri next month (if I can learn to swim in time - turning out to be a marathon task in itself).

I'm also a 3h30 marathoner but would like to improve on that at some point in the future. I did the Conn Ultra with just the one marathon under my belt so it's definitely do-able. Didn't post a super-fast time, object was to get around. Did so in 6h45-ish. I'm not going to do it again for another couple of years and next time I'll go sub 6.

A lot of people would say work at your speed first. Do the shorter races and get your 5k, 5 mile, 10k and 10 mile PBs down. There's loads of fun races to do during the summer. Also if you're in the Dublin/Wicklow area you could to do the IMRA runs. They're great craic.

I'm assuming that since you've just finished your PhD you're in your twenties or not long out of your twenties. You'll be running fast marathons well into your forties but it's unlikely you'll PB at 5K and 10K in your forties. So my advice would be to concentrate on the shorter distances and look at doing a fast marathon time such as the Boston Qualifying 3h10 or the exclusive sub 3 in your thirties.

The youngest (reasonably) serious ultra-runner I know is JeffOnTour. Maybe see what he thinks about going long early on in your running career. (I'm sure he'll protest vociferously over being described as a serious ultra-runner, but he's fairly accomplished as far as I can tell. He's done the West Highland Way!)

On a final note Gaelforce has something like 200 entries left. (out of 2500!). It's great craic and in my opinion easier than an Olympic tri. It's on in late August.