10 mile long run and 2010 goals

I didn't get out the door for my run today until after 2 pm. We have all had some degree of colds over the past two days and there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on in our house last night. I wanted to get out on some trail today to officially start my training for the Leona Divide 50 mile run in April 2010. Yes I said 50 miles! Clay and I have been talking about doing this race for over the past year and we are starting to get more serious about it. Although both of us are not officially registered, and without talking to each other, we both hit the trails today (see Clay's blog). The closest trail to my house that has some good hills is the one that parallels the aqueduct. I can get up there in about 1.5 miles taking 55th street south to the end. I then explored the trail for the next 3.5 miles, almost making it to Highland High School. By the time I got down that far I was tired and decided to take the aqueduct back to 60th. 3.5 miles on the trail and I was too tired? I would say I have some work to do (46.5 to go). I was working on poor sleep and not much lunch. It was fun to do some trail running. I plan on trying to do some running on trails every week leading up to April 17th. The race is 33.7 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail and 16.3 miles on dirt fire roads, and it starts about 20 minutes from my house. Our goal is to finish, hopefully in less than 10 hours. Ultras are much cheaper per mile than most marathons out there. The Los Angeles Marathon this year is $125 to enter ($4.77 per mile). The LD50 is $75 dollars to enter ($1.50 per mile).

My run today took me 1 hour 23 minutes but I was averaging just over 9 minute miles on the trail and about 7:45 on the way home. I had no left knee pain and finally felt like I had my legs back, kind of. I can't believe that it is only 4 weeks since CIM. It seems like so long ago already.


So here are the running goals for 2010:
1. I will finish the Leona Divide 50 mile run in less than 10 hours.
2. I will run a sub 18 minute 5k at the Newhall Independence Day race.
3. I will run a sub 5 minute 1600m in 2010.
4. I will run a personal course record (currently 19:57) at the summer cross country series.
5. I will run a sub 1:23 half marathon in the fall (not sure which one yet).
6. I will run 1600 miles in 2010.

Short term goals: To run to my sister-in-law's house in Acton from my house by the end of January. I have no idea how far it is but I have looked at the route on Google earth and estimate 15 miles. We'll see how close I guessed.

What are your personal running goals for 2010? If they involve improving your running form make sure you watch this video of a marathon winner in Japan. I think he could have taken 2 more minutes off his time if he had just relaxed his jaw, his arms are another story!