Time for a Break

With my 17:37 5k finish this past weekend (Baltimore Festival 5k) I've now accomplished all three of the goals I set for 2009. With my 3:10 finish at the Cleveland Marathon I accomplished the first part of my goal, qualifying for the Boston Marathon. With my 28:30 finish at the Mohican 100 I accomplished my second goal, finish a 100 mile run. My third goal was to break 18:00 in a 5k, which I've now done.
I've really enjoyed the persuit of these goals. They've allowed me to run a variety of different races, which all require a different type of training - which keeps things interesting. I've enjoyed it so much that I'm considering upping my game for 2010. Off the top of my head a 2:55 marathon (NYC qualifyer), 24:00 finish at Mohican, and a 17:00 5k would be a really difficult/fun challenge. With that being said, I'm not allowing myself to excel at any one discipline by having such a diverse set of goals.
If I were to choose one goal to focus on it would be the 100. I enjoy the training the most and it is the most rewarding. On top of that I think it's the event that I have the most potential in. It is also the most challenging... Should I forget about all the other stuff and just focus my training on ultras? What type of goal is reasonable? Without getting a couple more ultra's under my belt I just don't know.

For now, I’m going to take a much deserved vacation and take a break from training. Last week I only ran 22 miles, and I’ll be lucky to top that the next two weeks. I’m leaving for a vacation at Lake Cumberland this Friday and I’ll be on a house boat for 8 days. That means I’ll miss a full week of running - including two weekends, which is when I log most of my miles. I’m not even going to stress out about it. I’ll probably do a little swimming and some push-ups and sit-ups, but for the most part I’ll veg-out. After all that’s what vacation is all about right?
I’ll pick up my training in two weeks and hopefully I’ll be re-charged and ready to resume my training for fall.