Running with a purpose

Rather than set a generic "run four times a week" New Year's resolution, I amended it slightly to "run four times a week with a purpose."  I've been happy with my return to running thus far, completing a few 10Ks (and I NEVER thought I'd be able to run longer than 30 minutes in the past), and setting an exciting 5K PR last weekend.  But getting my runs in each and every week has been a constant struggle.  Schedule challenges aside, there are some days where I'm dressed, ready to go, and I know I should go run, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  I think part of the problem is I still have flashbacks to the "I'll never run more than 30 minutes" days, but a major piece is my boredom with simply going out for a monotonous run.  Enter "...with a purpose."

I've never been good at following training plans (again, a slight boredom issue - maybe I need to work on my attention span!), but I feel like I've reached a point in my running where I'm only going to get measurably better if I put some real effort and strategic thinking into it.  I've knocked four minutes off my 5K time since I started running last summer, which is great, but my 10K times have been stagnant, and I know I'm going to have to step it up if I want to be physically prepared for a mud run or half marathon. 

I mostly approach my running with a "just get out there and get it done" mentality.  I don't think about what pace I'm running, if I'm running hills or not, intervals, etc.  I just get out there and do it.  I've had moderate success with this approach, but I'm hitting a point where I want to keep setting PRs, I want to break an eight-minute mile pace, I want to run a race thinking "I'm going to run my butt off" instead of "ok, just do what you need to do to finish."  I've passed the "running to finish" stage, the competitor in me now wants to be the best runner I can be. 

I've been really interested in signing up for every race I can, because no matter how much I drag my feet for training runs, I love race day.  I love the crowds, the noise, the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself.  Most of all, I love passing people on the road.  Sure, I enjoy encouraging people and I'm not out to be a jerk on the course, but if I can dodge past someone and surge ahead, all the better.  But, to do that, I need to run faster and smarter.

So, I want to run with a purpose in 2010.  I haven't settled on a "training plan" yet, and I'm not sure if I want to join a running club.  As much as I love team sports, I don't really like working out with other people (running with my dog being an exception), and I'm not sure I like the set schedule idea of running with a group.  I appreciate the accountability aspect, but I also think I'd be annoyed if I have to keep canceling because of work, or volleyball, or Junior League, or whatever.  For the time being, I'm going to try to find a training plan, and start incorporating speed work, hills, and tempo work in with my steady state runs.  Once I find a plan, I'll post it here.