Happy New Year everyone! 2005 has arrived and brought with it a blank training log and the chance to start afresh with new goals to aim for and the feeling that the marathon is getting even closer. Its this year now after all.

So what are my targets for this year? Before I can set out this years targets I have to explain that my overall target is to be able to run a marathon in less than 3 hours. That would mean I would have a time which qualified for a "Good for age" place for future London Marathons and wouldn't have to worry if I could obtain a start place via the ballot for 2 years at least.

When would I like to have run my sub 3 marathon by? Well apart from the obvious as soon as possible, I have set myself a deadline of before I am 30. No real reason other than its a round number and it should be achievable. It also gives me 3 years to complete the task. With all those 3 in there someone ought to be able to come up with a cacthy phrase or pun, but I cant seem to

So coming back to my targets for this year. So far I have been rather coy about saying what time I am hoping for at London. Well I will come clean and say that I would like it to be sub 3hours 45 minutes. Given my time at shorter distances I believe I can do this as long as I can manage enough long runs during the rest of my training.

Targets for 2005

Marathon - sub 3.45:00
Half Marathon - 1.30:00
10km - sub 39:00
Other - To be able to touch my toes
Other - 1500 miles to be run in training

Now watch as I fail miserably to reach each and everyone one of these!