Haas Blog: 'I Want To Set A New PR'

By Mark Haas

It seemed like a good idea.

Then the alarm went off at 4:30 am (after anchoring the 10 pm news the night before), and it seemed like one of my worst ideas.

But after running 16 miles before 9 am, I'm back to feeling good about this.

So a couple weeks ago, I agreed to train with the Runner's Edge of the Rockies group in preparation to run the Rock-n-Roll Denver Half-Marathon in October, and to blog about my experience.

I got into running about 4-5 years ago. I ran my first half marathon in Bakersfield in early 2012, and first full marathon in San Diego later that summer. I printed out an online training plan, and followed it as closely as I could.

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Crossing the finish line of that first full marathon was a feeling unlike any I had experienced before, but I was burned out from training and my runs became inconsistent again.

I'd have spurts of motivation, and ran a couple 10 milers/10K's. In 2014, I decided I wanted to prove I could get back in high school shape, and run a 6-minute mile and a 20-minute 5k before I turned 30 (successful on both).

Then in 2015, I got the marathon itch again, and trained for and ran Colfax (with a Go-Pro).

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Haas Runs Colfax Marathon

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Haas's Experiences of Colfax Marathon

I've run several half marathons since then, so for Rock-n-Roll I want to set a new PR. (My best marathon was 3:49, my best half was 1:47 on a downhill course).

I am setting 1:40 as my goal, but I also read about setting an 'A' goal and a 'B' goal.

So 'A' goal is 1:40, 'B' goal is 1:45.

Probably didn't need to run 16 miles in June, but I was really enjoying running with my small pace group, and wanted to get my money's worth for getting up at 4:30 and driving to Golden.

Looking forward to the speed training on Tuesday and Thursday!

Mark Haas is a sports anchor/reporter for CBS4. Read his bio or follow him on Twitter @markhaastv or on Facebook.