To Chase The Goal, Or Just To Enjoy???

Yesterday's Total Calorie Intake: 2,308

(Exercise Calories: 665)

Total Net Calories: 1,653

Today is a scheduled rest day and tomorrow will be my weekly long run.  However, I'm torn about how long I should run tomorrow.

The weather will be cold - but no rain and little wind - so I will be able to run outside, which means I can basically run as long as I want without getting bored out of my wits (I can only last about an hour on a treadmill - not much longer than that).  So weather will not be a limiting factor to how far I run.

Over the past few weeks I have had "long" runs of 7 miles, two weeks of no long run (bronchitis), 10 miles and 9 miles.  Conventional wisdom would tell me not to run longer than 10 miles for another week or two.  However, I'm thinking of running 12 to 14.

And I know why.  It's the darn 1,000 mile goal staring at me.

I'm currently 15 miles behind pace for 1,000 miles for the year.  (Tables showing mileage vs. the "pace bunny" can be found here...this is for people who are tracking their mileage on RunningAhead.com and who have subscribed to the User Forums for the Pace Groups...).

If I was far away from the goal, I wouldn't really push myself to get there.  But I'm so close.  I want to catch up.

So, I'm thinking of waking up a bit earlier tomorrow and heading in the direction of my 12 mile, and 14 mile loops - instead of the opposite direction for a 9 mile or 10 miler.

Should I chase the goal?  Or just go out and enjoy running during the last three weeks of the year and not stress about whether I'm going to hit 1,000???

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I also did my last set of push-ups for the week.  The plan calls for sets of 22, 30, 20, 20 and at least 28.  I did 22, 20, 20, 20 and 20.  It was 18 less than the plan called for, but it was still 102 push ups!  That's my first time over 100!!!!  So although I didn't do all of the push ups on the plan, it's hard to not get excited about doing over 100 for the first time.