The first athletic event that I am definitely participating in this year is the CASA 5K. This event benefits Court Apointed Special Advocates (CASA) which provides volunteer representatives for children going through family court. It’s a great organization and this 5K gives me a chance to support them.

What other events would I like to do this year? After writing yesterday about the great aspects of half marathons, I am starting to convince myself to run another one! The last half marathon that I did was several years ago. My strategy was interval training, that is I walked 3 minutes and ran one (approximately). It worked pretty well for me.

About six months ago I found an article in a magazine that showed that interval training actually burns more calories that running a steady pace. During the running part you’re really supposed to push yourself to the limit. So that is how I’ve been exercising at the gym on the treadmill and elliptical trainer. The trick with interval running/walking in a race though is making sure that your walking pace is not too slow. During my last half marathon the past few miles I know my walking pace was too slow. So that is something that I would need to work on during training.

I have always wanted to do the Vancouver and San Diego races. But it will also depend on which charity I want to support. The charities that I am most involved with now don’t have a formal marathon training program. So I’d be on my own (which is fine). It’s just a matter of making sure that the races would accept other charity fundraisers.