As we said goodbye to 2011 and welcomed 2012, I was unsure of what my resolutions would be for the new year. However, after reading several articles about how resolutions are typically doomed to fail, I changed my outlook. So instead of resolutions, I made goals. While one is more ambitious than the other, I think both are attainable.

The first goal, and likely easiest to accomplish for me, is to run 2,012 miles in 2012. This works out to around 39 miles per week, or 5 ½ miles per day. It will take some discipline to get those miles in on frozen winter mornings and steamy summer days. But with some long races scheduled in the first three months of the year, I should be on a good pace to accomplish that goal. The Louisiana Marathon is this Sunday, so there’s 26.2 miles. I follow that 4 weeks later with a two-man relay team for Rouge-Orleans, the 126.2 mile relay from downtown Baton Rouge to Audubon park in New Orleans, run entirely on the Mississippi River levee. My sections will end up being roughly 66 miles. Three weeks later, I’m signed up to run the Mississippi 50 mile ultramarathon in the DeSoto National Forest south of Laurel. So, needless to say, I need to put in a lot of training miles in addition to the races.

I’m off to a good start, with 78 miles logged in the first 11 days of the year. I’ll break 100 sometime Sunday morning while running the Louisiana Marathon.

My second goal is to run at least one mile every day in 2012. This one will likely be tougher to stick to. There won’t be any rest days. But I think it will make my decision making easier. There have been a lot of days when I questioned whether I should run or not, only to end up bailing on a run. Now, I’ve got a streak to maintain, so there should be no question. Run every day. For 366 days. It is a leap year, after all.

It should be fun to see if I can keep it up. Of course I’ll keep my Run Louisiana readers up to date on my progress.

So, what are your running goals for 2012? Share them with me in the comment section below.