goals for 2016

A Year of Running: 2016 Best/Worst Recap

- Mel

best-worst-year-in-review

This has been a pretty full year of running! I started off the year thinking that I would be playing roller derby again (even trying out and making our A-level travel team in Pittsburgh), and then we made a fairly quick and sudden move to Iowa (less than 2 months to visit, shop houses, get job offers, and actually relocate) kind of threw havoc into all areas of my life — particularly my marathon training (I ended up not completing training for the Pittsburgh marathon).

But the year started off with some highlights and ended with some amazing experiences — with, naturally, some awful things in-between. If I’m counting correctly, I did 16 races this year. Still standing at only 1 marathon since 2015 but my half marathon tally grew to 9. Let’s reflect, shall we?

Best Mileage Month: 101.74 miles in November — my 1st 100 Mile Monthly Challenge!

Worst Mileage Month: Only 14.6 miles in June. Woof.

By the way, my total mileage for 2016 was 512.97!

New States Run in 2016: Florida, Iowa, Nebraska

Furthest Race I Traveled to — and My First Multi-Day Challenge Race: Gasparilla (Florida) [recaps here: Gasparilla Day #1 (15k and 5k) and Day #2 of the Ultra Challenge (half marathon and 8k)]

Best Race Experience: Hitchcock Experience 13.1

Worst Race Experience: Dam to Dam — I was completely and totally unprepared for this race and swore it off for my lifetime because I’ve never felt so awful. Though now that I’ve had some distance, I’m willing to eat my words and run it again.

Best Run (not a Race): One that sticks out for me – when I returned to Pittsburgh over the summer. I unleashed a lot of emotions on that run; it was cathartic and bittersweet and a nice reprieve from the super humid summer.

Worst Run: UGH, basically any of my tempo long runs from the summer during my IMT Half Marathon training. I don’t think I finished any of them to plan.

Best New Piece of Running Gear: Garmin Forerunner 230

Worst Piece of Running Gear: Nathan hydration belt. It doesn’t work well on my body shape for running (wayyyyyy too much bounce and movement); though I may end up using it for hiking and trail-skating.

Best Piece of Advice I Received this Year: Though it’s spoken often in running circles to “run the mile you’re in,” this was really drilled in with my coach over the summer with focusing on the current moment and not thinking ahead. That’s something that has held me back a lot, and it’s been refreshing to just trust my body that it knows what to do and what I can handle AT THAT MOMENT.

Best Thing I Learned: Running by feel or effort level

Favorite Picture from a Race or Run this Year (TIE!):

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hitchcock-experience-runner-finish-line
SO EXCITE!

New PRs: Having a PR is always a BEST when reflecting on your successes, and this year my training plans helped me get a few.
5-mile – 47:24 at Madrid Milers Labor Day Run
15k – 1:34:27 at Gasparilla
10-mile – 1:43:16 at Capital Pursuit
Half marathon – 2:12:16 at the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon

I also ran my first (of several) trail races!

Can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2017! Happy New Year, everyone!

Accountability Monday: Vacation Week 7/04-7/10

- Mel 1 Comment

Fun times. I wanted to finish up this post last night, but our internet was out (and was still out when I went to bed). ANYWAYS, here’s how last week’s vacation accountability and goal-setting worked out…

My goals refresher from last week: do ONE new thing (does working out in a hotel basement count?), TWO workouts while traveling (got ONE in, but shortened the vacation by a day), run THREE times (CHECK!), FOUR workouts total (nope, only the three runs; can I count all the vacation walking?), and a FIVE-mile run (CHECK!). One thing I definitely learned this week: Vacation and insomnia combined completely drain me.

I hate to give myself a pass, because VACATION, but considering I couldn’t move my arms for most of the trip, AND had to go to a running store and buy a pair of shoes, I’m taking a hard pass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MONDAY: Many CrossFit boxes do hero WODs on holidays, so in the patriotic spirit, I completed an adapted Half Murph workout (usually completed on Memorial Day)… which resulted in me having some serious DOMS in my arms for the better part of the week. OOOF.

The full Murph consists of one mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another mile run to end the madness (which… no way for me). My treadmill had a featured run in Arlington Cemetery on the 4th, so I did my mile to start there (9:06 minutes), followed by 50 “pull-ups” (adapted: front rows with my TRX), 100 push-ups (probably only 20 strict, followed by sets of 5-10 from my knees, and a bunch of crying and flailing around for the last 60 — it was awful, awful form), 150 air squats, and another mile in Arlington to finish (12:26 mile). All told, it took me 41 minutes and 23 seconds, and WHOOPED my butt.

30something CrossFit Murph WOD blogger
How do people do this WHOLE THING?!

TUESDAY: REST DAY and drive to Kansas City. We did LOTS of walking in Kansas City and it was HOT… with a stop to a local running store in the Westport neighborhood (between drinks) because I forgot to pack my running shoes.

It was actually a good opportunity to try out something new, considering I’m still so stuck on my Ride 7s (he even checked their back room to see if he still had any remaining in stock in my size). The new Ride 9 running shoes were one the dozen or so that I tried on, and I really liked them; ultimately, I purchased a pair of Brooks Ghost 9, which fit pretty similar but felt a little bit lighter in the heel. There’s something about them that almost forces me to run on my forefoot (I have an unfortunate heel-striking habit), and I’m interested to see how they work for me on longer runs.

WEDNESDAY: More walking in Kansas City; more heat and humidity, OMG and a hangover.

THURSDAY: A 20-minute(ish) treadmill run (2 miles with walking warm-up and cool down) in the morning in the hotel’s basement-level fitness center before driving to Omaha. This room was so small and crammed with equipment, I couldn’t even do a burpee in there.

30something hotel workout running blog
Dungeon workout, selfies from the treadmill (and an entire wall of mirrors!), and my new Brooks!

FRIDAY: We woke up early to walk around downtown Omaha a bit (along with some gluten-free cinnamon rolls that I found at a local bakery!!!), followed by a three-hour (lots-more-walking) adventure to the Omaha Zoo.

SATURDAY: We came home from vacation one day early, so I skipped one of my workouts while traveling. I still hadn’t recovered much from our trip, and spent most of the day doing nothing but reading books. A much-needed day of catching up on sleep and relaxing. Didn’t I just get back from vacation?

SUNDAY: Another treadmill run at home — it’s obvious that it’s no longer the dreadmill, right? Five miles (this time in Budapest!). I mindlessly set the treadmill to run and kinda zoned out… and didn’t realize how slow I was running. Ah, well, work is done!

Goals for the week:

I’m practicing some self-care this week. I haven’t been able to regulate my sleep schedule for weeks. I’m also becoming very aware that the “minor nagging discomfort” in my left foot for the last couple months might be the beginning of an injury (I have a doctor’s appointment on Monday). Half marathon training starts in two weeks, so now is the time to prepare my mind and body (and schedule) for the upcoming challenge. For now though, I’m going to relax a little bit (and think a little bit about my goals).

Accountability Monday and Half Marathon Goals

- Mel 1 Comment

If I don’t have a plan, I won’t do what I’m supposed to — and having a plan means so much more than just adding all of my runs to my calendar and signing up for a class on MindBody (and, honestly, this applies the same for my personal life). WHY AM I DOING ANY OF THIS?!

What it means: Drafting a WHOLE workout to include the different warm-up exercises that I’ll be doing and for how long, what the focus of my run is (instead of just going out to accomplish a certain number of miles for the day), and planning out my cool-down and stretching routine.

An interesting thing happened: This process has made me much more attached to my workout and makes me feel TRULY accountable for my routine rather than showing up at the gym and not knowing what to do or plugging in my earbuds and tuning out on a slogging long run. It was a total mind-shift on my health and fitness. It may sound like a “no duh!” thing, but I’ve been exercising without purpose or focus for a while — it was really important to give more meaning to my healthy lifestyle and be more mindful of my decisions to do something and how I budget my time.

One of my goals for 2016 was to run a 2-hour half marathon, which I’ve decided to make happen this October at the IMT Des Moines half. To accomplish this, I will need discipline, speed and power, and a little help from my running community. My training officially starts in late July, so for now I’m focusing on my running base (mostly with consistency), my core, and overall body strength.

And also, just as REST has always been integral to my mental health and prevention of burnout, and given my awful Dam to Dam race last weekend, I took a week off to rest my body and mind. It was important to reflect on what went wrong and WHY. Well, Why #1 is that my training program was practically non-existent. There wasn’t one single week where I ran more than twice, and several weeks where I didn’t run (or workout) at all. Though I was a little surprised on how dehydrated I was on race day, especially with how conscious I am over my water intake and that I didn’t even have a drink the night before!

I sincerely want to follow through on a training program and be all “EFF YEAH, MEL!” Making the practice as important as the completion of the goal is my new purpose.

Anyway… SUNDAY I got my shit together and put together a great workout — and finally used my in-home TRX suspension trainer (and today I remember why I LOVE IT so much, woof!).

Warm-up: Jump rope for 3 minutes
Upper body strength: TRX arms and shoulders video workout, about a 20-minute workout
Cardio: A 15-min interval workout on the treadmill (a little over a mile in total)
Burpees (‘cuz burpees, baby!): 39 total, though I maxed out at 18 straight without stopping
Running strength/power: Strong & Fast Workout 1 from Runners World; 5 movements at 15 reps each/each side (took me around 15 minutes to complete)
Cool Down: Then some light yoga stretching to cool down

30-something workout Des Moines
Working out at home in my matchy-matchy Fabletics.

It felt like the perfect workout. And it felt REALLY good to plan it out and make it happen.

Goals for this week:

  • Run three times — including going to check out a new run club. No mileage requirements; do one interval/speed workout.
  • Do my regular Wednesday session of yoga.
  • Two sessions of TRX (I’ll likely do a similar workout to Sunday’s).
  • BURPEES with every workout! (I wonder if I can do them every day? HA!)
  • Get through our BIG bike ride on Saturday! (EEEK!)

Running Goals for 2016

- Mel

My 2016 running intentions are one part goal and another part bucket list. I accomplished quite a bit in 2015 and I want to keep that hot streak going but also remember the FUN in discovering this hobby/sport/whatever-you-call-it (and also remember that I’ll be training in two different sports, with my decision to return to roller derby).

30 something 2016 running goals

1. PR my half marathon: I super, really want to work on getting my half marathon under 2 hours. I won’t be planning for this right out of the gate in 2016 to train properly (and smartly!) for my second full marathon, but I fully intend to make this happen later this year. My current half PR is 2:18:36 so I know this is ambitious (but a two-hour half marathon is not completely impossible).

Which brings me to #2: Complete another full marathon: I already have the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon on my calendar — and registered! — and training kick-off starts this weekend. No time goals this year (yet).

3. Run 700 miles: I barely squeaked out 500 miles in 2015 (actually only did 488.59 miles), what makes me think that I can run 700??? Let’s just say that I have a plan.

4. Do a 50k and/or Ragnar Relay: This is the year that things get CRAZY for this 30-something (and why I think that my mileage will be higher than last year). I want to cross one (or both) of these off my bucket list in 2016. Again, I’ll look to late summer/fall to make this a real thing.

5. Run a race in costume: I get so caught up in race day anxiety and performance that I sometimes forget about the element of fun. After laughing at the costumes in the Movie Madness Half Marathon and seeing everyone have so much fun with it, I want to be “that guy” too.

So my running goals for the year have a little bit of everything. I think it’s a good balance of challenge, adventure and, most importantly, FUN.