2014 Goals Check In

Running

• Marathon PR. I'm not going to sign up for another marathon until my current training indicates that a sub-4 will be in my cards. I'm hoping that will be the case late this spring when I'm tentatively planning to register for marathon #7! This didn't happen. Not even close. But it will someday. :)
• Half Marathon PR. This spring I'm shooting for ~3 half marathon races. Since our weather can be incredibly fickle in the spring (and the fall, and the winter, and the summer....) I want to have options as to deciding what my A race is since I know that certain weather conditions destroy me. I have a lot of work to do to make this a reality over the next few months! I made some great progress toward this goal this year and raced two of my fastest half marathon times in almost 2 years, but still not close to my PR.
• 10k PR. There's a 10k in May and June that I'm planning on doing. If I'm in speedy shape, I would like to see this 3 year old (OMG) PR fall. I got within 2 minutes to this goal on the 4th of July. I was pretty proud of that!
• Be in L-O-V-E love with running. Big, fat YES.
• Run and race with friends. Jenn and I got to do quite a few races together before she got injured!
• Make some new running friends to add to the group. Jenn and I ran together a lot! And I've met some new runner friends through the running club!
• Run with speedier, intimidating folks to force me to run harder (Jacqueline, this means I will hopefully finally take you up on your long run offers!) Jenn is speedier, but I never got to the speedy speedy point of running with my super fast friends.
• Run a 200 mile month. Not even close.
• Hit a 50 mile training week while not in marathon training. (I'd like to try higher mileage training for my spring halfs, as long as my body is up for it!) This did not happen. This goal is probably not a possibility for a couple of years. 
• Run a 60 mile week, either in training or not. ^
• Do a month long run streak. This summer before marathon training starts? Next November? December? Hmm... This would be more feasible if it was a yoga streak. Hah.
• Run more miles than 2013 AND 2012. (924.6 in 2012 and 670.6 in 2013). 1 for 2! Half win.

Fitness

• Stay healthy. I did well up until September. 
• Chiro and/or massage BEFORE "when necessary". ie: already broken. Maintenance > Repairing. Eh. Fail.
• Do hip stretches and exercises on the reg. Win! I did my hip/glute stretches/activation drills before every run!
• Eat healthier. Cook more. Bulk up the delicious recipe stash. Eh, this varied throughout the year. I'd say we're ending the year on a massive fail.
• Bike another half century. I didn't quite get 50 miles, but I got 40 on a solo ride.
• Continue with stuff OTHER THAN running (ie: strength training, fitness videos, yoga, etc.) YES!
• Do abwork year round, not just in the summer when abs make an appearance.
• Make 100 pushups/day, every other day, a "thing" not just a one time thing.  (I did this on my birthday as it was on my 101 in 1001 list. It felt pretty good and Kyle did it with me!) Caveat: They were girl pushups, but I'd definitely like to work up to ALL regular pushups. It'll take some work though. My girl Jillian has helped over the past month. I wouldn't have been able to do 100 girl ones without doing the 30 day shred, that's for sure. Captain of the T Rex arms team over here!

Life

• Read 200 books.
• Attempt NaNoWriMo again. Spend some time in October doing NaNoWriMoPrep! Yay!
• Pay off a good portion of my grad school loans. Wahoo!
• Save money for a house down-payment. Kyle is doing way better at this than I am.
• Earn a promotion. YES!!!
• Take a trip with Kyle, even for the weekend. Win!
• Adopt a pug brother or sister for Ollie (maybe....Housing sitch dependent). Waiting on a house. Sigh.

December in Review + Goals

December in Review

It seems somewhat silly to do a review on a month were I barely ran, but I do like to compare stats from year to year, and December 2015 Jeri will be super annoyed at December 2014 Jeri for not posting this, so here it is.

Total Miles: 4.5 miles down from 12.1 last month.  

Total Time:  44:00 down from 2:00:00 last month. (23 hours of yoga/barre classes!) 

Total Runs: 1

Highest weekly mileage: 4.5 miles 12/8-12/14 (6 hours of classes the week of Xmas!)

Favorite run: Group run at 605 Running Co to look at Christmas lights.

Most hardcore run: NA

Favorite race: None.

Bike Miles: 0.

Yoga Classes: A lot. 19 yoga classes and 4 barre classes.

Power Vinyasa--9

Gentle vinyasa--4

Hot--2

Sculpt--2

Restorative--2

Favorite Jam: Taylor Swift's Blank Spaces.

December Goals

• 1 hard yoga class/week (4+/4) With the yoga challenge, I did waaaay more than 1 hard class a week. Whoop.
• 1 easy yoga class/week (4/4) I usually try to do two of the restorative classes/week, but I tried a lot of different classes for the challenge and ended up skipping a couple of restorative, but I hit 1 gentle class per week.
• 2 runs/week (1/8) Woof. Not even close.
• 1 buddy run/group run a week (1/4)
• Complete the yoga challenge at the studio (edited to add as the challenge was announced December 1st): Attend 15 classes at the studio, including two vinyasa, two hot, two sculpt, and one fusion or restorative class. (19/15!)

November in Review + Goals

Total Miles: 12.1 down from 40.8 down last month.  Down from 43.8 last November. 

Total Time:  2:00:00 down from 7:48:11 last month. 

Total Runs: 5

Highest weekly mileage: 5.1 miles 11/3-11/9 :|

Favorite run: Group run at 605 Running Co, where I actually got to run with people. Normally I'm either bringing up the rear, by myself, or I'm in the middle of two groups. Ho hum.


Most hardcore run: Group run where I attempted to chase the lead group. Tempo'd for 2.5 miles and then cooled down the last .4.

Favorite race: The Jingle Bell 5k

Bike Miles: 0.

Yoga Classes: 12 fitness classes, including 2 barre, 1 yoga sculpt, 2 restorative yoga classes, 4 gentle vinyasa classes, and 3 power vinyasa classes. 12 hours total!

Favorite Jam: Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods. On repeat over here. STILL. Really her whole album.

November Goals

• Group run once/week (2/4)
• 1 hard fitness class/week (5/4)
• 1 restorative yoga class/week (2/4)
• Strong 6 mile race on Turkey Day--I ended up doing the 5k the day after Turkey Day because it was MUCH nicer. I did run decent though! 
• Win NaNoWriMo! Done and Done!

December Goals

• 1 hard yoga class/week (X/4)
• 1 easy yoga class/week (X/4)
• 2 runs/week (X/8)
• 1 buddy run/group run a week (X/4)

NaNoWriMo Progress Continued

Because I'm sure you're all waiting on the edge of your streets to see how my NaNoWriMo project is going since my last post, here it is:

November 14th was a monster writing day for me. I had the day off from work for Saturday and was determined to get caught up! I started the day with a 686 word 20 min sprint. I followed this up with a 1182 30 min sprint. Later I hit 708 words during a 20 min sprint and then another 600 during 20 min sprint, leaving me with 4400 for the day. I also hit the 25,000 word mark earning myself another badge! This put me ahead of pace by one measly day.

And I used that buffer on the 15th by taking a writing "rest day".

On the 16th I got in a measly 500ish words, and another 700 on the 17th.

On the 18th I had a big goal of hitting 30k words and I got there with a 469 word 20 min sprint,  a 915 30 minute sprint, and a 998 20 minute sprint. I ended up hitting 2848 words for the day and hitting my goal. Wahoo!

So naturally I took the 19th off and wrote nothing. Ugh.

On the 20th I wrote about 1200 words, and followed that with zero on the 21st.

The 22nd was a major catch up day and I easily knocked out 1000 words in the 30 minutes I had  before going to yoga. After yoga I hit 978 words in a 30 minute sprint and 5400 words total for the day. By far my best writing day so far!

Sunday the 23rd I struggled for motivation to write, which I'm noticing happens the day after my monster writing days. It's almost like I need to write everyone day or something. I did manage to write 1100 words to get me up to my word goal for the day.

I hope to hit 40k on Monday and hopefully finish up before Sunday the 30th, but I might need every last minute. We'll see!

NaNoWriMo Progress

I started off NaNoWriMo with a bang. I was ready early for work on November 1st, so I sat down and got rolling. I had 250 words written before I was off to work to host a kickoff at my library. I came home incredible inspired and attended some online nano chats that were doing some sprints, and before too long I was just over 2k words for the day.

November 2nd I was up super early because of DST, and I spent an hour writing before the NYCM coverage kicked in. After the race started, I wrimo'd during commercials. I hit my word goal before the race was over. Wahoo, this writing stuff is easy! I picked up my laptop yet again after dinner, determined to earn my 5k badge. Badge earned, wahoo! So I rewarded myself with some blog writing. Which apparently you're not supposed to do in November, because it's "wasting words." Oops.

November 3rd I was again up early because of the time change, so I quickly banged out a thousand words before I went to yoga, and somehow managed to knock out 700 words in 20 minutes before work on November 4th. Thanks again time change!

November 5th and 6th were my first days were I fell behind the daily word count total nullifying my giant word count cushion from the weekend, I wrote about 800 words each day.

November 7th was my first thought of quitting NaNoWriMo, and I text Krista as such. She told me no and to get going. We did a little 20-25 minute sprint, and 900 words later I felt back on track! I did some more writing until Kyle came home from work and got myself caught up to only being one day (1667 words) behind. I also hit a wordcount milestone and earned myself a badge.

10k!

Saturday morning I got up and couldn't decide if I wanted to go to yoga. On one hand, if I have a good chunk of time to write, I tend to find something else to do, but if I only give myself a little bit of time, I can crank out the words. I hit 1200 words in under an hour and decided my award would be some Vinyasa yoga. I came home and showered and sat down for some sprints. I hit 560 words during a 15 minute sprint, and a whopping 1491 words during a 25-30 minute sprint. My new PR. And with that I was back ahead of the word count goal game, ever so slightly!  I ended the day with about 3900 words written.

Sunday's goal was to get to ~18000 words to put me at an average of 2k/day. I wasn't nearly as motivated as I was on Saturday though. I did manage 979 words during a 30 minute sprint but nothing else to crazy. I think I hit 3300 for the day, and was just shy of my 18000 word goal.

Monday I had a weird work schedule, resulting in working from 5:30-9pm. You would think that I had spent all day writing, but you'd be wrong. Luckily once the final hours of my "day off" were trickling away I sat down with some writing motivation and knocked out 1800 words. After work I was further motivated by being OH SO CLOSE to 20k words so I spent some more time plunking down words on my laptop to hit 20k! Wahoo!! And this resulted in my first 2k+ average daily word count. Whoop. I hit almost 2600 words for the day.

Ollie helped. Obvs.

Tuesday I had the day off for Veteran's Day so after a glorious power vinyasa class, I sat down to write with a delicious Coffea latte in my hand. Now if that beast isn't writing motivation, I'm not sure what is!  I hit just shy of 2100 words for the day.

Wednesday And Thursday I took the days off from writing. Still slightly on track to finish on time!

November Goals

November Goals

• Group run once/week
• 1 hard fitness class/week
• 1 restorative yoga class/week
• Strong 6 mile race on Turkey Day
• Win NaNoWriMo!

October Goals

October Goals

• Enjoy as much of 26.2 miles as I can in Bemidji.
• When the miles get tough, believe in myself and my abilities.
• Recover.
• Attend a group run/week after recovering.
• 1 buddy run or ride a week.
• Fitness class challenge! 

October is always my favorite running month because it's always so cool and running through crunchy leaves is my jam. I'm giving myself much of October off from a formal training plan and will just run whenever and however far I feel like before getting in to Houston training. Eeps! I also have a fitness class challenge laid out for myself for the recovery period and to get strong before the next cycle kicks off!

August Goals

August Goals

• Run enough miles to have my 4th or 5th highest mileage month.
• Run two long runs as scheduled.
• Run all three speed sessions as scheduled. 
• Run one of my fastest half marathons in Fargo (please be cool weather, please be cool weather)
• Watch 2 Oscar Best Picture Nominees.
• Every other day core work, hip stretches, and drills.
• 1 buddy run or ride a week.
• 2 20+ mile bike rides.
• Make 2 new meals using my veggie box ingredients.
• Get 3-5 pounds closer to my racing weight. 
• Food as fuel!

July in Review + Goals

July in Review

Total Miles:  121.6 up from 73.8  last month.  Up from 77.7 last July. 

Total Time:  20:49:54 up from 12:28:22  last month. 

Total Runs:  15 for an average of 8.11 miles each run.

Highest weekly mileage: 7/21-7/27 41 miles 7:04:22

Favorite run: My first twenty miler of this marathon training cycle. 

Most hardcore run: My sixteen miler in the heat and humidity. It was a death march. But I finished.

Favorite race: Lennox Firecracker 10k.

Bike Miles: 30 miles, 1 ride. There were two major car/bike wrecks, one fatality, in recent weeks, and I've been terrified to get on my bike. :/

Favorite Jam: 

July Goals

• Run enough miles to crack my top 5 highest mileage months. (140-150) This week is my recovery week, and I've been feeling on the verge of a cold, so I've been resting a LOT. I shifted my runs to later in this week so I'll still have my mileage this week but it'll be tacked on to August's mileage!
• Run three long runs as scheduled.
• Run all four speed sessions as scheduled. 
• Run my 2nd fastest 10k in Lennox. Sub 52?? Sub 51?? Sub 52 wahoo!!
• Watch 2 Oscar Best Picture Nominees. I thought Blue Jasmine was, but I was wrong. Derp. Still a good flick!
• Every other day core work, hip stretches, and drills.
• 1 buddy run or ride a week. Jenn and I were only able to connect twice this month!
• Make 2 new meals using my veggie box ingredients. I've made a couple of juice recipes! And a lot of quinoa veggie bowls with my veggies.
• Get 3-5 pounds closer to my racing weight. I think I'm down two. Meh.
• 2 20+ mile long rides. Only one.

2014 Goals Check In

It's halfway through the year, so it's time to do a quick check in on my 2014 goals!

Running

• Marathon PR. I'm not going to sign up for another marathon until my current training indicates that a sub-4 will be in my cards. I'm hoping that will be the case late this spring when I'm tentatively planning to register for marathon #7! 
• I'll take my one and only crack at a marathon PR in October!
• Half Marathon PR. This spring I'm shooting for ~3 half marathon races. Since our weather can be incredibly fickle in the spring (and the fall, and the winter, and the summer....) I want to have options as to deciding what my A race is since I know that certain weather conditions destroy me. I have a lot of work to do to make this a reality over the next few months!
• Not yet. Going to make an attempt in August in Fargo.
• 10k PR. There's a 10k in May and June that I'm planning on doing. If I'm in speedy shape, I would like to see this 3 year old (OMG) PR fall.
• After the 4th of July race, I'm less than 90 seconds off!
• Be in L-O-V-E love with running.
• YES!
• Run and race with friends.
• Yay! Jenn J and I have been running together and race planning, and I have a race weekend planned with Jenn and Megan!
• Make some new running friends to add to the group. 
• Working on it!
• Run with speedier, intimidating folks to force me to run harder (Jacqueline, this means I will hopefully finally take you up on your long run offers!)
• Jenn is speedier so it's helpful to run speedwork with her!
• Run a 200 mile month.
• Ha. Not even close. September might be the month.
• Hit a 50 mile training week while not in marathon training. (I'd like to try higher mileage training for my spring halfs, as long as my body is up for it!)
• Well, my body wasn't up for it.
• Run a 60 mile week, either in training or not.
• And I'm peaking at 52-55 for the marathon, so nope!
• Do a month long run streak. This summer before marathon training starts? Next November? December? Hmm...
• November? December? Still TBD.
• Run more miles than 2013 AND 2012.
• ~400 at the end of June!

Fitness

• Stay healthy.
• So far so good!
• Chiro and/or massage BEFORE "when necessary". ie: already broken. Maintenance > Repairing.
• I did one massage so far. I definitely need to plan for some as my mileage builds!
• Do hip stretches and exercises on the reg.
• Yes!
• Eat healthier. Cook more. Bulk up the delicious recipe stash.
• Yes!
• Bike another half century.
• Might do an unofficial one this summer.
• Continue with stuff OTHER THAN running (ie: strength training, fitness videos, yoga, etc.)
• Eh. Fail.
• Do abwork year round, not just in the summer when abs make an appearance.
• Yes!
• Make 100 pushups/day, every other day, a "thing" not just a one time thing.  (I did this on my birthday as it was on my 101 in 1001 list. It felt pretty good and Kyle did it with me!) Caveat: They were girl pushups, but I'd definitely like to work up to ALL regular pushups. It'll take some work though. My girl Jillian has helped over the past month. I wouldn't have been able to do 100 girl ones without doing the 30 day shred, that's for sure. Captain of the T Rex arms team over here!
• Eh. Fail. 

Life

• Read 200 books.
• 106 books read.
• Attempt NaNoWriMo again. Spend some time in October doing NaNoWriMoPrep!
• Pay off a good portion of my grad school loans.
• Doing work.
• Save money for a house down-payment. 
• Uh, see above. -->Grad school loans.
• Earn a promotion.
• YES!
• Take a trip with Kyle, even for the weekend.
• Plans for Labor Day weekend.
• Adopt a pug brother or sister for Ollie (maybe....Housing sitch dependent).
• Still TBD.