Last Minute 2017 Goal REVISED

At the tail end of 2016, when my running was going well, I made the goal to run 1000 miles for 2017. I hadn't run 1k miles in a year since 2011 when I ran 1300+ miles. In my running career I've hit 1000 miles in 2009, 2010, and 2011. 2012 I was close with 924. Since then I've had 600-700/year and 2015 when I had 141.5. What?!? I've ran more than that in a month this year. Craziness.

Knowing I have big goals ahead, I've used my data from previous years as a guide. 2010 and 2011 were my two best years of running (all the PRs, all the strong races, all the speed), and 2009 served as an incredible base year cracking 1000 miles for the first time, landing at 1020. So for 2017, 1000 was the goal!

The online tracker I use allows you to put in monthly mileage goals as well as annual goals, and gives you a nice visual to see how far ahead or behind you are to that goal, how many miles you need to average per day to meet that goal, as well as what you are projected to hit based on your current progress. LOVE. I love data. And this little visual.

Most of the year I've been slightly ahead of that 1000 goal. But I never got overly confident, because I know that I tend to be more injury prone than the average runner. But as October was wrapping up and I had two full months to run 100 miles, I considered bumping up that goal.

Why not 1100?

So that's the new goal for 2017. Some of that is weather dependent, as it could turn very winter, very soon here, but I think it's a good goal to keep me right around 100 miles/month. Also some running friends are planning for a 20 or 17 mile long run on NYE, so if I needed some extra padding, I have that to fall back on.

What's your annual mileage goal?

Do you even track it bro? (jk) I'm constantly asking Toni what she's at for mileage, and she never knows and has to manually tabulate it every once and awhile when I get nosy. She also promised to give me a chart of our miles together and solo and I haven't even SEEN THAT RENDERING YET. :P

Are you someone who can run the year without breaking yourself? This has always been a back of the brain goal that I just don't think is attainable, but I'm still semi-obsessed with it.

Breakfast Update

One of my big goals for 2017 was to start eating breakfast more consistently (read: at all). A latte doesn't count. I wanted to do a check-in post with my progress, because that helps hold me accountable. If you follow me on instagram, you'll also notice, somewhat annoyingly, that I've been posting a lot of my breakfast pictures there.

 

I have been toggling between two breakfasts for the most part, depending on how much time I have, whether I'm running or not, and what I'm in the mood for. Once or twice a week I spend about an hour peeling and chopping veggies to roast. My favorite breakfast is a strip of bacon, already roasted veggies (beets, sweet potato, carrots, and brussel sprouts) thrown into the pan of bacon grease (mmmmm) to warm up, some red onion, and two delicious fried eggs to top it off. After a couple of weeks of considerable stomach pain I realized I was missing some healthy fat and eating a LOT of roasted veggies. I started adding half of an avocado to the mix and my stomach and taste buds have been very happy.

 

My other favorite breakfast is greek yogurt (I've even found a delicious coconut yogurt version!!) with granola, and whatever pretty fruit I have on hand. Yum.  Somehow making it in to a breakfast mandala makes me even happier to be eating its beauty.

Who's got some more breakfast ideas for me? I'd love anything I can make in advance!

Breakfast 2017

One of my goals for 2017 is to eat breakfast more. I know, I know, I KNOW I need to eat breakfast. But I don't. Most of the time. I will *always* choose an extra 15 minutes of sleep over eating breakfast, and then I'll pick up a latte on the way to work and call it good. And then I'm starving at lunch, my lunch doesn't tide me over until dinner, and then I'm hungry and cranky for supper and don't spend time making a delicious and healthy dinner. And repeat. Throw in a workout/run and I'm even worse for the wear.

I'd really like to start working out in the morning, which is what has prompted this. I can't cycle + run on empty, and I'll kill people at work if I work out for 1+ hours before work and don't eat. Eeps. Murderous librarian? Pass.

Lay it on me people, what's your favorite breakfast options? Bonus points for things I can pre-make in bulk but stuff that won't have a gross consistency from being made in advance and reheated (I have super weird and intense issues with food textures. I usually can't eat leftovers because of it.)

I can meal prep lunches until the cows come home--giant salads, lots of extra goodies, but why are breakfasts so hard?!?

In exchange for your help, here's my favorite breakfast (that takes for-ev-er but is totally worth it (also paleo and gluten free if that's your jam).

1. Crisp bacon (2 strips)
2. Cut half an apple into small bites and saute in the bacon grease with a little red onion and some cinnamon (prepare for your house to smell like heaven) 3-5 minutes

3. Chop up sweet potatoes (the white ones are the best, but the orange ones will do) and saute for forever (12-15 minutes).
4. Fry an egg and put it over the top.
5. Bask in your culinary amazingness.

Minimalism Challenge

When I was going through yoga teacher training, we studied the yamas and the niyamas. One of the yamas and niyamas that really stuck out to me is "asteya". While this Sanskrit word translates literally to "not stealing" it also breaks down to not hoarding materials you don't need and/or mindlessly consuming natural resources. Uff.

I looooove having stuff. And I have a lot of it. When Kyle and I moved out of your apartment last winter, I had major anxiety when paring down our stuff. We were going from a tiny apartment to his parents' basement to an unknown house. But we had lived at the apartment for three years and the amount of "stuff" you acquire without thinking about it is insane! I think I took 8 garbage bags full of stuff to the Goodwill, threw away several bags of stuff that no longer had value to me, and wouldn't have value to anyone else, and gave away things that no longer served me ie: I can't drink black coffee anymore (sniffle, sniffle) so I gave away a coffee pot, a keurig, and a french press, sniff sniff.

My main hobbies are running and yoga, and I have a LOT OF STUFF for these activities. I've been running distance since 2005 and while I got rid of a lot of too small running clothes a year ago, I still have a lot that I've either never worn (race shirts) or haven't worn in years (maybe I'll be an XS again and these shorts will fit! uh... no.)

I started listening to The Minimalists podcast and one of the challenges that they presented was to take a month, and each day of the month purge a number of items that matches the date. So on the first, one item, second, two items, and so on.

On New Years Eve I was home alone (because my husband ditched me for fishing), and I decided to start going through some of my things in preparation for this. I thought it'd be easier to tackle it a week at a time, because I know I'll be too lazy on a week night to purge X amount of things.

I have a GIANT stack of workout clothes that I don't wear anymore and haven't worn for years. I'm going to let one of my (tinier) friends go through it and take anything she wants. At first I thought, ooh I should organize a workout clothes swap! And then I realized, derp, that defeats the purpose. :P Anything she decides she doesn't want, I'll check in with my women's running group to see if anyone there needs anything. I know when I first started running, have a tech t-shirt changed the running game for me! From there everything will just get donated.

I also have a few boxes that have yet to be unpacked from our move (9 months ago) that I hope to tackle one of these weeks and contribute to the pile. While the concept sounds easy, I did the quick math on it, and I'll be purging 450 items from my life! That's crazy! But what better time to do it, then in a new year, fresh start!

Who's joining me?!? :D