December in Review

December in Review

Total Miles:  116.3 miles up from 102.53 miles last month. 27.3 miles last December.

Total Time:  19:40:41 up from 16:53:25. 

Total Runs: 19 runs, for an average of 6.12 miles a run.

Highest weekly mileage: 

12/18/2017 – 12/24/2017:	37.3 mi	6:09:41	9:55 / mi

Most hardcore run: 13.1 miles in -2 degrees, snow and ice and still running faster than all of my 2016 half marathons, and some of my 2017 marathons. Wahoooo!!!

Favorite run: Both of my 12 milers with Toni were stellar. The miles flew by, we sped up the second half without trying or realizing we were doing it, and I ended both runs thinking, "I could run for another hour or so!" For a self-proclaimed long run hater, that was pretty major!

Favorite Race: No races in December. What a boring month! Hah. After ALLLLL the races in October/November, it was probably ok to not race this month. But had there been one that worked with my schedule, I totally would've, no worries.

Favorite Jam: I downloaded T Swift's new album when I had to do a solo 8 mile, and when I replaced my iPod playlist, I didn't realize that all the music I replaced is still on my old MacBook. So that's all I have at the moment. Oops.

December in Review + Goals

December in Review

Total Miles: 27.3 down from 55.8 last month.  Up from two miles last December. :|

Total Time:  5:08:41 down from 10:25:35 last month. 

Total Runs: 7 for an average of 3.9 miles/run. I need to learn to be less of a wussy winter runner!

Highest weekly mileage: Even though the last run of the week was technically in January, I only had one solid week of running in December. 

12/26/2016 – 1/1/2017:	19.3 mi	3:33:56

Favorite run: I did a 4 mile run on the treadmill and got to run next to one of my speedier runner friends. It was so nice to "run" with her.

Most hardcore run: Ha, none, really. I did mile repeats at my 10k pace and had to go slower on each one. Oops.

1600 repeats

	Type	Distance	Duration	Elapsed Time	Pace	Notes
1	Interval	1 mi	8:53	8:53	8:53
2	Interval	1 mi	8:57	17:50	8:57
3	Interval	1 mi	9:01	26:51	9:01

Favorite race: None!

Bike Miles: 0

Favorite Jam: I've been listening to my yoga playlists on my runs, there isn't a song I've been playing on repeat much. Shockingly.

January Goals

• 83 Miles--Since I'm shooting for 1000 miles in 2017, this is my average mileage per month!
• Core work 3x a week.
• Clam shell with resistance bands before runs I do from home, standing glute activation on runs from elsewhere.
• 2 morning group runs (this'll be HARD!)
• 2 cycling classes

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!)

December in Review + Week 1 of Spring Race Training

December

Total Miles: 18 down from 43.3 last month. Embraced the off season over here!

Total Time: 3:12:43 down from 7:56:41 last month.  

Total Runs: 5 runs, 6 weight training session.

Highest weekly mileage:  7.8 miles lolz

Favorite run: I did a 3.5 mile tempo at faster paces than I have hit in a REALLY long time.

Most hardcore run: 4.15 hilly fartlek run through the snow in shorts. #yayzies

Favorite race: NA
Bike Miles: 0
Favorite Jam:  One Direction--Story of My Life. I blame SNL for making me love this song.

December 30th marked the first week in my half marathon training for this spring. Round one will be a 12 week cycle leading up to the half in NYC while visiting Susan! Since I took December as an "off-season" with minimal running, I'm starting my weekly mileage at 20 and working up from there. I'm hoping to hit high 30s, low 40s by the time the race rolls around. After that race, I have another half five weeks later, and then one the following week. I'm unsure if I'll race-race both of the latter races, but at least by the time the first one rolls around, I'll be able to see the weather report for the following weekend to determine which makes more sense as a "goal" race. 

Since I took the last couple of months easy running wise, I'm REALLY excited to get back in to a schedule, which was my hopes in implementing an off season. Although our weather needs to get its act together. We've had more -30 degree windchill days than I'm ok with, and our winter barely started. I can't wrap my mind around long runs on the treadmill anymore... gone are the days where I can gut out 16 miles on the treadmill to avoid 3 feet of snow. Coincidentally, the training cycle I did that I PR'd almost every race I did... perhaps not coincidentally, huh? I got in 2 of my 4 runs last week, all treadmill bound. I'm an idiot to try to squish them all in to 4 days, since I'm actually doing speedwork again, YAYZIES! And my body requires more recovery than that. Oops. Luckily the temps look favorable for this weekend, so as long as I don't have to do my LR on the treadmill, I think I can hack the rest of the runs indoors this week! 

December Running and Life in Review

December In Review

Total Miles:  61 down from 101 last month.

Total Time: 9:46:53 down from 16:19:26 

Total Runs: 

Highest weekly mileage:

 12/26/2011-1/1/2012 28 4:28:55  I've yet to get my run in for today, so it'll be a smidge higher than that, 

but it's January so that doesn't really count anyway.

Favorite run: The 2.22 miles that Kyle ran with me this week.  Collectively now... awwwww.  After saying he wanted to start running with me a couple of weeks ago, he finally did this week.  He said I was in a crummy mood so he thought it'd cheer me up.  What a guy.  We went the farthest he ever has with me (we usually do 1.75-2 miles) and I was pretty stinkin' proud of him.  Doing the run/walk thing he almost ran 2 miles in all.  **immediately scans the local running calendars for goal 5ks to run with him**

Most hardcore run:  My tempo run this week.  It wasn't really *that* hardcore because I hadn't really planned on doing it, thus not able to psych myself out about it prior to the run.  I had 6 miles to run and after my 2 mile warm up I wanted to pick up the pace for a bit.  Since I haven't done any speedwork outside of some striders, I thought it was be abysmal at best.  The first "tempo" mile was a 8:48 and it sucked.  But like it always does, it got so much easier after the first tempo mile.  I decided I'd shoot for my remaining miles to be in the 8:30s, 8:20s, and 8:10s.  8:48, 8:20, 8:09, 7:52

And my heart rate only started creeping to the upper levels of my tempo HR zone at the end of the 6th mile.  Maybe there's something to this heart rate training, eh?

Favorite race:  zero.

Bike Miles: 14.6!  I biked!  Look at me a-cross trainin'!  My achilles was being a turd and I needed some endorphins.

Favorite Jams: I've just been listening to my playlist from Philly.  Any new tunes out there I need to explore?

My subpar training in December can be explained by a) burnout b) possible injury on the horizon and c) too much fun stuff going on.

To recap my life, because I've really been slacking on the blog (which I'm sure no one is really concerned about):

• I finished my first semester of grad school.  And I knocked out a 4.0.  What's that, I already bragged about this?  Well now I've bragged about it twice.
• I got to spend some quality time with my lover Jenn.  We celebrated her loverboy's, little bro's (got that?) 21st birthday.  

For some reason, the only picture I have documenting the night is to show off the sweet shirt that she got me for my birthday. L-o-v-e.  For reals.

• And then I had the most delightful Christmas I can remember in a really long time.  I got spoiled, I got to do some spoiling, win win all around.  True story:  I wish i was richy rich and could just buy people gifts all the time, but I'm not so I look forward to the once a year that I set aside money to do that.  
• Followed swiftly by the best birthday ever.  I'd like to think that Jenn flew back to the states just to attend my 28th birthday.  Please don't tell me otherwise. More pics to come in a further post, I'm sure.

• I finally started to get some decent mileage in this past week, including an impromptu progression tempo run that ended with a sub-8 mile, and my first double digit run since Philly, with 12 miles knocked out yesterday.  I know I keep saying "I'm back" but perhaps I really am now.
• Last night I got to ring in the new year with some of my favorite people.  Many thanks to this guy who helped to make 2011 one of the best years yet!

Year In Review & December in Review

Yes, I realize I'm doing this 1/4 of the way through January, but it still counts, so go with it, or my next post will be your MOM in review.  Jk.  Kinda.

December in Review
Total Miles:  73.2 which is down from 80.1 from last month.  (I promised my legs time off if they got me through Dallas, they deserved it!)
Time spent: 10:47:55
Total Runs: 13 for an average of 5.6 miles/run.
Highest weekly mileage: 11/30/2009 — 12/6/2009: 28.0 Mi 4:15:26
Favorite run: The run where I reached 1,000 for the year.  Gotta love running with a huge grin on your face and accomplishing something you never thought was possible.
Most hardcore run: I couldn't really recall a run in particular, so I had to look back through my log.  I actually titled this one as "The Run From Hell" so I suspect that takes the cake. 5 easy miles in frostbite conditions with partially frozey tears running down my face. I love you SoDak winter!
Favorite Race: Dallas White Rock Half!  Favorite race to date.  I felt good, my legs felt good, it was fun and I had a PR.  What more could you want?  Nada.

2009 In Review
Total Miles:  1,020
Highest weekly mileage: 35.8 (August 24-30)
Highest monthly mileage:  136.6 (August)
Number of shoes:  3 retired, 1 1/2 way there
Number of races: 7 (2 HMs, 5 5ks) and 1 relay
Number of PRs: 6 (2 HMs, 4 5ks, stupid 5k ruined my perfect season!)
Number of  awards:  2, one 5k overall female and one 5k AG
Percentage I have fallen back in love with running:  100
_____________________________________

Tonight I had a speed workout to complete.  Since I'm not "technically" following a schedule, I scanned my fridge door for a speed workout that looked like fun (all of my training programs for 2009 are still hanging up there for now).  I decided on a 1 mile warm up, 1 mile at 7:51 pace, 2 x 800 m. in 3:45 (7:30 pace) and 2 x 400 m. in 1:45 (7:00 pace) with a half mile cool down (with walk breaks after each "sprint."

The warm up mile was a struuuuuugle.  I had all sorts of weird aches and pains, especially in my shins.  I blame the cold.  After I was warmed up, I cranked up the treadmill and away I went!  After the first mile I walked .2, then .15 after the 800's, and .1 after the 400's.  After 2 400's I thought, heck, why not do two more and screw the cool down jog?  Sounds good to me!

Warm up	1 Mi	9:35	9:35	9:35
Interval	1 Mi	7:39	17:14	7:39
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:40	20:54	7:20
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:41	24:35	7:22
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:41	26:16	6:44
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:37	27:53	6:28
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:41	29:34	6:44
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:39	31:13	6:36

I ended up with 4 miles in 31:16 for a 7:49 pace (not including the walk breaks for time or distance).  Total speedwork was 3 miles in 21:38 for a 7:13 pace.
I'm sooooo stinkin' tired, but in such a good way.  I have a feeling I might be sleeping like a baby tonight.  Thank goodness!  I haven't slept well since this weekend.  :(  Boo.

And since I keep forgetting to post these:  more pics from Dallas White Rock!

Yes, I am smiling here.  B/c I'm having FUN!

Wish I would've gotten the "raise the roof" memo from the chica behind me. Jerk.

   

And this is where I impress you all by running with one and one-half legs.

Finishing strong (I kind of look fast in this one and it makes me HAPPY!) :)