2017 Goals Check In

Running

• Run 1000 miles. 1100+ YAYZIES! This is legit the goal I'm most proud of.
• Run a Sub 2:05 half. YAY! finally. First time since 2014!

• Run a Sub 2 hour half. Not this year, although I did frantically search for a midwest half in late November/early December. Spoiler alert: there are none.
• Run a sub 25 minute 5k (I'd take under the 8:02 pace if the course is short, I'll probably do the summer Parks and Rec 5ks again, and they are always short!). YES! Sub 8 pace for a short course 5k on 10/9/17! And a sub 25 5k for the Trick or Treat race!

Life

• Rescue another pug. Sniffle sniffle. Nope.
• Read 175 books.
• Eat breakfast more. YES!
• Cycle 500 miles. Oh, no no no, not even close.

Yoga

• Find an additional yoga teacher opportunity and partnership that I'm excited about. YES! I started doing a run and flow at a new yoga studio in town. I can't wait for the weather to be nice again to start it back up!
• Handstand! Progress not perfection.
• 30 day sadhana. I may have forgotten that this was even a goal. Oops.
• Minimalist Challenge. YES! I purged so much stuff, giving away, throwing away, and selling.

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.

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.

May in Review + Goals

May in Review

Total Miles: 61.5 down from 65.7 last month.  Up from 45.1 last May.

Total Time: 9:57:55 down from 11:23:15 last month. Which I'm totally okay with. 90 minutes less of running for roughly the same mileage. Wahoo! Speeding up!

Total Runs: 11 runs, for an average of 5.59 miles per run. 

Highest weekly mileage: 5/12-5/18 22.5 miles

Favorite run: 
800m repeats at the track with Jenn. My legs felt like they were flying.

And a 12 mile long run at a faster pace than two of my spring half marathons. 

Most hardcore run: 
Hands down, mile repeats in the extreme heat last week. Woof. Still managed my fastest repeats in years. And as I realized during the final repeat, my mile pace was faster than my half mile repeat pace from earlier this spring! That's insane, and I puffy heart love seeing progress.

Favorite race: 
Brookings Half Marathon--PGSPR

Bike Miles: 25

Favorite Jam: I put Fancy on my playlist, and it has been in my head for a week now. Ollie's name before I adopted her was Fancy, so this song always cracks me up. 

May Goals

I kind of sucked at my goals for the month. I let myself slack a little bit, knowing that I have an intense marathon cycle coming in June. I want to be sure I'll be able to focus for that long, so I tried to be less strict this month. 

• Run 100 miles.
• Run three long runs as scheduled. (Skipped one LR this month. 2/3 5.16.14, 5.2.14)
• Do one fast finish LR. (did another one with pickups instead, helps keep my glutes engaged) 
• Do one LR with 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes. 5.16.14
• Run all three speed sessions as scheduled. (3/3) 
• Run a strong half in Brookings (post-grad school PR pgspr!). 9 minute PGSPR from the weekend before! 
• Watch 2 Oscar Best Picture Nominees. (1/2 Her 5.17.14)
• Track food intake on days I don't run.
• Every other day core work, hip stretches, and drills.
• Learn 2 new recipes.
• Get a couple of pounds closer to my race weight for May races and the start of marathon training in June. Oops, I did the opposite after the Brookings race... :/
• 2 buddy runs. (2 sets of 800 repeats, tempo run!)
• Find a new place to live when our lease is up! (Feel free to shoot me leads on 2 bedroom places in town that allow dogs!) Decided to stick it out another year at our current place and avoid paying another $500 non-refundable pet deposit. Boo but YAY for not spending all of May panicking about packing, moving, and unpacking!