Tag: goals

Why Worry

Warning- this was a little disjointed before last weekends’ race now it may seem even more so.

I’ve been a little all over the place lately. I don’t think I’m in a funk at the moment but I feel it getting closer. Maybe that’s why I fixated on this damn song so quickly. It’s not like it’s awesome but it’s been bouncing around my brain and finding ways into this blog and my Instagram over the last month. I need to figure this out so I can branch out the music options a bit, hehe.I’ve been so tired lately and things just ache. My head, my legs, my ankle, etc. My stomach responded to the new medication for a bit but then decided that was just a trick. Even I am sick of talking about my damn stomach. But on that note, I see my gastro again next week so maybe we will try something new, fingers crossed. Oh, I dream big, don’t I? 🙂

As for my aches and pains in my legs, I know it’s not overuse. Despite my goal of 1000 miles this year, my mileage has remained average and steady. Like I wrote in my February recap, I am not going to break myself to hit some arbitrary mileage number. It wasn’t until writing that statement that a light bulb lit up in my head. Even then, it took a while to turn on. Kind of like the way the original compact fluorescent bulbs used to warm up slowly? That was me. But once the idea was there I couldn’t shake it. I fought with myself on every run because while part of me realized it was something I needed, it also made me feel like a quitter. That or I was admitting defeat. A part of me still feels that a little bit.

Where I am going with this? Re-assessing goals. I set a goal to break 2:00 in the half this year and I am not changing that goal. It will happen this year but it is no longer my goal for SLO. While I am loving my training plan for the sense of direction that it gives me, I am not 100%. SLO is 37 days away now and I still haven’t figured things out stomach wise. I almost skipped Wine Country because I was afraid it might interfere with the goal to break 2:00. I finally decided that was not a good enough reason to pass on one of my favorite races. Turns out, running it was the better choice.

I’m also changing my plans for SLO because I want to have fun that weekend. I want to enjoy the expo and not worry about how much walking I am doing. I want to enjoy the ambassador meet and greet and meet all the new ambassadors. We are tentatively planning to all do dinner that night and I would like to not worry about how what I eat will affect a huge goal the next morning. I want to enjoy the amazing scenery and crowds that are a part of this race. Don’t get me wrong, I am running that half to the best of my ability and I will have no complaints if I PR. But whether or not I do will not color my view of that weekend or my performance in a negative way. I had enough of that in 2014.

I love running and want to continue to improve but I am not going to lose the fun that I find in it as well. So, yes, a part of me feels like a quitter taking a step back. I also think this made more sense before I pulled off a 2:06 at Wine Country. However I made the decision to push my goal back before registering for Wine Country. So maybe the reason I ran it well was because I wasn’t stressed. Maybe I put forward my best time since October 2013 because I finally remembered that one of my strengths running wise is in not stressing. Well and being healthy, but I think I’ll actually break 2 before they figure out what’s going on with my stomach. Ha! I am sticking to my training plan because I want to improve as a runner long-term not just for a short-term goal. This way I won’t want to cry when I am nowhere near the prescribed pace for 400 repeats. Give me some time and I will nail those paces. Before last week I was nervous about the hills at SLO- now- bring em’ on.

So, tell me your thoughts?

Good choice- bad choice?

Is this quitting or being smart?

Do you have another song co I can get this one out of my head?!

2015 Goals- Time to Polish

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s. Mine was uneventful- just how I like them. Actually, I ended up being sucked in to watching The 100 on Netflix which is why this post is going up one day past schedule-oops! So without further ado, let’s talk about those hoops I want to jump through, err, I mean goals for 2015.2015 Goals

Health-

So I received a notice from my doc that says “congrats, you are negative for cancer but we have no conclusion as to what is wrong with you”. It seriously said that. So, ummm, yay? So it’s back to the drawing board. That means it’s time to play with my diet some more. I am not going paleo (I like dairy) although I am buying the book, nor gluten free but I have been trying to cut my grain intake by about 85%. When I follow through, I feel a little better, holidays made following through hard. And yes, this means I need to limit my pizza intake to once a week at most. I started this in December so I am going to give it a few more months while I see if it helps. I’ve known I should restrict my carbs so I need to work on that again. On the upshot, I ran better when I did this, so fingers crossed!

Fitness- who am I kidding- Running-

Find Easy– Well, that sounds odd as a starter. I pushed a lot in the beginning of 2014 and I ended up sore, tired and sick. I’m not saying that they are necessarily linked but I want to run as long as I can not a short period of time. That means finding an easy pace that I can sustain for long periods of time. I want to enjoy my long runs and look forward to them, not dread them. Right now I aiming for around 11:15 and averaging 10:50. Would I love my easy runs to one day be 9:00- hell yes- but I want to work towards that the smart way.
Cross-training– Yeah, I know I should and I admit I ran better when I also rode the stationary bike twice a week. But it’s just so boring! Admittedly, I am setting the bar low here- I want to cross train at least 3x a month. Yes, I said month not week. If I can pull this off for 6 months, I will reassess in July.
Races– Quality over quantity. No 15 in ’15 for this Slacker. I hit 14 in ’14 and that was cool but there were some I probably should have DNS’d. That said, I am confirmed for 3 half marathon distance races in the first 4 months of the year and am debating another and a 5k. Bold is confirmed, italicized maybe. Wine Country and Firehouse have sentimental value but I won’t commit to those until the last minute. The rest of the year is up in the air.
1. Spooner’s Cove 25K
2. Surf City 13.1
3. Wine Country 13.1
4. Firehouse 5K
5. SLO Marathon
Break 2:00 in a half– The goal of the first 2 months of the year is finding easy, after that I would love to find speed. I set this as a goal for 2014 but spent the year going the opposite direction. Yes, I valid reasons but it just makes this goal all the more enticing. Now, I know I am horrible with following training plans and prefer to do my own thing but I realize I may need guidance to pull this off. An I would really, really like to go sub-2 at SLO. To that effect, this Slacker may have committed to an 8 week training plan that would start after Surf City and a week of rest. But more on that later, I don’t even know much right now.
1000 miles in 2015– Oh, man, typing that was scary. I am trying to tell myself that 1000 isn’t that far from 832. And I went from 558 in 2013 to 832 in 2014, so it’s doable…Right???????
10 down, 990 to go

Life and other stuff-

Read more– or get back to it. I used to read 4-5 books a month and I think I barely hit 12 this past year. Work was crazy and I didn’t get a lot of lunches but that should be better in 2015- fingers crossed. That put a serious dent in my reading. I would also like to get back to reading before bed which mean I need to turn off the computer and that is hard. 🙂

Socialize more- I admit I am a homebody. See above for my NYE plans. 🙂 I need to try to get out a tiny bit more often. A couple of my coworkers and I are talking about running together after work, so that’s something! I would also like to spend more time with ML, A, C and NikeC and R, I am hoping we can make something work.

The blog– I would like to redesign the blog. Which I have started on but am not where I want to be. Sorry if you saw it in it’s various states in the last few days but there’s likely to be a few more in the pipeline. Bear with me while I try to be tech savvy and will likely fail! But on the upshot, most times the mobile version looks good and it’s just the computer version that looks off.

Hope everyone had a great New Year’s! Here’s to 2015!!

Am I crazy?

What’s your main goal for 2015?

2014 Review- The Shiny and The Dull

I have been dragging my heels on this post because the pessimist in me really wants to call 2014 the year of stall. Then I wrote a great version of this in my head one night trying to fall asleep. Unfortunately I remembered nothing in the morning.

The Shiny-

So once I momentarily got over my cynical nature I was able to reminisce on all the good things I accomplished this year. But how did I do on those goals I set for this year?

Run 14 races in 2014- CHECK!
Run 750 miles- CHECK!

I completed race number 14 in November and also cleared 750 miles at some point in November. 🙂 One of my races was a virtual race and I am on the fence about how much those count. I received a shirt for it though, so I am counting it! I had the chance to be an ambassador for the SLO Marathon and it was awesome. I loved that race, I didn’t do as well as I would have liked but it was a great experience.

This year I ran 7 5k’s, 3 10k’s and 4 half marathons. I ran road races, a trail race or 2 and 2 races on the beach. I age grouped placed in 3 of those 14 races. And a benefit of running small, local races- I was first female finisher at my 5k in July. I set a PR, finished strong even with my stomach and did it all while hearing Miley Cyrus sing Wrecking Ball for 27 minutes. Stupid iPhone.

5K PR- 27:48 –Wild Run 5k
10K PR- 55:40– Heart & Soles

Best Bling- It’s a toss-up, I love the SLO medal because I had been wanting to run the race for the previous 2 years. Plus running it as an ambassador was pretty sweet! As for the abalone medal- that thing is huge! The race was rough, ocean = humidity, but it was on my birthday and I got to run it with a friend. Strongest race-

Wine Country 13.1– Before I got sick, only slight asthma issues, finished at 2:07:08 for a 7 minute course record for me.

The Dull-

Goals-
Break 27 in 5K- FAIL
Break 2 hours- 13.1- FAIL

No lies, 95% of my races this year were rough in some form or another. After years of nothing my asthma reared its ugly head and it took more than a few races for me to figure out that cold and humidity were big triggers for me. My 10K PR was set under duress of an odd but severe bout of pain in my right Achilles. I went into 2 half marathons on heavy-duty antibiotics. My stomach, which had been fairly level for the last year or so, went psycho in June and has yet to level out. While I was able to maintain my mileage somewhat, I came to the conclusion that a faster pace was not in the cards. It ~~made me cranky,~~ it pissed me off and I wondered what the point was most of the time.

I went into Ventura, cranky, ill and medicated, knowing I should have deferred. When it turned from running to walking 6 miles in, I had 7 miles to think and get my head on straight. The rest of the year was spent backing off a bit and slowing down. Getting back to basics and loving running again. I’m not loving the time change but I am loving running. 🙂

Roughest Race (s)-

HOB Fun Run– the 10K & 5K where people thought I was going to pass out. Yeah, possibly not my best moments.

So why Shiny vs Dull? Shiny is fairly obvious, and a Firefly shout out, but dull? Dull things can be cleaned, buffed, fixed- given a little TLC, a something dull can be made shiny. And that is part of my focus for 2015 but more on that later.

Thanks for joining me in my drama- issues- silliness- laziness- of 2014, I hope you stick around and see what happens in 2015. 🙂

What was your shiny/ dull for 2014?

June Recap- Mid year Check In

In some ways June was awesome, in others not so much. I started my #noexcusessummer plan on June 1^st and stayed mostly committed. I think I only took 5 rest days the whole month. 2 just happened to fall in the last week. 😦 I tried to not let the heat or my lack of sleep or even my stupid stomach get to me. I prevailed for the most part but this weekend kicked my butt. I had a full weekend planned, work, 2 runs, a friend’s anniversary party, shopping, the movies plus the usual errands. Saturday turned out to be a wash. I got through work, completed my errands but soon realized that a run wasn’t likely. I did the yoga dvd instead and it was not good. It was all downhill from there and I did not make it to the party- horrible friend alert. Shopping never happened either but I did make it to the movies (Transformers was awesome!) and was able to get in a sluggish 6 miles on Sunday at the gym. I was feeling a little rough so I would run .9 miles at 6 and walk .1 at 4. It worked pretty well for my stomach.

Monday, however was another story. After missing the planned 5 miles on Saturday, I wanted to follow through with the 5 I had planned for after work. It figures that the last day of June would be the day I felt the worst. It was all I could do to make it through work. I won’t lie I still thought about trying to run. By 3:30, I knew it wasn’t going to happen but as added deterrent I received a text from my mother telling me to get over my ego and an email from NikeC telling me to rest. I get it, I get it! So yesterday was a rest day.

What did my mother mean by my ego? I realized Friday that if I hit certain miles at each run over the weekend and Monday I would hit that impossible dream number that I never thought I’d hit in a month. But, as it was, I was 10 miles short, but still hit my highest mileage month yet-

90.5! What?! How did I do that!?

I had zero races in June but that was partially planned. I needed a break for a bit. I was feeling a little frustrated at how my last few races turned out. I planned June to be a rebuilding month. Mission partway accomplished. While I built a solid base of easy miles and some longer runs, I didn’t do any speed work. Waah waah. Hopefully July will involve some track time. Overall I feel like 84 of those 90 miles were solid miles. Even 2 weeks later, I still say that first 6 a few Fridays ago were just miserable. They were hot and ugly. Either way, I am still stoked about that number.

Month	Miles
January	77.3
February	70.0
March	74.7
April	70.4
May	64.5
June	90.5
	447.4

So at the beginning of the year I set a few goals. While I have not met any of the speed goals, my mileage is pretty solid. I set a goal of 750 miles for the year. At the halfway point, I am more than halfway there! Woo hoo!!! Now to keep it going, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

How was your June?

How has your year gone?

What are you looking forward to in July?

January Recap

Yesterday was a glorious rest day. It was a longer than usual work day, so that plus my tiredness from Monday and Tuesday turned into a rest day. I won’t lie, it was pretty nice. I still played nice with my foam roller but other than that no running or running shoes. I did end up going up and down a ladder a ridiculous number of times at work. We finally took down the last of the Christmas decorations; the garland strung around the exposed beams in the ceiling. That turned out to be more of a workout than I had planned. 🙂

My plan called for 6 miles yesterday but just like the 8 on Tuesday, I made adjustments. I swapped yesterday’s run and today’s rest day. I was still not feeling it this evening so I ran 5 and called it done. I think that a plan needs to be adaptable to the runner. I could have forced myself to run the last 3 on Tuesday and the last 1 today but they would have been crappy miles. I would rather have quality over quantity. Which is kind of contradictory as I am trying to up my mileage, but I want to do it smartly.

Tonight started out a little stiff but just over a mile in, it finally eased up. I wanted to keep it easy tonight but my feet must have disagreed- I kept punching the treadmill! 😦 Oops. I made sure to keep my breathing even and if I felt like I was getting huffy, I would slow down. I took advantage of those moments to drink water without spilling it all over myself. 🙂 NikeC showed up at some point and texted me that I had outrun everyone around me. When I showed up, the treadmills were mostly full but I found one near the door surrounded by people who were just arriving and jumped on. 2 miles in they were all gone. Did I smell or something?

I finished out my 5 and walked a cool down. I then stretched before cleaning my machine. Yes, I stretch on the treadmill; those bars sure are handy. 🙂 I chatted a bit with NikeC before heading out. She’s running Surf City this weekend, woo hoo!!! She’s gonna rock it, I know. I then headed home for a nice warm shower and my roller. I was also able to catch up on Supernatural while working on this post. I was only distracted a few times. 🙂

Back to upping my miles, I decided to try doing a monthly recap. That way I can see and share what I’ve done- what worked and what didn’t. Tonight was my last run for January, so here goes-

77 miles?! Sweet, especially considering I took 8 consecutive days off when I was sick. Looking at those numbers makes me proud but it also shows me why I am tired. I went from a 30 mile month (granted it was December) to just shy of 80. I would like to stay around this number of monthly miles but I am rethinking some things, got to work out the kinks. I think I had a few good ideas while running tonight but any great epiphany had while running should always be slept on first. Right?

Tomorrow is Friday, woo hoo!!!! How was everyone’s weeks?

How did your resolutions/ goals go for January?

Who are you rooting for on Sunday?