Year Goals Passed! New Goals Set...

I am proud to say that while I'm extremely frustrated with my training right now, I do have good news to report.  I have multiple long term goals that I'll probably have most of my life, but I also had a few goals that I wanted to meet during 2012.  Well, I'm proud to announce that not only did I hit both my goals and then some!

My two goals for 2012 were:

• Run 450 Miles (10 miles per week average)
• Run More Races!

As of today, I've run 522.68 miles!  By the end of the year I plan to be closer to 600 miles, but probably won't surpass it.  During the middle of the year I fell off track, but I chipped away at it every week and so now I'm way ahead of schedule.  Of course, that means I have to up my goal for next year.  So right now I just want to run more than 600 miles in 2013, but I might increase that to 650 or something else.  I'll reassess that towards the end of the year.

I've definitely run more races this year than I have in the past.  While I'll never compete as much as I did in high school when I spent every weekend one summer at swim meets, open water events, and triathlons, I have never run as many running events as I did this year.

While I didn't run the Disneyland Half Marathon, I did add the Tower of Terror 10 mile and Wine and Dine 1/2.  I'm planning on running the Reindeer Run again this year, but since it's a 5k, I don't really count it as a "race".  It will be nice to see how my times compare...  So that means this year I ran 3 races where last year I ran 2.  And next year?  I'm looking at 5!  The year after... 7!  I'm saying this now for my legs sake and my wallet's sake... 7 is my limit.

As for my long term goals... my nutrition has been improving all year although there are definitely days where I'm craving some greasy wonderfulness, but those days are getting farther and farther apart.  I'm cooking a lot more too which is nice.  I've definitely lost weight this year and I've been able to keep most of it off, although it has definitely been a battle.  Again, that's just going to be a life long battle which I'll never be able to let my guard down with.

Looking ahead my goals for 2013:

• Run a Full Marathon
• Get a PR for a Half Marathon (Disneyland Half?)
• Run 600+ miles

If you want to see more goals I've already set for 2014 and beyond you can check out the goal page...

In other news, I ran 3 days straight this weekend.  Only ran just over 11 miles, but I'm pretty happy with them overall.  I might even get 2 or 3 miles in tomorrow morning... who knows...

Another Hard Run... Totally My Fault

This morning I hit the road again, not quite sure how far I was really going to go.  As much as I would love to say it was a great run, it definitely was not.  My shins hurt, my knees hurt, and I just felt like crap.

Now where the physical pains are coming from, who knows, but probably the fact I've switched completely over to my new shoes.  Hopefully they'll be gone soon enough.

However, my energy level was low and I take full responsibility for that.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the best lunch at work yesterday and it didn't make me feel well the rest of the day.  Since my stomach wasn't settling, I didn't really have dinner (Ok I didn't have dinner, I had green tea and banana chips).  Thus, this morning I had less energy than usual.

I know nutrition is important.  I know water is important.  Yet, I always find myself falling back into my same old patterns.  While generally my diet and habits are better, every once in a while I fall and it's almost immediately I'm reminded why I have to continue eating and drinking right.

So hopefully next week I'll start feeling better and I'll be able to get some more great runs in...

Running Down Memory Lane

For this last week, I've returned to California to visit friends and family and to attend a friend's wedding.  While I did have a lot planned, I can tell you I did probably only a fraction of what I wanted to do.  Yet I did get to my workouts.  Not only did I get a few runs in, but I got a circuit in and I walked every morning with my parents and our dog.

It was nice to get in some of my old loops, but I did realize how constricting my old routes were.  Yes, I have a few good 3-4, maybe even 5 mile loops, but after that I'm stretching it out.  I just feel like I'm not running all over town in Florida when I get my long runs in, but in California I feel like if I get in decent mileage I would run all through my town.  Still, I got to run past my old middle school and some of the familiar neighborhoods around where I grew up.  It was definitely interesting seeing what was changing and what wasn't.

Overall, it was a nice vacation because I didn't worry about what I was eating and how much I was working out.  Yes, I was logging most of what I ate, but still I was on vacation so I was giving myself an excuse.  The best news is that I really haven't gained a lot considering how much I was letting slip.  Not stressing about about many calories I've burned/need vs how many I'm eating has been a nice change and something I'm trying to continue to bring into my real life when I get back to Florida.  Less stress = easier balanced life.

I know I'll never be a size 0 and I'm happy with where I am and how I look.  Yes I can definitely point out areas I want to work on, but I'm also about to dive right into a marathon training plan and I'm always working on strength training so who knows what will happen in the future.

Surprising Myself

I have always been an advocate of running in the mornings.  I've never really liked running or even working out in the evenings just because I'm so tired from the rest of my day that I usually just pass out.

Today, I don't know... it was just different.  I got home and got my running clothes together before taking off on a run.  I set my Nike+ App to 2.5 miles because I knew that was the least that I needed to do for this run.  Well, I ended up getting 3.1 in.

I surprised myself on two fronts today.  The first being that I actually ran this afternoon and that I ran farther than expected.  I am definitely proud of myself.  Personally, this has been a great week.  My weight has been dropping pretty steadily and I've just felt good.

Considering today was the day 2 out of 13 days straight of work... I might not be singing the same tune next week.  We'll see though.  Maybe I'll continue to surprise myself.

The only surprise I wasn't happy with was the battalion of fire ants that showed up in my house this evening.  I have won the war... or at least the battle thus far.

Weekly Report 11/5

The good news... I was able to run more than last week, even with a harder schedule!  The bad news... I wasn't feeling the best while I was running, but I didn't feel my worst either so I'm not quite sure if it really is bad news.

One thing that really struck me this week, well actually this morning was diet.  I know I've talked about it before and I've said I'm "calorie aware", but I've fallen off of that and while I haven't been letting myself completely go, I haven't been strict with what I should and shouldn't be eating.

One of the biggest things I realized is that I really do need to drink more water.  It would help 3 things.  First my diet since water has no calories.  Second my running because it should cut down some of the dehydration cramps I've been having lately.  Third my budgets because I don't really have that much money since I recently bought a house with the help of my parents.

It's amazing how small things can help so many things.  I know it's going to be hard because I really like having the fizzy carbonation, but I will start to resist!

On good news, I have started stretching more (thanks to the motivations from HBBC) and my calves are feeling a lot better during my runs.  My knee hurt a bit today but I'm blaming the heels I was walking around in most of the week.  Luckily I'm back to wearing tennis shoes again next week for work (I'm back in my normal office and area).

HBBC Weekly Report:
Monday- 2 mile run +1 mile walk + 20 minutes stretching = 4 points
Thursday- 1 mile run + 1 mile walk + 20 minutes stretching = 3 points
Saturday- 3.5 mile run + 20 minutes stretching = 4 points

Total points= 11 points