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in Core Work, Running, Strength Training · January 1, 2014

Plans and Goals for 2014

I hope everyday had a good New Years Eve! Unless you’re living under a rock, you have probably seen plenty of New Years Resolution talk all over the internet. Most years I don’t make official resolutions…but more general intentions for the year. I think the last time I actually wrote down specific goals and worked on them all year was in 2008. To be honest, I feel like I do pretty well with my lifestyle, but I can always strive to do better. So over the last few days I came up with my goals for 2014.

2014 goals

While I feel like 3:50 is much faster than my current PR, I wanted to make my one running goal challenging. I’m sure I will be happy if I break 4 hours, or even just PR, but based on my other race times I know I can run less than 3:50.

The other goals are more doable, as long as I remember to keep up with them. I’m not sure exactly how I want to improve my blog, or what kind of path I want to take in health and fitness, so I left these goals more open to flexibility throughout the year.

In order to reach my goal of a 3:50 marathon, I need a race to run, right?!

raleigh

Rob and I signed up for the Rock n Roll Raleigh Marathon on April 13th.  I stared training last week, which was a little challenging with all of the traveling.

Here is what my training looked like last week:

Weekly Recap:

Sunday 12/22: rest

Monday 12/23: 6 easy miles on the treadmill in Michigan, strength

Tuesday 12/24: 6 easy miles on the treadmill with strides, Oiselles’ Runner’s Dozen Core Routine

Wednesday 12/25: 8 miles with 4 at marathon goal pace (MGP- 8:45ish)

Thursday 12/26: 6 easy miles in New York, core work

Friday 12/27: 13 miles in New York (average pace 9:08)

Saturday 12/28: 6 easy miles in New York with strides at the end, core work

(all the “easy” miles were run at about a 9:15 pace)

Total Miles: 45

I felt pretty good throughout the week, but yesterday my low back/piriformis started acting up a little bit. I’m trying to not get too worried, but might need to back off bit until it settles down.

Did anyone else start training for a spring race?

What is one goal you have for 2014?

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Previous Post: « {Mostly Running} Highlights of 2013
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. txa1265 says

    January 1, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    I love the list, and hope you put actions behind those. For example, paying off student loans we came to a time when one of our cars was paid off and we continued pulling that same amount each month and applying to the loans. (of course the sad reality is that one year of college now costs considerably more than my entire undergrad degree and graduate coursework).

    I haven’t signed up for anything yet and so I am just working to stay ‘half-marathon ready’, and that is working out great so far. 🙂

    Good luck with all of your goals!

    • runningoutofwine says

      January 1, 2014 at 11:57 pm

      Loans can be a real pain, and with looking to buy a house at some point soon it would be nice to get the loan paid off as soon as possible.
      Thanks for your support!

  2. fitfor365 says

    January 1, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    Good luck with your goals.

    • runningoutofwine says

      January 1, 2014 at 11:58 pm

      Thank you!

  3. Sarah @ Sweet Miles says

    January 3, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    I feel you on the more money toward student loan thing! Ugh! You can totally get that 3:50 marathon! Go go go!!

    • runningoutofwine says

      January 3, 2014 at 6:25 pm

      Thanks for your support!

  4. missadventuresinrunning says

    January 3, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    I am training for a half marathon in April. My goal is to run it in under 2 hours!

    • runningoutofwine says

      January 3, 2014 at 9:20 pm

      That’s an awesome goal! I know you can do it:)

  5. Megan (The Lyons' Share) says

    January 4, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    I love your goals!! And I’m so glad your comment about the marathon made me look into your times – ours are so similar! My marathon PR is also 4:05, and I’ve done 4 marathons. It’s something that I KNOW I “should” be able to beat easily based on my other times (my half marathon PR is 1:39), but I just don’t think I’ve got the marathon beast mastered yet. So … I keep wavering between goals for my next marathon (March 1st) … do I just go for what I think I “should” be able to do (3:40?) and then risk crashing and burning and winding up unsatisfied again? Or do I stay consistent and just try to beat 4 hours, so at least I can say I did it? I’m leaning towards the latter, but we’ll see!

    • runningoutofwine says

      January 5, 2014 at 8:12 pm

      I have exactly the same thought process about it! The marathon sure is a different type of race compared to shorter ones. I am hoping that by following a specific training plan aimed at hitting 3:50 I will be prepared. But anything can happen on race day! Good luck with your training!

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Yesterday’s long run was not what I wanted it to Yesterday’s long run was not what I wanted it to be. The plan was to take the day off from work, head to the trail where I could run 10 uninterrupted miles at MP (16 total) and practice my race day fueling while wearing my race day shoes.

What actually happened? All week I was stressed about this run and the condition of the trail. We had lots of rain on Thursday, and Friday was forecasted to be very windy. I tried to get in the best mindset possible, reminding myself that I won’t be able to control the conditions on race day. Meanwhile, I haven’t been sleeping well thanks to my 2 year old waking up every night, and my watch has been basically telling me that I’m losing all my fitness and need a week of recovery.

While I started the run feeling pretty good, after 11 miles (7 at MP) my stomach turned and I almost got sick on the side of the trail. I just couldn’t recover from that. The best I could do was run the rest of the miles easy, and needed some walk breaks. On top of that, my shoe kept rubbing my foot on top and I stopped twice to retie it. This has never happened before and now I’m questioning what shoes I should wear for the race. The trail was also in rough condition with several trees blocking it, lots of wet leaves, and rocks/sticks that I had to look out for.

I just can’t believe how bad I felt for the last 5 miles of this run and I can’t pinpoint the cause. Am I overdoing it with the fueling and can’t handle it on harder effort runs? Was it something I ate recently? The hard part is there’s no time to really try something different before the race, as all I have left is a 10 mile easy run next weekend.

I’m trying to remember that one bad run does not take away from all the good runs this training cycle. I’m using today to reset and move on so I can make the most of my last 2 weeks of training. It’s not the way I wanted my last big long run to go, but I suppose it was good practice for pushing through even when I felt pretty awful.

Who else has had a terrible long run close to your race?

#running #marathontraining #longrun
Spent almost every step of this 21 mile run questi Spent almost every step of this 21 mile run questioning my life choices. Like waking up at 3am to run 12 miles on the treadmill and 9 outside. This was a crazy week with a kid that wasn’t sleeping great and fighting a cold and super busy days at work. My legs were just tired the whole time today. It was really hard to run outside after so many treadmill miles and my pace was much slower than inside.

I reminded myself that this is peak week. It’s supposed to feel hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. I ran 53 miles this week and am not injured. The weather is perfect. I’ve gotten in every planned run of this training cycle so far.  I get to do this. 

And I managed to finish strong with my last 3 miles the fastest of the (outside) run. I owe that to a solid fueling plan and taking all my gels even when I really didn’t want to.

3 weeks to go until race day!

#running #marathontraining #longrun
Yesterday’s long run was followed immediately by Yesterday’s long run was followed immediately by back to back kid activities, so there was no time to post about it. (I ate breakfast in the car and lunch at soccer practice- it was that kind of a day.) I was kind of nervous going in to this run, especially now that I’m getting down to last few key long runs. I had 16 miles with 4 x 2 miles on the plan, which sounded manageable but also challenging. The weather was perfect and I hit all my paces. At the end I got a little confused- thinking I was at 15 miles but I was actually at 14 🙃 Got home and realized I chafed really bad. Another long run down, and another week closer to race day.

Do you ever psych yourself out before long runs?

#running #marathontraining #longrun
1 month to go! Who else is just trying to survive 1 month to go! Who else is just trying to survive the peak weeks of marathon training? #running #marathontraining
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