2014 Recap

This year flew by! It seems like I just wrote my 2014 goals a few weeks ago. Running wise I had a good year. Lets start off the new year by looking back at recap of my 2014 running year.

2014 Races

May 9-10: Cape Cod Ragnar 

I had a blast doing my first Ragnar with people I did not really know. The hills of Cape Cod were a killer. I did not know what to expect, but it is a tough, challenging and fun experience.

May 31:The Original 5K

My first 5K ever! Usually this is were a lot of people start, but I ended up going a different route. I did not know what to expect, but I wanted to run a good race. The gun went off and I ran as hard as I could and it felt really hard. I guess I did not expect a 5K to be difficult. It ended up being a good race and gave me the confidence fr the rest of the running season.

June 6-7: Chicago Ragnar 

This ended up being a challenging Ragnar for a few different reasons. The first reason it ended up being difficult is the heat. We were not prepared for it to be as hot it got and the first few legs were rough for all of us. The second reason it ended up being challenging is because I had a wedding to attend on Saturday afternoon! I am thankful the group ended up working with me to get me to that wedding on time so i could enjoy it;even if I were extremely tired.

Chicago Marathon

This is by far the race of the year for me. I changed my training program and went with the Hansons Marathon Method. The plan gave me a lot of confidence and despite my longest run being 16 miles, I felt extremely prepared for the race. Race day confirmed everything I thought and I felt great. I loved the program so much that I even convinced a few of my other friends doing marathons to use it. Not hitting the wall is a great feeling in a marathon. I am looking forward to my next challenge.

Thanksgiving Day: Evanston Flying Turkey 5K

Another 5K! I did this with a few of the students that I help coach at the high school I work for. This is definitely the coldest race I have ever done. Despite having a great running year up until this point, I had not really trained for anything since finishing the marathon. This is another race where I just ended up running as fast as I could and seeing how it goes;it went well! Things seemed like they would go wrong because my shoelaces came untied within the first few minutes of the race and I got really annoyed, but I had to keep moving. The race ended up with me finishing third in my age group.

2014 goals

Beating my race times from 2013

I accomplished this with my marathon this year.

2013-3:47:40
2013-3:15:12

Now I have a 5K PR-19:54

I did not do a half-marathon or 10-miler,so I will try to beat those times in 2015.

Run with others more often

My running community and friends definitely grew. I ran with others more, but this is something that could definitely improve. I did most of marathon training solo, but when I got a chance to run with others, it felt good.

Stay healthy 

This happened for the most part! When I say for the most part, I mean that nothing seriously went wrong that forced me to take time off.

More races

This kind of ended up happening with adding the Ragnar's and 5K's to my race calendar in 2014. This is also due how things are going financially and sometimes I could not justify paying for races when other things needed to be taken care of.

Read more blogs

I still need to be better about this. There is a lot to learn from others runners.

2014 total mileage: 1886

Mid-year Review

It is hard to imagine, but we are halfway through the year already. Somehow, despite that rough winter, time did not slow down.  I thought it would be fun to take a quick look at some of my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Here we go:

Run more races/beat my goal times from last year

This is a tough one because it all depends on how I am doing financially. I have lucky enough to participate in two Ragnars (Cape Cod and Chicago) and run the Original 5K. Hopefully things are good for me and I will be able to run the B1G 10k and Rock 'N' Roll Chicago. The B1G 10k looks like a fun race and RNR is one of my favorite half-marathons because of the course and the after party. Training plans also make it difficult to run races. I am keeping my eye on the prize; the Chicago Marathon in October.

The goal times coincides with having money to do races. Rock 'N' Roll and the Chicago Marathon are the only races that I have a chance to beat. Maybe there will be some new races on the calendar for me where I can set new goals to bet.

Run with people more

I would say this goal has been accomplished. The majority of my runs have been solo, but more than once, I have had friends accompany on a long run or a speed workout. It also helped that I worked out a lot with the track team that I helped coach. Running with others mixes things up and keeps you motivated. It also challenges you in ways that makes reaching your goals attainable. This is something that will I keep pursuing.

Staying healthy

So far, so good on this end. There have been minor issues, but nothing that has kept me out of training. Stretching, recovery runs and my addaday stick have been my best friends so far. I set a goal of running at least 1,000 miles and it looks like that will happen easily. Currently, I am at 740 miles! Marathon training will get me over that easily. I will keep doing the things necessary to get to 1,000 and above.

Sidenote: I forgot the six weeks I had to take off after the marathon with a bruised kneecap. My knee connected with something at work and walking hurt for eight weeks; it hurt to straighten my knee out! Thankfully, that is the worst thing that has happened to me so far.

Read more blogs

I am working on this! I am thankful that I can connect with others through outlets like #bibchat and #runchat. It is always fun to hear from others and hear how their training is going.

How are your goals looking so far?