The 1st Quarter Recap...

So much has happened so far in 2018! You probably could have guessed that based on my relatively scant blog posts for the past 3 months. It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, it's just that time has been so limited recently with lots of competing priorities. Anyway, it's the end of the first quarter so this is the perfect time to recap the last few months!

January started off with a big bang work-wise. I got a promotion (yay!) and took on a lot more work related duties. Running-wise I did 3 races (the Key West virtual half marathon, the Tropical 5K, and the Miami half marathon) and I started noticing the downward trend in my overall running pace (sigh). I did make it to my first "100 miles in a month" milestone though so that's something right?

February kept the same work momentum because we started off the month with one of our major events for the Trauma Program at the hospital where I work. The event actually started in January and continued through to Feb 2nd. I also travelled back home to spend some time with family and friends. February had 2 races, another virtual half and the A1A Ft. Lauderdale half, but I didn't make my 100 miles milestone for February (I only got to 75 miles). I'm blaming that on the fact that it was a shorter month (but the truth is I skipped a few runs).

March was a major travel month. The first trip was to Seattle and Portland for part vacation/part work. Seattle was the vacation segment with Marc... we went to visit some of his friends from college. Then we went down to Portland where I presented at the STN's Trauma Conference (it was amazing!). And, in case that wasn't enough travel, I went to Carmel, Indiana with my friend Niqui from work and we completed the Carmel Marathon Relay. I also ran the Miami Beach 1/2 at the beginning of the month, so I ended up with a total of 115 miles for March :)

So now that the first quarter of the year is over (so fast right?!), it's time to look forward to some of the major life stuff happening in quarter two:
1. Some big birthdays are happening - Kai; San & Me; Marc; my Mom)
2. The Pittsburgh Marathon will kick off month 2 of quarter 2!
3. College tours with Kai will be taking place throughout June!

Any major/exciting things happened so far this year?

What are you looking forward to in quarter 2?

When is your birthday? Do you do a big birthday celebration?

DNF...

At some point in our running careers most of us have had a DNF ("did not finish") for a run. Usually the acronym is reserved for not finishing a race, but for me I use it when I don't finish my designated mileage for my training runs as well. I've (fortunately) never had to DNF a race, but training runs... that's a completely different story.

Today was one of those DNF training run days. My legs felt like lead from the very beginning; and between not getting enough sleep last night and being mentally exhausted from a very long, equally frustrating work week, I just could not push myself to do more than 6 (of the planned 10) miles.

I've been trying different strategies to work on mental preparation for my runs and my races because 9 times out of 10 the problem is less of a physical limitation and more of a "I'm not confident that I can do this" limitation. Mental training is hard. Especially since I'm not one of those overly confident individuals to begin with. And when it comes to running I doubt myself a lot.

This morning there was an "awkward yeti" type battle between my various organ systems...
Brain: Can I get through 10 miles?
Legs: I'm tired
Heart: I want to go back to bed
Stomach: I'm hungry
Brain: Well...
Legs: I'm still tired
Heart: I'm really sleepy
Nose: *sniff*
Stomach: Is that fresh baked bread?
Nose: *sniff sniff*
Stomach: *grumbles*
Brain: Well...
Heart: If I was sleeping right now I would be so happy
Brain: Fiiine
Legs: No I think I can
Brain: Too late I'm done. Let's stop at 6 miles
All: YAY!!!!!!

So I stopped at 6 miles. I was running with Mimi who continued on to complete the remaining 4 miles (after we took a quick post-run pic)...

Considering I did a (virtual) half marathon last weekend and I have the Tropical 5K and Miami Half Marathon next weekend, I'm not upset that upset about my DNF training run today. I may do a few miles if others from my running group want to hit the road tomorrow morning. If not, I might just sleep, or swim, or sleep, or do some weight training, or sleep.

This week (so far) I've done two 4 milers and two 6 milers. The distance sets were almost identical...

I'm trying to focus on incremental measurable goals for each week so that I can track my improvement (and not get thrown off by any one run). This week, for example, the group increased our run:walk intervals to 90s:30s and my personal goal was to maintain a sub-12 mins/mile average pace for all my runs (mission accomplished). Next week the running duration won't increase, but the new pace goal will be sub-11:45mins/mile. Each week will have a new goal and I will continue to set new weekly goals once I have accomplished the goal of the current week.

I'm doing the same for cross training. My goal was to swim twice this week for a minimum of 30 minutes each session. I only got through one 30 min session (on Monday) so next week I will aim for the same 2 swim session goal 💪.

What are your plans for this weekend?

Any races planned for the rest of January?

Did you accomplish all your training goals this week?

Key West Virtual Half {"race" recap}

To kick off 2018's running calendar I decided to sign up for the Key West virtual Half Marathon...

Normally I wouldn't register for a race before the Miami Half Marathon race weekend (which is usually the weekend that starts my running calendar); but once I saw the medal I really had no choice but to register...

(The. Lighthouse. Lights. Up!)

I'm a real sucker for cool race medals. I won't even pretend to deny it. The first thing I think about when I'm considering registering for a race is "what does the medal look like?" Well actually, the first thing is probably do I get a medal? and then I determine if it's pretty enough to justify the race entry fee :)

Anyway, since my heart felt obligated to run for the lighthouse, I signed up for the virtual option and ran it this morning...

I ran with Jani for the first 6+ miles and then Mimi and I ran the last 7+ miles. During the first 6 Jani and I encountered a guy who was wearing less than ideal clothing for the 50 degree weather we were having and utilizing the sidewalk as his personal urinal. Not cool. We ran on the road to avoid having to run by him on the sidewalk (especially since he also appeared drunk/high on something). We also dealt with a pretty strong headwind for the first 3 miles, but other than that the first half of my virtual half was great.

When Jani and I got back to our cars, Mimi and I headed out for the second half of my half. We decided to add a change to our normal running route and included a highway overpass as part of an out and back section. Garmin claims that I started at high elevation for this run but I can guarantee you the route was pretty flat apart from those last two "hills" when we ran over the overpass and back...

Fortunately Mimi and I didn't encounter any unsavory characters on our route and we finished faster than I anticipated with a negative split (i.e. second half of the race was faster than the first half)...

Now I just have to patiently wait for my lighthouse medal to come in the mail! And start getting ready for the Tropical 5K and Miami Half Marathon coming up in two weeks!!!

Do you run virtual races?

What was your favorite virtual race (and why?)

What's your biggest motivator for registering for a race?