As you may have noticed, I didn’t do a New Years Resolutions post as many did. It’s not that I’m against them, I just didn’t set any NEW goals that were different from what I already was focusing on.

My goals at the end of 2014 (so I guess you could say my resolutions for 2015) are:

• Increase speed – My performance at the Kiawah Marathon really motivated me to see how far I can go. I’ve been taking the last few weeks to slow down and do easy running, but the focus going into 2015 is begin working on continuing to get faster.
• Clean Up My Diet – I really didn’t pay attention to my diet much at all during marathon training. I didn’t want my mindset to go back to its old ways, so I pretty much did what I felt like when it came to eating during the training. My goal in 2015 is to begin cleaning back up my diet.
• Weight Lifting – During my marathon training I did some body weight exercises, but I was rarely in the gym lifting weights. My goal starting tomorrow is to be in the gym 3-4 times per week to lift weights. I will run in the morning and then go to the gym after work. I want to only spend about 20-30 minutes max (as thats about the only extra time I have in the afternoons). That means each day I need to go in with a plan.
• Race More – I don’t have any scheduled yet, but the goal right now is to race another marathon in the fall and put in some shorter races prior to that. More to come on that in a second!

My non-running related goals include:

• Go On A Vacation – The last couple years have been pretty crazy. Between moving and working a lot of hours, Wes and I haven’t really been on a vacation in several years. We are determined to go on a vacation this year.
• Finish Projects Around the House – When we first moved into our house I had all these good intentions of getting a bunch of things done, and very few of them atually ended up happening. I am determined to get these finished and get our house they way I want it in 2015.
• Growth In Our Relationship – Wes and I have been “go go go” since we moved to Virginia. Between his crazy hours, my full time job and my business it has been crazy. Most of the time when we do get time together we end up crashing on the couch with a movie. While I LOVE doing this, I really want to focus on finding more fun things to do together and really growing together as a couple. We may have limited time, but I want to make the most of it!

 

There you have it. All goals that have been on my list for the past couple months, but they are still important for me to focus on in 2015.

 

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what my next running goal will be. I know I want to continue to focus on speed, but we’ve decided it would be best for me to wait and run another marathon in the fall.

No, I haven’t decided what my goal will be for that marathon I want to wait and see where things are at. Once I see my progress I can set a realistic goal.

 

I have decided however that my focus for a spring race will be the half marathon. As you may remember, I ran a half marathon back in October during my marathon training to help judge where I was at that point.

Even though I had goals for the race, I actually did much better than I was expecting! I ended up running a 1:39 (the last half marathon I ran was in just under 2 hours) and some change.

I truly believe with the right training I could PR in the half marathon again.

During my fall half marathon, there were a couple things that weren’t normal about the race:

• Fuel – I didn’t really fuel properly for it. Don’t get me wrong, I made sure to eat what I needed to the night before but I treated it no differently than a long run.
• Tired Legs – I threw this race into a marathon training schedule which meant that I still did my workout and tempo run the week before. My legs were no where near as rested as they normally would be for race day.

With the right training and proper race day preperation I know I could run a PR in the spring.  I am currently aiming for around a 1:32. We will see how training goes to see if I will adjust it or not.
I haven’t yet decided on a training plan, but will be doing research on that in the coming weeks. I’ve just now slowly started back on a few mini-workouts to get my legs used to running quicker again.

 

I haven’t been doing my normal training recaps right now, so in case you are intersted here is what my week has looked like.

Monday – Off

Tuesday – 2 mile warm up, 8 x 400 (6:58) with 400 recovery, and 2 mile cool down

Wednesday – 7 miles easy

Thursday – 3 mile warm up, 20 minutes fast (7:37 average), and 3 mile cool down with strides

Friday – Off

Saturday – 10 mile run (mixed up paces to help the monotony of the treadmill)

Sunday – 8 miles

 

As you can see I took an extra rest day this week and I slowly am working back in smaller/shorter workouts to help ease back into some sort of training. Still a few weeks out from actually starting any training but I want to be ready when that day comes.

There you have it. My goals (both running and personal) as well as my next race goal for the spring. I’m really excited to see what 2015 has to bring! I want to continue to train, continue to learn and continue to improve!

 

What is one goal you have for 2015?

What is the next race you have scheduled?