2020 Hindsight

Despite most races being canceled, I had a decent running life in 2020. In fact, I've logged 2,855 miles this year, which is 160 more than last year, making it my highest mileage year ever. And there are still four more days left to add some mileage! Below is a graph of my mileage starting in 2012. I'm not sure if I will ever have a year of higher mileage than this year, so this could be a lifetime PR. Part of the reason I was able to log all of these miles was lack of recovery from live marathons, lack of illness, and lack of injury.

Longest run streak
Along with my highest mileage year ever came my longest streak ever: 181 days. From January 14 to July 12 I ran every day, totaling 1,461 miles! The streak started after taking time off from Posterior Tibialis

Tendonitis in January, and ended when I felt run down from the heat and humidity in mid July. I will likely never again have such a long streak because I would typically not go for 6 months without running and recovering from a marathon, necessitating time off. 

If you decide to start a streak, the most important thing to remember is that you control when the streak ends and not vice versa. In other words, the streak will have to end at some point and you want to have it end because you choose to end it, and not because you are forced to end it due to injury or illness. 

I had another long streak between July 17 and November 6: 112 days. This streak ended when I took a rest day two days prior to the Harrisburg marathon. The combination of these two streaks (181 days and 112 days) helped me reach that high yearly mileage total. 

Highest mileage week
My coach challenged me to run a 90-mile week in April. This included the virtual Boston Marathon on April 20, which I ran at my easy pace. I was able to log 7 miles the next day and continue on with about 10 miles a day for the rest of it, including a 19-miler. 

Because I have been working from home since March, I have had more time to devote to running and recovering from my runs. Not having a commute and not having to do my makeup has been a big time saver. I'll admit that I am now spoiled and once I return to the office, it will take me a while to get back into that rigid schedule. 

Virtual races
I'm not a huge fan of virtual races, but when real races simply don't exist, virtual races are better than nothing. I also thought it was important to support our local running store by registering for a few of these. 

• Cherry Blossom 10-Miler: 1:09:46.  Since the race was canceled and I was already trained, I figured I would get credit for it and appear in the results by running a virtual race with Greg.
• Boston Marathon: 3:40:02. I ran this race on April 20, which was the originally scheduled date of the Boston Marathon. Their official virtual race took place in September, but they allowed me to use

  

  Virtual Boston Marathon

  my April race. I was thankful to receive the medal and the shirt!
• Mother's Day 4-Miler: 26:27. Greg and I raced this one for the primary purpose of supporting Potomac River Running, our local running store. Plus, when races started getting canceled in March, we all thought that by May things would be back to normal! So in my mind I had planned on running this race as a real race.
• Indianapolis Monumental Mile: 5:58. I ran this one on a track. I had actually run a faster mile in 5:52 two weeks before, but on the morning of the virtual race I felt a little stale and the weather was warmer (it was late June)
• Firecracker 5K: 20:19. No race report for this one. This is the fastest 5K I've ever run in the summer so I was thrilled with that. We lucked out with lower-than-normal humidity for July 4th and because it was a virtual race, we were able to start it an hour earlier than the live race would have started. It wouldn't have felt like July 4th without a race, so we did it!

I also was a virtual finisher of the Lucky Leprechaun 5K (tempo run) and the Run with Stride virtual 5K (tempo run). The virtual races were an interesting experiment, but I hope to never run one again. 

New PRs
Do you count a virtual PR as a PR? I think so! After all, the "P" stands for personal. Also, if the answer to that question is "no," then what motivation do you have when running a virtual race? If you don't consider the result to be legit, it will be hard to motivate yourself to push hard. Repeating "it matters, it matters, it matters" over and over again helped me get through all of my virtual races. That said, I make a mental note of whether or not my PR was run in a live race or a virtual race. In my Race History, I have all the virtual races in italics. 

• 1-Mile PR of 5:52 (time trial) and 5:57 (live race)
• 4-Mile PR of 26:27 at the Virtual Mother's Day 4-miler
  
• 10K PR of 41:33 at the live Christmas Caper 10K
• 10 Mile PR of 1:09:46 at the Virtual Cherry Blossom (although I have run faster 10-milers in live half marathons, so this one is tricky).

That's a good amount of PRs in a year where most races were canceled and I'm 42 years old, either at my peak or approaching my peak.

Loudon Street Mile in July

Real, live races
I did manage to run two live half marathons this year and a live full marathon. The first live half marathon was before all of this started, the first weekend of March. The other was in October in Hanover, PA. That one didn't go so well because of the hill profile, but it was still nice to be in a live race setting. 

I ran the live Harrisburg Marathon in November. Just two weeks later, the state introduced new restrictions which would have made the race a no-go. I am so relieved I had the opportunity to run it, even though digestive issues made the race a slow slog.

An of course, setting a PR at the live Christmas Caper 10K earlier this month was a huge mental boost. Especially at a distance that I had struggled with since 2017.

Predictions for 2021
Of course we all expected things would be back to normal in 2021, right? Not happening. There's no clearly defined goal post for a "return to normalcy" as we know it, which to me means that things will not return to normal within the next year, two years, three years, or maybe ever. I know that sounds pessimistic, but once you set a precedent of closing businesses, canceling events, closing schools for the sake of public safety, then it suddenly becomes acceptable to close/cancel them again.

I don't think large marathons like Boston, New York, or Chicago will occur in 2021. If they return in 2022, I imagine they will be different from how we know them. 

Thinking about the timeline of things, here is what we all thought would get us back to normal:

• Flattening the curve (March-April)
• Slowing the spread (May-June)
• Vaccines become available (July-October)
• Everyone is vaccinated (November - ?)
• Everyone is vaccinated from all mutations and new strains (future)

While my outlook for things in general may seem bleak (and I hope I'm wrong), I mainly just focus on what I can control and I do believe that I can have an active running and racing life in 2021, just like I did in 2020. It will mean spending more time doing research, having less flexibility over when I race, running on courses that might not be ideal (gravel, etc), and having a plan B, C, D, E and F. 

We do hope to go to Africa for our postponed safari in August. Right now I am 50/50 on whether or not that will happen. 

Final Thoughts
This year has been stressful for all of us, but I was fortunate to have a stable job that allowed me to work from home, and so was Greg. I didn't get sick at all this year -- no mono -- which is always a win for me. Thankfully I don't have children to worry about and never have we been more confident in our decision to not have children. Running has helped me keep my sanity and if it weren't for my running I don't think I would be in as good of a spot mentally. It has provided me structure, routine, purpose, and excitement. 

Happy new year to all my blog readers. 

2019 Year In Review

2019 was a good year for me. Any year without illness or (major) injury is a good year, although I do still experience symptoms of my bike accident. It would have been nice to run a marathon PR, but race day weather wasn't in my favor, and I know the training I did will be a strong foundation for future cycles. Running healthy and strong is my first priority and I did that!

15 Races, 129 Race Miles
This is a typical number for me in a healthy year, particularly because I tend to run a lot of 5Ks in the summer. Here's the breakdown:

• 7 x 5K: New Year's, Semper Fi, Firecracker, Leesburg, Great American, Dulles Runway, Turkey Trot
• 3 x 10K: Pancake Run, Pike's Peek, Fall Classic
• 1 x 10-mile: Cherry Blossom
• 2 x Half marathon: Columbus, Indy Monumental
• 2 x Marathon: Sugarloaf, CIM

I should also mention my DNF at the Shamrock marathon. I got over that pretty quickly and moved on.

3.5 Personal Records

• I set a PR in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler by 30 seconds, in 1:09:54. This was my first sub-70 so it was a big deal. 
• Later in the year, I set a PR in the Columbus half by 29 seconds in 1:31:55.
• Just 3 weeks later, I set another half marathon PR at Indy Monumental in 1:30:58. My half marathon PR pace is now faster than my 10-miler PR pace, so I un-officially set a PR there too.
• The 0.5 of a PR is the official/unofficial debate from my Turkey Trot 5K. My chip time of 19:55 was a PR by 3 seconds, but they removed it from the results and used my gun time of 20:00 as the official time. My takeaway was that I got myself in the 5K PR shape while marathon training, which is awesome!

2,695 Miles logged

I set a new record for most miles ever logged in one year! I took 28 days off total, and my longest streak was 122 days in a row.

My highest weekly mileage was 81 when I was training for Shamrock. I ran 37 track workouts and 14 runs that were 16 miles or longer (not including the marathons).

Looking at the yearly mileage graph, I'm happy to see that at the age of 41, my body is allowing me to do more training than ever. Not shown on this graph is the strength training I did. I followed a program from June to October, stopping once my mileage became really high and intense.

In terms of weather, my coldest run was 10 degrees Fahrenheit, when I drove into Arlington to find a non-icy surface. I bought a treadmill later in the year, so I might never run in 10 degrees again! I avoided the heat as much as possible, and my hottest run was 73 degrees-- the Leesburg 5K. The Sugarloaf Marathon wins the prize for the rainiest, with rain pouring down in what felt like buckets for the last 10 miles.

12 U.S. States and 6 Countries
I also set a record this year for the number of places I've visited and run in. I was able to combine two of my business trips with races!

States:

• Virginia (hometown)

  

  Oslo, Norway

• Arizona (business trip + race)
• Maryland (race)
• New York (mini-vacation)
• Washington DC (2 races)
• Maine (race)
• Texas (business trip)
• Massachusetts (business trip)
• Ohio (race)
• Indiana (business trip + race)
• Rhode Island (business trip)
• California (race)

Countries:

• The USA
• Mexico
• Denmark
• Germany
• Sweden
• Norway

New Running Gear

I acquired a lot of new running gear and tools this year that have really helped with my training.

• Garmin Forerunner 245 (after trying the 45 but not finding it precise enough)
• NordicTrack Treadmill
• RapidReboot recovery boots (Thank you, RapidReboot)
• Aftershokz headphones (Thank you, Aftershokz)
• Nike Vaporfly Next %, x 2 pairs!
• Lots of clothing from Tracksmith and rabbit

My Book

Finally, my book, Boston Bound, is still going strong. This year it sold about 500 copies, which is amazing for being its 3rd year in print, and I didn't do much to promote it.

Previous Years in Review

• 2018
• 2017 (which is actually a review of the past 10 years)
• 2015 (the year I got a lot faster)
• 2014
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010

I'm running a New Year's Day 5K tomorrow, and I'm excited to see how it goes. Happy New Year to all my blog readers!

2018 Lows & Lessons

This year was a mixed bag in terms of running. It started out well with a half marathon PR in Houston and my strongest-ever training cycle leading up to Boston. Boston went as well as could be expected given the high winds and heavy downpours, and I was happy with my performance. Then, I was sick for a good portion of the summer and unable to run. I was very cautious about returning to

running, and ultimately was able to resume normal training by mid-August.

My first few races back were flops (a ten-miler and a half marathon), and then I bonked my first long run in over four years! This put me in a little bit of a mental rut. I turned 40 in November, which meant entering the Master's division for most races. Then, things quickly turned around for me when I broke 20 minutes in the 5K, and then set a 6-minute marathon PR in 3:15. So the year started and finished on high notes, with some struggles in the middle.

That's the Cliff's Notes version. In my Instagram story, I posted the best 5 and the worst 5 running moments of the year, and I received quite a few messages from people telling me how much they appreciated me talking about the worst moments.

Often on social media, we tend to sugarcoat things and only post about positive experiences. So I decided to focus my year-end blog post on three "lows" and what I learned from them, and how they made the "highs" so much more rewarding.

March 4th: The Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon
Original race report is here.
In this race, I was hoping to set a new half marathon PR. I knew I was in better shape than I had been six weeks prior when I set my Houston PR, and I thought I would be able to shave about a minute off of that time. After the first three miles, though, I realized that the heat and lack of cloud cover was going to foil my plans, so I purposely slowed down. After another couple of miles, the slow down was no longer by choice-- I was bonking. Despite that, I was able to hold a respectable pace in the 7:30's.

This race confirmed, for the ump-teeth time, that my body doesn't tolerate heat. It was only 60 degrees, which most runners found to be pleasant, but without any acclimation or cloud cover, I was baking. When I ran the Rehoboth Beach marathon in December, I ran both the first half AND the second half in almost the exact same time as this New Orleans race. So even though I was bummed in March, it made my marathon achievement in December all the more sweeter-- knowing that I ran that I ran two of those 1:37:40's!

April 8th: The Crystal City 5K Friday
Original race report is here.
I was just finishing off the strongest training cycle ever, having run 320 miles in the month of March, 7 days a week, averaging 72 miles a week. This included VO2 max work each week, so I felt like had

both endurance and speed. The weather for this race was not ideal (a little windy and warm) but since it was a short distance and I was in such great shape, I thought I could PR. That didn't happen. I bonked, feeling like crap during the final mile, and ran a disappointing 20:47, which was 30 seconds slower than my PR at the time.

I was down on myself but my friend Allison (who is always able to offer me a new perspective) suggested that running a Friday night race after a long, stressful day at work wasn't the ideal circumstance to PR. Some of my Instagram followers pointed out that it's unlikely to PR a 5K during marathon training, but I disagreed with that. I still maintained it was possible to PR a 5K during high-mileage training if you had been working on speed.

About six months later, I not only PR'ed the 5K, but broke 20 for the first time during marathon training. In fact, When I ran the Crystal City race, I was about 16 days out from Boston. When I ran the Turkey Trot in November, I was 16 days out from Rehoboth. I was at the exact same point in my training for both races. I learned that Allison's theory of a weekday night race not being ideal was spot-on, and that it was possible to PR a 5K in the midst of high-mileage training.

November 16th: A long run failure
Original blog post is here.
This run hurt. It was meant to be 22 miles, starting at a pace of around 8:00 and progressing to 7:35 by the end. The snow we had gotten the day before screwed up my original route plan, and resulted in a much later start than anticipated, throwing off my fueling plan. To top it off, it was a very windy day.

I could tell by mile 11 that I wouldn't be able to keep up my pace for the remainder of the run. I felt

like I was exerting way too much effort for the paces I was running. I slowed down a lot in the 16th mile, and ran a very tortured 17th mile, culminating in me stopping completely. I walked a mile, and then did a very slow jog for another mile to get home. My legs were wrecked, and the next day I ran my slowest recovery run in years because my legs were in such a bad state.

The previous weekend, I had missed my goal at the Richmond half marathon. And four weeks prior, I had been way off of my goal at the Lower Potomac 10-miler. So, mentally I was feeling a little defeated. I did trust that I was putting in the work and that I still had a shot at a great marathon, but I didn't have any training runs to support that belief. Furthermore, the fact that this training cycle got a late start meant that I didn't have a lot of long runs under my belt. In fact, only an 18 miler and a 20 miler up until that point. And the race was three weeks away!

I learned a lot from this experience. First, bonking a long run doesn't equate to having a bad marathon. Although it certainly made me respect the distance and the effort level. Second, you don't need a lot of long runs if you are consistently running high mileage. I only had 3 runs over 15 miles leading up to Rehoboth Beach: 18, 20, 22.

I also learned that the treadmill is not my friend. The day before that long run, I had done my easy run on a treadmill. And even though I kept it to a pace of around 8:50, my legs started feeling sore and achy about halfway through it. I had run a very hard workout the day before, so instead of giving my legs the chance to recover, I beat them up even further on the treadmill, and then proceeded to tackle 22 miles the following day.

Other low moments and final stats
Getting sick over the summer with my mono-like virus was obviously a huge low. Thankfully (or not) I had come down with this summer illness multiple times in the past and I knew the quickest way to recover was to simply do nothing for a few weeks. No running, no walking, no going to work, no leaving the house. With this approach, I was able to go back to work after 4 weeks and I was able to resume normal running after 6 weeks. This is short compared to the 3 months I spent sick in 2012 and 2016.

My total yearly mileage as of today is 2,350. This is my second highest-mileage year ever, and it includes six weeks off due to illness. Last year I ran just over 2,500 miles.

Here are my weekly and monthly graphs for the year:

Weekly Mileage

Monthly Mileage 2018

Happy new year and thank you to my blog readers!

19,000 miles in 10 Years

On January 1, 2008, I started an online training log at RunningAhead. Every day for ten years I have religiously logged my mileage, pace, route, and shoe. I have loads of data, and for a data junkie like me, this means I get to crank out some fun stats. As for my sentimental side, I get to reflect back on ten years of running and racing.

I've logged exactly 18,997 total miles in my training log as of today, which means I will be just over 19,000 come December 31. This has taken me 2,845 hours with an average pace of 9:00. That is 118.5 days of nonstop running!

Here are the averages from this 10-year period:

• 1,900 miles a year
• 36.5 miles a week
• 5.2 miles a day

This chart tells the story:

In 2011, I was injured twice, but I also logged many miles in the pool (not shown here) just to be on the safe side. My slump in 2016 was due to having mono, and I also had mono in 2012.

Over the past ten years, my PRs have dropped as follows:

• 5K from 23:22 to 20:17
• 10K from 48:54 to 41:51
• Half marathon from 1:50:43 to 1:33:36 (hoping to make that 1:30:43 next month)
• Marathon from 3:51:49 to 3:21:54

Some people can make this kind of progress in five years, but I plateaued from 2011-2014. Also, I started racing in 2005, so these are not my slowest times. 

Shoes

107 pairs of shoes! All of which have at least 100 miles on them. My shoe that got the highest mileage before retirement was the Nike Air Structure Triax +12. And that mileage was 247! I typically retire my shoes at around 180 miles, because that's when I start to feel them break down and my legs begin to hurt.

• 39 Pairs of Brooks Adrenaline
• 27 Pairs of Nike Lunarglide
• 16 Pairs of Mizuno Wave Elixir
• 15 Pairs of Mizuno Wave Inspire
• 8 Pairs of Nike Air Structure Triax
• 5 Pairs of Mizuno Wave Sayonara

Long Runs

I've completed 43 runs that were 20+ miles in length (but not actual marathons).

• Slowest: 21.5 miles at an average pace of 9:49 in September 2014
• Fastest: 20 miles at an average pace of 7:55 in February 2017
• Longest: 24 miles at an average pace of 8:47 in April 2016
• Hottest: 22 miles at an average pace of 9:05 in 76 degrees in August 2011
• Coldest: 20 miles at an average pace of 8:57 in 23 degrees in February 2015

My hottest run ever was the Potomac River Running Twilight Festival 4-Miler in June 2016, when it was 91 degrees. Shortly after this race, I came down with mono. My coldest run ever was a 6.3-mile training run in 9 degrees in February 2015. 

I thought it would be cool to include my favorite photos from each year:

2008: Shamrock Marathon. The look of joy and pain as I approach the finish line toward a new PR of 3:51:49.

2009: New Jersey Marathon. Running in a torrential downpour killed my spirit and my time, resulting in hypothermia.

2010: The GW Parkway Classic 10-miler. I ran this race as a training run, and I love how happy I look.

2011: The Run Geek Run! 8K. I surprised myself during this race running much faster than expected, and this photo makes me look tough.

2012: The Potomac River Marathon. I DNF'ed due to race anxiety, but I tried my best to be relaxed before I bonked.

2013: The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler. I was disappointed that I didn't run a PR at this race, but I definitely gave it 100%.

2014: Boo! Run for Life 10K. This was a huge PR for me shortly after starting to work with my new coach: 43:56. I was still wearing the singlet of my former team, however.

2015: The Richmond Half Marathon. I ran this race in 1:35:08, which was much a PR by over two minutes from the PR I had set just four weeks prior!

2016: The Boston Marathon. No explanation needed!

2017: Semper Fi 5K. A new PR of 20:17!

It's been an amazing ten years. Running has added so much to my life with all of its ups and downs, but mainly ups. Hopefully I will be healthy enough to generate another 10 year's worth of data discovery!

2016: The Year Lots of Stuff Happened

2016 was an interesting year for me. One the one hand, I accomplished a lot in terms of running, writing, and my career. I ran the Boston Marathon for the first time. I published a book. I started a new job. On the other hand, I encountered some major rough spots, both physically and emotionally. I guess if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "eventful." Rarely boring. Both exhilarating and exhausting.

Boston Bound
I published this book in May, just one month after running the marathon. It took me nine months to

write it, but over seven years to live it and blog about it. I wrote it because I believed I had a story

that was worth sharing with the running community, or anyone who struggled with perfectionism and anxiety. Although I am an extreme example of how one's own mind can be the biggest barrier to a person's success, I think that we've all played victim to our mindsets at some point or another. It's this universal struggle that (I think) has made the book so successful, as well as the fact that few books exist about everyday runners who aren't at the elite level. The most common feedback I receive is that people were able to relate to the book, and they appreciated its honesty.

Needless to say, I never expected that the book would have sold as many copies as it has. Depending on the day, it's usually ranked on Amazon as one of the top 20-30 best selling running books. I didn't have a sales target in mind when I wrote the book, I just put it out there and waited to see what would happen. I also used my marketing skills to make sure the book received as much exposure as possible. I built up my social media presence, I formed relationships with high-visibility publications, and I even ran some advertisements on Facebook.

The experience of publishing a book and connecting with so many people who've read the book has been truly remarkable. I honestly would have been happy to have just one person read it and say that it helped them, but the impact has been much greater.

Career
I don't write too much about my career on this blog, but I do write quite a few articles on the topic of marketing. The Publications tab on this blog has a list of all of them. I was thankful to have the opportunity to write for some very prominent marketing publications this year, and one of my articles has thousands of shares on LinkedIn.

I changed jobs this year. Although I enjoyed what I did at my previous company, I never felt like I fit in there. The culture just wasn't for me. I frankly wasn't treated very well when I came down with mono, and I was accused of taking advantage of the situation by working from home too much. My skills weren't being maximized and I wasn't able to contribute to my full potential. I'm much happier in my new role, and I believe I've already made a notable impact in less than four months. I'm a marketing vice president for a large software company, and I'm charged with managing the marketing programs that drive revenue for the company. I really enjoy the work atmosphere, and I find myself smiling and laughing a lot while I'm there.

I actually used to work for this company 17 years ago. It was my first job out of college and I was a marketing communications associate, tasked with writing the marketing and PR materials. I was laid off after just three months, however, when the company went through a rough patch financially. I've always been interested in returning.

And of course, running
My running year is best summed up by looking at the 4 quarters.

Shamrock half marathon, March 2016

First quarter: I ran the highest mileage of my life (60-70 miles per week) in preparation for Boston. I also set a massive PR in the half marathon in treacherous conditions.

Second quarter: I ran Boston and then published my book. The majority of my focus in May and June was promoting the book.

Third quarter: I was sick from July 1- September 20 with mono, or some mono-like virus. I made a few attempts to run, but they just set me back even further.

Fourth quarter: I made a huge comeback from mono by gradually adding distance and speed to my runs. And now I'm now stronger than ever!

Because I'm a data junkie, here are the numbers and graphs from 2016.

• My total mileage was 1,793. If you remove the three months I didn't run, this averages out to 199 miles per month.

• I ran 10 races. This includes one marathon (Boston), one half marathon (Shamrock), one 10K, two 4-milers, and five 5Ks.

• I won 8 awards. 4 of these were first place age group, 3 of these were second place age group, and 1 of these was 3rd overall female

• I set 3 PRs.  Half marathon: 1:33:36, 10K: 42:09, 5K: 20:50. I set an unofficial 10-mile PR during the half marathon and an unofficial 5K PR during the 10k.

Monthly Mileage

It's great to see that I'm building back to the level I used to train at. Running high mileage is a skill and unless you build up to it over years, then you're likely to get injured. I'm extremely fortunate that I haven't had any running injuries in the past three years. My last injury was in 2013 when I had a stress reaction in my shin. Below is a snapshot of my mileage for the past 8 years, since I started tracking it:

I was also sick with mono in 2012 for the same amount of time, but my mileage before and after was much higher this year than it was back then. 2010, 2014, and 2015 were the years when I was both illness and injury free.

Reflections
I think my biggest takeaway from 2016 is that balance is really important. I was trying to do too much all at once, and it resulted in me getting sick. I've learned that I need to prioritize taking care of my health and I need to keep perspective on things. Worrying and obsessing over things never helps; it actually makes things worse. I used think that I needed to stress over things to ensure they went the way I wanted them to go. I was wrong. I'll have a better shot at having things go my way if I lose the stress and the worry. I won't be a victim of self-fulfilling prophecies. I'll be more rested and more confident. And that will manifest itself in everything I do.

Finally, I'll end this blog with some of my favorite photos from the year.

Realizing that I crushed my PR at the Shamrock half marathon

Meeting my coach in person for the first time, as well as Greg McMillan himself

Finish line of the Boston Marathon

Running with the love of my life

Launching my book

Being treated like a princess while sick

Pacing a new friend in a half marathon instead of being upset that I wasn't in shape to race

First race post-mono, beating my goal by a full minute

Setting a huge PR in the 10K

Making new friendships with Rochelle (pictured), Lisa and Hannah

That orange shirt has seen me through a lot of good times. I just realized that I'm wearing it in half of the photos!

Happy New Year to all my blog readers. Go out and crush it in 2017!

2014 Year in Review

This morning, my "TimeHop" app showed me the blog I wrote 4 years ago, which was a recap of my 2010 year of running. I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of 2010 to 2014, and write the blog in the same style.

Here is the 2010 year-in-review blog.

Yearly Mileage: 2134

In 2014, I ran a total of 2134 miles. This is 422 more miles than in 2013, when I ran 1712 miles. This is primarily due to the fact that I was injured in 2013, and I was not injured in 2014. 

In 2010, I ran 2136 miles, so I missed setting a yearly mileage PR by two miles. I was aware of this, but decided to stick to my training plan, and not "find" an extra two miles in the last week.

In 2010, 580 miles were on a treadmill and the rest were outdoors (thanks to the blizzard of 2010) 

In 2014, 149 miles were on a treadmill and the rest were outdoors.

2014 Weekly mileage

My highest mileage month was August with 229 miles. My lowest mileage month was May with just 80 miles, due to marathon recovery and hoping to finally rid myself of a nagging hamstring issue.

I started working with a new coach in July, and he's helped me increase my mileage without getting injured. In the past, I never knew exactly how to spread the miles throughout the week for maximum benefit with minimal injury risk. But with my customized plan, everything has felt challenging, but not to the point of over training.

My yearly mileage is on the upswing, a trend I love to see:

Yearly mileage

Races

Thanks to staying injury-free, I was able to do a good number of races this year. Four of these races were PRs (in bold).

• February: George Washington Birthday 10K in 45:44
• March: Shamrock half marathon in 1:42:24
• April: Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 1:15:25
• April: Crystal Run 5K Friday in 22:11
• May: Mississauga Marathon in 3:43:44
• July: Firecracker 5K in 22:54
• September: RnR Philadelphia 1/2 Marathon in 1:47:14 (major heat bonk)
• October: Boo! Run for Life 10K in 44:13
• October: Columbus Marathon in 3:40:00
• November: Virginia Run Turkey Trot 5K in 21:30
• December: Ringing In Hope 10K in 45:27

The turkey trot in November was just one second shy of my PR, and I am confident I would have PRed both my half marathons if the weather conditions hadn't been so unfavorable. 

My half marathon PR is now over 4 years old and I really think I can beat it by a significant amount if I get decent weather. 

Awards

I won 1st place in my age group at the Boo! Run for Life 10K, and 3rd place in my age group at both the Turkey Trot and the Ringing in Hope 10K.

Accomplishments

This year, I was really focused on upping my mental game-- both on the race course and off.  On the race course, this meant being mentally prepared for the hard times as well as conserving my mental energy for racing and not wasting it on things I can't control.

Off the course, this meant having a more positive attitude about my running, keeping it fun, and not defining myself by my running achievements.  Specifically, here were some major wins:

• Mental toughness during Cherry Blossom. I pushed extremely hard during that race after having felt like I didn't give it my all at the Shamrock half.
• Keeping positive during the hot, humid Philadelphia half marathon. I pushed hard and ran the fastest race I could given the circumstances. When I bonked and ended up with one of my slowest times ever, I didn't let that upset me and ruin the week-long vacation I had after that
• Stepping out of my comfort zone and working with a new coach. Having the confidence to approach new and challenging workouts, and valuing change for the sake of change.
• Qualifying for Boston. 2014 was the year I finally did it! And I wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't give it every ounce of power during those final few minutes.
• Being less focused on time. I've gone into every race with goals that were non-time based, and as a result, the time hasn't mattered as much to me as achieving these other goals.
• Staying injury free. Listening to my body and knowing when to back off or cut a workout short.

Pictures

Shamrock half marathon, running through a headwind

Cherry Blossom 10-miler

Crystal Run 5K Friday

Mississauga Marathon

Firecracker 5K

Boo! Run for Life 10K

Columbus Marathon BQ!

Virginia Run Turkey Trot 5K

Ringing In Hope 10K

My primary goals for 2015 are to run happy, healthy, and to continue to become a stronger running, both physically and mentally.

Random Facts Friday: 2011 Facts

To finish off 2011, here are some not-so-random Friday facts about the year.

1. I ran five 5Ks, two 8Ks, three 10Ks, three half marathons and one marathon.

Veteran's Day 10K

2. Per the above, I ran 14 races total.

3. Believe it or not, I swam exactly 26.2 miles this year, completely unintentionally. I just looked at my swim log, and boom! Right in front of me was the 26.2!

4. I spent 88 hours pool running this year.

5. The race performance I am most proud of this year is the Veteran's Day 10K with a time of 45:19. The 10K has historically been my hardest distance to run well and I finally did it.

6. I spent all of February and March recovering from 3 stress fractures in my tibiae.

7. My biggest lesson learned this year is that higher mileage doesn't necessarily equal faster running.

8. My top three running items purchased are my Saucony PE Revival shorts, my CW-X capris, and my CEP compression sleeves.

9. My worst race performance was ironically the race I trained the hardest for-- the Milwaukee Lakefront marathon.

10. I ran 70.7 tempo miles in 2011, which was 5.4% of my overall training mileage. I ran 43.8 tempo miles in 2010, which was 2.0% of my overall training mileage.

Alexandria Half Marathon

11. My average training pace this year was 8:49. Coincidentally my PR marathon pace from over three years ago is also 8:49.

12. The hottest race I ran was the Lawyers Have Heart 5K, which was supposed to be a 10K, but got downgraded on race morning due to the heat. A close second was the Alexandria Festival Half marathon.

13. In addition to my stress fractures, I also dealt with hip bursitis, early signs of peroneal tendonitis, and a calf strain.

14. I met a ton of cool people through running this year. And I started blogging more.

15. I won three age group awards: 1st AG at the Patriot's Cup 8K, 2nd AG at the Ringing In Hope 10K, 2nd AG at the Run Geek Run 8K.

16. I think I experienced my first-ever official "overtraining" after the Turkey Trot. I recently read a description of technical overtraining symptoms, and I had most of them. It took me nearly three weeks to get my energy back.

17. I do not have any running goals for 2012 other than to run smart and stay healthy.