10,000 Steps a Day

I've been trying to keep my goal setting to a minimum. I've learned that until I can accept the goals I don't reach as an attempt and not a failure I need to keep the goals to obtainable ones.

Unfortunately/fortunately, one cannot change who they are overnight and goal setting is something that I do to push myself to do more and be better. 

I enjoy setting goals and I enjoy reaching goals. The thing I need help on is learning that it's okay to be proud of and to celebrate the goals I accomplish. 

Currently my goals are all fitness related and revolve around running and/or walking. 2014 is my year to reach 1250 miles in a year as well as to complete 14 half marathons. 2015 is my year to complete Tracy's Dose of Dopey (the Dopey Challenge, just in California and without the race experience, including cost). 2015 will also be my year to walk and/or run a total of 1702 miles, the distance from California to where my grandfather is buried in Missouri. Once this goal is achieved my mom and I will take a road trip to visit his gravesite as she has never seen his headstone in person. I may also be planning on focusing some time to increasing my intervals in 2015 in an attempt to break out of my comfort zone (and a PR may be attempted at some point for both my half and full times). 

The idea to walk 10,000 steps a day came about through a challenge at work. "Walktober" was our wellness departments idea to get people to be more active by either logging their steps or their minutes of activity per day. It involves teams and you earn leaves for each level of activity you do. 10,000 steps a day is the highest level you can reach, a gold leaf. 

That's where the goal began.. But it's not going to end there. I'm only 4 days into the month and really enjoying the extra push to get those steps in and I would like to continue to push myself past when the challenge ends. In fact, I would like to push myself to walk 10,000 steps a day for an entire year. 

Some days I may be under, some days I will go over. My hope is that when September 30th comes around I will have traveled a total of 3,650,000 steps. Seems crazy at this point, but it also seems kind of cool to go that many steps.

It helps to be in the middle of training and to have races signed up through June of next year. My 15 mile training run yesterday helped me go over 30,000 steps in one day. Not all days are going to be like that though, and it was a struggle the day before to get over 10,000, but I pushed myself to keep going to reach that goal and I reached it with 10,182 steps. 

For October I'm already at a total of 71,484 steps. It's pretty cool to see it add up and to see how far I can really go with this. 

I think goals are important in order to push yourself to do more. I also think there is no such thing as a goal that is too small or too big. As long as you are willing to put in the work to achieve it then there is nothing that can stop you.

So, tell me.. What are your goals? What are you working towards right now and how is it going? What do you need in order to obtain those goals?

Long Distance Training Run- 15.17 miles

This morning was my 15 mile scheduled training run. It's been awhile since I've gone over 13.1 miles, so I was a little nervous.

It worked out pretty well that my best friends training schedule had her going out for a 9 mile run today. We decided to run the 9 together and then I would go out for an additional 6 after. 

I am so grateful to have had a partner for those first 9 miles. It made the time go by faster and I feel like it's easier mentally to run with someone. Which made it difficult to leave her after our run and continue on for 6 more.

And the additional 6 included hills. Lots of hills. Painful hills. Hot, slow and tiring hills. 

I did that on purpose. I know that with my next race in a week including lots of hills that I would need to continue to train with them. Unfortunately, I didn't think about the weather, or think about how tired my legs and mind would already be before attempting to do more. 

I did well though. I walked more than I would have liked during those last 6 miles, but I'm not going to focus on that. I'm going to focus on the miles getting done. 

Doing hills on top of an already long distance is not something that I plan on doing again anytime soon. It was good to push myself and I was really proud after I finished. But I'm exhausted, and so glad that I'll only be doing a couple short 1-2 mile hill runs this week while tapering for the RAD 10 miler. 

I'm going to be honest.. It was 100% my choice to sign up for this race coming up next week, but I am getting really nervous about my ability to finish.. I checked last years finishing times and the time I guessed I would finish in showed two people coming in after that time. 

This week has been filled with race registrations as well. October 1st was the day registrations opened or the LA Marathon and this morning registration opened for the Mammoth Half. I am signed up and ready to go (well more so for the half than the full). 

I'm beginning to doubt myself and the distances I plan to run. I've done it before, but it's been awhile, so I just need to believe in myself (and train) and the rest will fall into place. 

I am just so beyond glad that I am out of my running rut and in a better mental place to work on and achieve these goals.

Race Schedule Update

As of 11/12/2014. (So much for slowing down next year!)

November: 

15th- Las Vegas 5K

16th- Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half

27th- Thanksgiving 5K

December:

14th- Santa to the Sea Half

28th- San Diego Holiday Half

January: 

8th- Tracy's Dose of Dopey 5K

9th- Tracy's Dose of Dopey 10K

10th- Tracy's Dose of Dopey Half

11th- Tracy's Dose of Dopey Full

March:

15th- LA Marathon 

28th- Chesebro Half 

April:

19th- Gator Run 10K

26th- Ojai Half

May: 

24th- Mountains 2 Beach Marathon

June: 

21st- Mammoth Half

Hill Repeats

The last time I've consciously gone out to specifically run hills for training was a long time ago. Like, so long ago that I can't even remember. It's probably been the same amount of time since I've gone out to work on speed too.

I'm comfortable. I like my 30:1 intervals. I like my 12:30-13 minute mile pace per mile. I like knowing what I can do.

I push myself with distance. I like pushing myself to go farther. 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon (and hopefully at some point a 50K). I find that when it comes to distance I can go at my comfortable pace for longer periods of time.

But, that doesn't mean I should not try to improve in other areas. 

That includes speed and hills... 

The speed will be worked on next year, at least that's the plan. I want to increase my intervals over time and possibly set a goal to attempt another PR for both my half and full marathon times. 

That leaves hills to work on. And there isn't a better time than now to work on that.

I recently signed up for the RAD 10 miler. A race I've had my eye on to complete due to the mental and physical challenge the course provides.

I signed up this past week and the race is two weeks away. Not much time to train the way I would like or even recommend, but I will be doing everything I can to be as prepared as possible. 

Hills are my friend. I love hills. Hills, hills, hills.. 

So, hills do prove to be a challenge. They're physically exhausting after a certain point and it does take more out of you, but I don't mind hills. I actually prefer going uphill moreso than downhill, if for no other reason than for the safety of my knees. 

I went for my first attempt at hill repeats last night. 4.26 miles total, just under 3 of those miles going up and down an incline. The first of three times up hurt and I wanted to cut it short, excusing it as my first attempt in too long. But I pushed on, and the smile on my face after I finished probably said it all. 

I surprised myself by getting up early this morning to go for my long distance training run. 3 miles scheduled, 3.2 miles completed. Since it was a lower mileage week (and next week I jump up to 15!!!) I chose to not plan a course but instead to wing it, making sure to add in hills. Lots and lots of hills. 

Worse case scenario on race day is I do more walking than planned. And there's nothing wrong with that. My goal? To finish, and I know I can do that.. 

Two weeks!! Bring it!

Where Do I Begin?

I don't know what happened, other than I needed (and am still in the middle of) a mental reset.

I felt as though I had nothing interesting to say. Then I felt like I wasn't reaching any of my goals so what was the point. I didn't want to just post failure after failure. Then I realized that I wasn't failing if I was still putting one foot in front of the other. Then my priorities changed. Then I fell into a rut. Then I decided that I have a full race schedule and need to pull myself up and get back to focusing on training. Then, today, I decided that I missed writing about my running. I missed having a place to vent and brag and share. I missed posting my mileage and feeling proud that I'm accomplishing something I set out to do.  

September was a difficult month for me with running. It was also a difficult month for me weight-wise. 

Let's start with the weight thing..

This is what I weighed in at on Wednesday:  

Want to know something weird? I'm accepting that number. I'm 20 pounds over weight and I think I'm finally starting to love and appreciate my body at this size. I'm not unhealthy and a little extra weight can be a factor of a lot. I'm not watching my food intake as closely as I could, but I am slowing down and enjoying the foods that I do choose. There are other factors (stress) that aren't helping matters, but I'm not focusing on the scale and it is freeing.

Then there's running.. 

I've gone for 5 runs this month. That's it.. 5. Five.. Two of these were races. Whoops! 

I felt like I was in a rut for a while. I wanted to run, but when I could I would make excuses to not go. I've been in a funk and doing one of the things that makes me happy was just too exhausting to think about. It's not a fun place to be and I'm still working on pulling myself out from that place.

As mentioned, I did complete two races this month, bringing my total number of half marathons for the year up to 10. Four more races scheduled. I can't believe it and I'm starting to get really excited about what I've accomplished so far and what I'm going to be finishing in December. This is the first time I've ever attempted a goal like this and I am determined to finish it.

In other running related updates, I've come to accept my pace and speed as part of who I am. I highly doubt anyone is judging me for my comfortable 12:30-13 minute mile pace. I'm pretty sure I was the only one judging myself. I see it all the time, from my own choice of words and from so many others. Even from people who run faster than I do. I annoy myself when I say it, like I'm embarrassed or have to justify it. No more! I'm owning it now..

 

My mom got me the bracelet as a reminder. The charm says "for the journey" and that's what I need to remind myself. I'm sure I'll find myself going back to those dark places and I will hear myself talk about slow paces and not being fast enough, but now I have a physical reminder to look at and see that it's not about the speed, it's about the whole journey from start to finish. I'm getting back into remembering why I run and why I set these goals for myself. It's for me. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I enjoy running, I enjoy racing. Bottom line. The goals push me to be a better me and I like where it's taken me so far and I'm excited to see where I'm going...

In an attempt to pull myself out of my running rut I have done two things. I joined a walking challenge at work with five of my coworkers. Running and other physical activities are allowed as well. The goal? To beat the other teams of course! Well, in a friendly competition.. But it felt good to be asked to be on someone's team. In fact, the team leader said "I want to win, and when that competitive side kicks in there's no stopping me." That's why he asked both my best friend and I. He sees us walking daily and knows we're training and it's possible we have a shot at doing this. 

The second thing was signing up for a 10 mile race in October. In about two weeks actually. It's a race I've been wanting to do for a couple years, but either the timing wasn't right or I talked myself out of it because of the course. This year I received an email with 15% off and already inexpensive price and I didn't hesitate. It's going to be tough, but I'm not going in with any expectations other than to finish.

Time to train for some hills!! 

There were a few other things I was focusing on while I took this little break. Some financial stuff and a new way to budget we're trying out, some house stuff and finding that owning a house is both a joy and a stress, work stuff and doing my best to prepare for the next three months as October-January is the most stressful/busiest time of year for us, among other things. 

Mostly, I used this time to work on myself and my mental health. I am not quite where I want to be yet, but I'm making progress. I'm working on choosing things that make me happy while still being responsible. I'm working on quieting the negative voices in my head that tell me I can't do something or shouldn't even attempt it because I will fail by proving them wrong and allowing myself to celebrate when I do accomplish what I've set out to do. I'm allowing myself to choose to do things that relax me, like the simple joys of reading and crocheting. 

I've said it before and I'm sure I will say it again, I'm a work in progress. And I finally feel like I'm taking some major steps in the right direction. 

Ventura Pier 2 Pier Half

Today was half marathon number 9 for the year. 5 more to go. 

This was my first time participating in the Ventura Pier 2 Pier half marathon, however I have completed a few half marathons this year that started around the same place and ran part of the same course. 

The race started at 7am and was already pretty warm at that time. It ended up being a pretty hot day, but I stuck to my intervals and pushed through when it got difficult. It helped that a runner coming the opposite direction had a friend directly in front of me as she yelled "keep with your pace, do not allow your head to get in the way! You got this!!" I used it as motivation for myself and pushed hard.

I thought I had started my GPS watch at the start line, but looked down at about 0.2 and realized it never started. It was at that point that I decided to not keep track  of mile times, but instead to check my average pace at the end. My goal was to have an average pace of less than a 13 minute mile. 

Avg pace- 12:33

Waiting for an official time, but I believe I finished around 2:45. I'm happy with that time. That's around my normal finishing time when I'm not going out for a PR, and since I did that in February and have no goals to increase my pace until next year then I have no reason to not be proud of myself. 

Worst part of the race- the heat

Best part of the race- seeing the lead runner for the marathon pass by. So strong.

Monthly mileage goal: 105 miles
Monthly mileage as of 9/6: 20.64 miles

  

Yearly mileage goal: 1250 miles

Yearly mileage goal as of 9/6: 884.61 miles

70.76% complete
  

Total mileage recorded to date (1/1/12-9/6/14): 2634.62 miles
  

This week's mileage: 20.64 mile week
Sunday 8/31: n/a
Monday 9/1: 3.05 mile interval run
Tuesday 9/2: 2.04 mile walk, 1.34 mile walk
Wednesday 9/3: 2.04 mile walk, 1.34 mile walk, 2.24 mile interval run
Thursday 9/4: 2.04 mile walk, 1.34 mile walk
Friday 9/5: 2.04 mile walk
Saturday 9/6: 3.17 mile walk

This week's workout schedule (workouts may be rescheduled as needed)

Sunday 8/31: walk 3 miles, cross training

Monday 9/1: run
Tuesday 9/2: strength training
Wednesday 9/3: run
Thursday 9/4: strength training
Friday 9/5: cross training
Saturday 9/6: walk 3 miles, cross training

Actual: 

Sunday 8/31: rest

Monday 9/1: 3.05 mile interval run
Tuesday 9/2: strength training- 30 Day Shred Level One
Wednesday 9/3: 2.24 mile interval run
Thursday 9/4: strength training- Body Revolution phase 1 workout 1
Friday 9/5: cross training- 45 min stationary bike
Saturday 9/6: 3.17 mile walk, cross training- 30 min stationary bike

Next week's workout schedule (workouts may be rescheduled as needed)

Sunday 9/7: Ventura Pier 2 Pier Half

Monday 9/8: run
Tuesday 9/9: strength training
Wednesday 9/10: run
Thursday 9/11: strength training
Friday 9/12: cross training
Saturday 9/13: long distance run- 3 miles

Pre-Race Jitters

I went to packet pick up this morning.

 

I have done many races (all this year) that have been by or near the Ventura Pier. All have been amazing experiences with beautiful views of the ocean. All have started with pre-race nerves.

I will not lie, but for me, it does not get any easier. I still get nervous, I still have doubts, the negative voices still creep in telling me I'm not good enough, I will be last or I won't finish at all. 

The night before race night is usually a late one. I try to go to bed early, I try to get enough sleep, it rarely happens. I try to lay out my race outfit as best I can so I'm not scrambling in the dark before 5am waking up Patrick, Isabel and the animals. I still usually forget something. I try to relax, remind myself that this is not my first rodeo and good or bad it will be just another run, another bib, another medal. 

I have never run this particular race before, but I am pretty excited about it. It seems like it's going to be a good crowd with lots of support along the course. I never know if it's going to be a good run day or not, but I'm going to go into it with positive thoughts that I can do this. 

Plus I get to wear this on Monday..

And, of course, I get to add more memories, more motivation to my new garage/gym. 

We owe a huge thank you to my brother-in-law for spending some time yesterday working on the electrical in the garage. Now that it is done, we are able to set up our spaces. Isabel's art room is ready to be decorated and used. My gym is set up and ready for the stationary bike (which I'm on now) and hopefully one day a treadmill. I am looking forward to getting a nice fan to use while I workout and get some cross training and strength training done. And Patrick's "man cave" has some work to be done, but the tv is set up and ready to go.

I am really excited to have my own space to workout and am hoping to get good use out of it. I plan to at least.. 

But for now I'm going to finish my workout, finish getting my stuff ready for tomorrow and try to rest and get to bed early. 

Race recap will hopefully be posted tomorrow!