Monday, January 4, 2016

Goodbye 2015, hello 2016!

My plan to end the year with lots of miles and cross training during didn't quite play out as expected. Instead I was sick for half of my holiday break. I still managed to squeeze in a few workouts at the beginning and end of the break. I also did yoga one day, so cross training was not a complete bust either.

Wednesday 12/23: 3.31 miles
Thursday 12/24: 5.0 miles
Saturday 12/26: 6.77 miles
***a few days of sickness***
Wednesday 12/30: 5.0 miles
Friday 1/1: 10.01 miles
Sunday 1/3: 3.61 miles

I was super happy to get out on New Year's Day for a 10 mile run with a few running friends. It was the first time that I have done a double digit run since my marathon and the first time I have run with a group in what felt like forever. During marathon training it was really hard to make it to group runs. It is too tempting to run faster than planned when I am running with my speedy friends and during my high mileage weeks that would have been disastrous. Since I am focusing on shorter races this year (and will have much more flexibility in my training schedule!) I am going to make a serious effort to run with friends more often.

In other running related news, I took last minute advantage of some early bird race pricing on New Year's Eve and am now registered for three races this year! Woohoo! April 24th will be my first race of the year: Glass City 5k. I am especially excited about this race because Ariana [everythingswaiting] is running the half marathon and Lisa [TechChick Adventures] is running the marathon.

I ran the Glass City Half Marathon in 2014.
In July I'll be killing myself at the Ann Arbor Mile. I know you are thinking, how hard can a mile race be? But I ran this race a couple years ago and it was the hardest and fastest I have ever run. My lungs still burned the day after the race. This race will be after a few months of racing 5ks, so maybe it will feel easy in comparison?


And finally in September I am registered for the Mighty Niagara Half Marathon. I'll be aiming for a PR and maybe even be ready to break 1:40. Bonus: Brittany [Run Fast or Faster] has added this race to her 2016 calendar too. I'm really excited that I might have the chance to meet up with 3 awesome runners/bloggers this year.

There will definitely be some other races along the way (more 5ks!), but these are the only three races that I have actually registered for so far. I have a few more weeks before I will officially start my 5k training, but the start of the new year has me feeling particularly excited to resume training. Bring it on, 2016!

10 comments:

  1. WOOHOOO! I'm excited you decided to do the 5K at GC. We will definitely have to make some plans to meet up. The Mighty Niagara HM sounds so beautiful, I bet that will be a great race. Looking forward to following your training/racing this year!

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  2. Yuck, sorry you weren't feeling well over Christmas. Getting sick around the holidays is no fun. Glad you're feeling better!! Sounds like you have some awesome races planned for 2016 already. Happy New Year!

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    1. Thank you! I was glad that I already had the time off of work so I could just stay home and focus on getting better (and watching Netflix all day).

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  3. Yay on Glass City!! I'm sure there will be some sort of Ambassador table that we will be manning, so you'll have to stop by and introduce yourself! I'm sure that mile race will be hard... but maybe you're right, after marathon training a half marathon seems easy, so perhaps that will be the case!

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  4. Race planning and registering is always so exciting! Wow, a mile race, that will be an interesting challenge! I honestly have no idea how I'd even train for that. Happy new year!

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    1. I can't imagine how I would train for a mile either. That race will fall into my half marathon training, so I'll probably just call it a speed workout.

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  5. Hope you are feeling better now! What an awesome 10 miles to start the new year! I really love group runs and most of the time I'm the one struggling to keep up with my speedy friends too. I think it's really helped my endurance though!

    Sounds like some great races on your schedule so far. I'm only signed up for one half marathon so far and it's not till October! Haha. I've gotta get going on that! Happy 2016!! Will you be running another marathon this year?

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    1. Nope, no marathon for me this year. I think I prefer shorter races. I probably won't attempt another marathon until I make substantial progress with the half.

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