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Friday, December 12, 2014

Time To Share!

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After a lot of thought, I believe I have decided on some goals for myself for the remainder of the year and the first quarter of 2015. Over the past two weeks, I had grand ideas, ditched them, had more grand ideas, ditched them again… I really have a hard time making up my mind! This is mostly because I don’t want to overwhelm myself mentally or physically. But I am at a place right now where I feel really solid with my main goals and how I will reach them.

So now I will take my own advice and share with you my goals and my plan to reach them. I will continue to update you on how I am (hopefully!) sticking with it!



Goals for the remainder of December and January, 2015:


Goal #1: Recommit to lifting lower body and in the process, get stronger leg muscles and more visible definition in my quads and hamstrings.

I know my calves are a lost cause (genetically, I just do not have cut calf muscles), but I miss the days before my knee surgery when I had really nice definition in my legs- a product of consistent lower body strength training. At the time, my legs were also stronger than they ever were. I wasn’t squatting my bodyweight or anything like that, but for me I was doing the best I could. Obviously, surgery and more recent IT band issues have forced me to cut back on lower body considerably, and as I result, my legs have gotten weaker and they look like blobs of jelly. Blobs of jelly may be a bit dramatic, and I know I am being a little critical of myself, but slowly, I want to get back to where I was.


The plan: 2 lower body strength training workouts every 9 days and a continuation of my commitment to stretching and foam rolling.



Goal #2: Maintain a basic level of speed via tempo runs and intervals without getting injured or overtaxing my body.

I worked really hard during 10k training and I would like to maintain at least some of that speed without feeling the need to keep pushing every week. Meaning, I envision most of my tempo runs being something like this: 2 mile warm up, 2 mile tempo, 1 mile cool down. As for intervals, for the first several weeks, I would like to do no more than 4 interval repeats- probably 400s. I want to maintain, not build, so I can take care of my body but still sneak a little speed into my training.


The plan: 1 tempo run and 1 interval workout every 9 days.




As long as it is not icy, I would like to run this event. I do not have a goal pace in mind as of yet since I am not going to be going “all out” on speed training. I barely ever run races, but I would like to run them more so I don’t feel as nervous and like I have to prove something every single time I pin on a race bib.

The plan: Follow the training cycle I have designed for myself in which each “week” is 9 days long.


My “weeks” will look like this:

Lift Back/Legs
Lift Chest/Shoulders
Tempo Run
Easy Run
Lift Back/Leg
Lift Chest/Shoulders
Speed work
Easy Run
Easy Run

I am so excited to again have something to guide my training!


Looking onward at the next couple months....


Goals for February-March, 2015:


Goal #1: Race the Capitol Area 10 Miler on March 29th.

This race is a very popular one in the Harrisburg region and is practically in my backyard. Much of the route is the same of the 10k I just ran- City Island, Harrisburg Riverfront, Green Belt pike path, and a killer bridge that will probably make me die of boredom! I have no goal pace in mind yet, I will have to think about that.

The Plan: No plan is set in stone yet! I will share that with you at the beginning of February! I can only focus on so much at once right now!


I'm really excited to recommit myself to strengthening my lower body as well as tackle the 10 miler! I know there are bumps and kinks in every training plan, and don't worry, I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you!

Tell me about a short term goal you have and a long term goal!

15 comments:

  1. Whooo! This is so exciting! I love when you're training for a race. Reading your training recaps is super motivating!

    My short term goal is to grab a new 5K PR this month and my long term goal is to run until I'm at least 100 years old :)

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    1. Haha that may be my ultimate long term goal as well! But since I am a commitment-phobe, I am counting my March 29th race as my long term goal. :)

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  2. You are a gal who has it all figured out! Good luck on these short term goals. I really should think about making more short term goals like this. Most of mine are always for the year, or for this one race, etc.

    My short term goal is to run a big 10K PR on New Year's Eve - hopefully break sub-50:00, but I'm not gonna push for it because 1) it's not terribly important to me and 2) I'm at the mercy of the weather. Last year at this race we got snow and ice the morning of and it was only like 5 degrees at the start. I just wanted to go home!

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    1. I am such a commitmentphobe, I can't make goals TOO far in advance. Especially because it seems like whenever I do, I get injured!

      Oh my gosh, if it would snow and ice for a race I don't think I would ever even get out of bed to do it!

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  3. What about learning to play the ukulele? Where is that? :)

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    1. LOL!!!! That's going to have to be EVERY day! :)

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    2. Pretty much! But all you need is just a couple minutes EACH day. I swear it will make you happier!

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    3. I'm so excited, I wish I had it right now!

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  4. I am with you on the quad/knee thing. And the different goals for summer/winter. And just in general you know I just got done doing serious speed work for the 10k. I haven't done speed in a little over a month, so now I just want to eeeeeease in!

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  5. I am reallly hoping to run a 5k before years end! If not, then in the Spring!
    (P.S. Get a Twitter! I couldn't tag you in my Friday Finisher Tweets today! You're post is in there ;) Haha!)

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    1. Cool!

      I don't understand Twitter! Hahaha. Thanks for including me in the FF :)

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  6. Good luck with your goals! You've got this :) My short term goal is to increase my distance, and long term is to work up to a 10 miler.

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    1. Awesome! What is your base now, and how long are you giving yourself to work your way up to 10?

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  7. I love sharing goals on the blog...it's such a good way to stay committed. It looks like you have a really clear idea of how to achieve the goals you've set. I have a goal for my half in March...I guess I need to start thinking of the HOW behind getting there.

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    1. Yup, it will definitely keep me in check to know I have something to report back to! Like if I want to skip lifting to squeeze in an extra run... I will know I have to be honest about that and then hopefully won't do it!

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