Eat Drink Run Woman

If you were to tell me on Dec. 31, 2007 I’d run more than 1,800 miles during 2008 I would have questioned your sanity.  If you told me I’d BQ — twice — I most certainly would think you were nuts.  And if you told me I’d run not one, not two, not three, but eight — EIGHT — marathons during the year, I’d have you committed then and there.

Yet here we are one year later and I’m accomplished all of those things.  Whew!

Goals are a funny thing.  I hesitate to set them since circumstances could change, yet I’d still feel a sense of failure for not accomplishing them.  For example, last January I said I wanted to get down to 150 pounds.  I came close (155), but then realized I like myself with a bit of meat on my bones.  (Of course, should I get down to 150 I’m sure I’ll justify it!).  And despite running far more marathons than I ever dreamed possible, I’m still beating myself up for not getting to the gym as much as I’d hoped.

However, I’m not going to dwell on that.  After all, I learned so much about myself — what motivates me, how best to train.  I’m a certifiable marathon junkie, which means I need to make recovery my No. 1 priority.  If that means taking a day off from the gym, so be it.  That said, I do want to get back into my stretching/core work routine.  I was doing so well goals for maintaining front and side planks (I was up to 97 seconds for the front, 57 seconds for each side), but as it got tougher I found myself avoiding it more.  So now my goal is to do them more frequently, but hold them for less time (one minute for the front, 35-40 seconds for the side).

As for my weight, once again I’ve put on a few holiday pounds, but fortunately I’m starting the year off about 6-7 pounds lighter than last year.  I hope to get back down to my “race weight” of 154-155 by Boston, and then maintain it (at least until next holiday season).

My original mileage goal for the year was 1,000 miles, which I adjusted in July to 1,600.  At the miles piled on I adjusted the goal again; I hoped to finish the year with 1,000 more miles than the 821 miles I had run in 2007.  While I came close (1,810.25 miles), Mother Nature kept me from reaching that goal (not only was running outside out of the question, I couldn’t even drive to my gym to run on the treadmill).  The snow has since cleared, but I was faced with having to run too many miles in too little time.  I’m running yet another marathon tomorrow, so I decided to give my body a rest.

So what’s in store for 2009?  Marathons, marathons and more marathons!

With the Pigtails Run on Dec. 20 I earned a second star with the Marathon Maniacs (6 marathons in 5 months).  I’ll earn a third after running Disney (4 marathons in 37 days).  While I’ll take a bit of a break after Disney (no full marathons until early April, although I’ll run the Mercer Island half in March), I hope to run my first ultra AND my first double (Saturday/Sunday) in June (which will earn me 4 stars).

Goal races:

Jan. 1: First Call to Run Marathon
Jan. 10-11: Goofy Challenge
March 22: Mercer Island Half
April 4: Yakima River Canyon Marathon
April 20: a tiny little marathon back east 🙂

May 10 — Kirkland half (maybe)
May 17 — Capital City Marathon
June 6 — Green River Marathon
June 13 — Lake Youngs Ultra (28.8 miles)
June 14 — Light at the End of the Tunnel
June 27 — Seattle Rock ‘n Roll
August 28-29 — Hood to Coast
October 4 — Portland Marathon
November 29 — Seattle Marathon
(I’m sure I’ll add races in September and December as well).

So there you have it.  I’ll report back on my progress mid-year.  In the mean time, please pray for me (and perhaps send any extra Ibuprofen you may have).

Happy New Year everyone!