New Year, New Goals: Looking to 2018

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Like a lot of people, each year, I set out some goals.  Sometimes I achieve them — like last year, when my goal was to BQ — and sometimes I don’t.  But writing them down is the first step.  For reference, here are my goals from 2016 and from 2017.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I want out of my running going forward, what I want out of my body, what I want out of my life.  Should I try to beat my BQ time from Phoenix?  Should I run an epic 50 miler, or even a 100 miler?  Should I try to shed 20 lbs and see what my body can do when I’m more runner-size?  Should I just give up and get pregnant and resign myself to a life where my body is no longer my own and I am no longer in control and I am no longer the most important person?   With these questions in mind, I’ve mapped out my 2018 goals…

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Did Orangetheory Help Me BQ?

I feel like I could write about 234,908 posts about all of the things I learned, tried, tweaked, etc. during my journey to BQ.  So I’ll just do that until you or I get bored, whichever comes first… So far I’ve covered nutrition and pacing and my race tunes. Today’s topic is Orangetheory.

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Indoor Skiing at SNOBAHN Review!

fullsizer-1Regular Athlettuce readers will know that I have been spending part of each week in beautiful Colorado for work.  I have been packing my mornings and evenings with amazing group runs.  But Colorado offers another perk that I can’t find in DC: indoor skiing.  That’s right, folks.  I introduce SNOBAHN!

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A Really Good Training Week

IMG_1660Given a crazy summer schedule, I am not planning on doing weekly training recaps for my Mesa Falls Marathon training.  HOWEVER, I had a shockingly spectacular — dare I say, breakthrough — training week last week, and so I wanted to share some of the changes I made to my training that worked for me.

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Worst. Adventurer. Ever.

I was going to write a blog post titled “Big Adventures Start Small” about how I’m trying to inject small adventures into my regular life, at least until I decide on and execute a “big” adventure. And I had a small adventure planned for this morning and was excited to recap here. Until I had a total #adventurefail…

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VCM Training Week 7: Running Long… On a Thursday

I wrapped up another week of training for the Vermont City Marathon.  This was week seven with just three more weeks until the race — aka one more week of training before the taper!  I’m feeling really ready, maybe because this will be by third marathon this year, maybe because I’m actually sticking to my “training plan” pretty well.   This week, things were still busy but slightly more calm at work so I was able to get in a couple good workouts although maybe not as many as would be idea…

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VCM Training Week Two: OTF, Gardening, and Sleeping

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U.S. Arboretum

Another week has come and gone, and we are already into APRIL!  This was my second week of training for the Vermont City Marathon.

Here was what I had planned for this week:

  • OTF X 3
  • CorePower Yoga X 3
  • Run 10 miles
  • Lose some body fat
  • Do UVA Speed Clinic remedial exercises DAILY

And here’s what I did…

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New Blog Series: The Other 23 Hours

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Out for a walk during the other 23 hours

Runners and other athletes like to think they are healthy.  We take comfort in our cardiovascular fitness, our low blood pressure, our low resting heart rates.  We feel strong, mentally and physically, because we run.  And we might even feel a little superior over others.   I’m certainly not here to take those feelings away from anyone.

But recently I’ve been thinking (and learning) more and more about the importance of what we are doing with our bodies when we aren’t working out…  You know, the other 23 hours…

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First Week of VCM Training

IMG_1085I announced last week that I had registered for the Vermont City Marathon, held over Memorial Day weekend in Burlington.  This will be another two-month training cycle, which I’ve been liking a lot lately.  I took a full recovery week after the Asheville Marathon, and then I slowly started back up this week, without a focus on mileage.

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