2013 goal check

2013 was another in a series of very good years.  Lots of fun with friends, no major injuries, and for much of the year an emphasis on adventure rather than racing.  In contrast to my normal m.o. of signing up for and winging whatever the heck sounded fun (by which I mean whatever the heck my friends signed up for and talked me into), it was supposed to be a year of actually training and finding out what I could do with preparation. I only set myself three goals, and overall I think I did all right this year.

1) New 5K PR.  Right now it's 26:15, set when I was running more or less regularly but with no focus on speed.  I'm aiming for sub: 25.  I'm not sure I can do that, but I'm actually going to follow a training plan, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm still going to keep my weekend mileage up, regardless of whether or not it's a good idea in light of the PR plan, because my main reason for running (other than it's fun) is to stay in shape for the foot portion of adventure races.

I trained pretty faithfully for my target 5K and came up short with a 26:30.  My choice of goal race wasn't super conducive to a PR since it ended with a tough,  .75-mile hill.  The PR/goal failure was softened by coming in 2nd woman overall.  After being sick for the next 5K I'd planned to try for a PR at, I basically tabled this goal for the year in favor of other things that sounded more fun, including longer runs and lots of trail time.  Those things must have helped, because I ended up doing our local Turkey Trot and finished with a time of 25:00.44.  

Goal status: primary goal met, and soooo close to that sub-25. A-

2) Fall more on the mountain bike.  OK, I don't really want to fall, but I do want to take more chances and push myself more instead of being such a chicken.

Hmmm...this one wasn't quite as measurable as the first.  I didn't do much more falling, but I did spent a lot more time on my mountain bike this summer and definitely improved my speed (such as it is) and confidence.  A lot of that time was solo rides on our local trails, so I have Strava to thank for giving me some motivation to push myself instead of doing the afternoon stroll version of mountain biking.

Goal status: I'm pushing myself more but not really taking more chances.  I'll give myself a C+ on this one.

3) Stay fit.  I gained 20 lbs between LBL in March and Thunder Rolls in  August.  That's ridiculous, and I could definitely tell the difference in how I felt during the races.

I lost 18 lbs between October 2012 and February 2013, managed to gain back 10 of them over the summer, and am right now down about 20 pounds total and probably in the best shape of my adult life.  

Goal status: I need to be able to avoid packing on those summer pounds and there is still definitely weight to lose, but I feel a lot better.  Grade: B.

Meeting (or semi-meeting) my goals definitely made a difference. I had quite a few PRs this year, and even better than that, I was able to enjoy my races a lot more.  I guess this training thing isn't so bad after all.