2014 in Review

Last year for the first time I did a year in review recap of my training and race distances for the year as well as the two years prior. It is time for this years! This takes into consideration the four miles I plan to run tonight in the Fairfax Four Miler! 

	2014	2013	2012	2011
swim	140	182	110	95
bike	573	1440	997	1029
run	342	390	393	261
brick	83	382	233	350
race	136	304	268	130
other	87	33	21	80
total	1361	2731	2022	1945

This year other is made up of 68 mountain bike miles, 15 walking miles, and the remainder was considered 'other'. I have no idea what those other miles were! Maybe next year mountain biking will get it's own line! 

In 2014 I swam a lot - up till June 8 when I did the Bay Swim. In my recap, I noted that as of race day I had swam a total of 92 miles! So I only swam another 58 for the rest of the year. Last year I swam more - but that's probably because I kept up the swim volume until Ironman Wisconsin in early September. 

You can certainly tell by my numbers I did not train for or race an Ironman in 2014! And looking back at bike miles from 2011-2013, I sure did far less bike miles in 2011 and 2012 than 2013! This year I had about a third of the miles that I had in 2013. 

As for run miles, they've stayed fairly consistent. Actually, for a non Ironman year, they seem high, as I did not have nearly the long run volume as in the past three years. My longest race(s) was the two back to back half marathons back in mid-March, as I recapped about here. After those two races I shifted my focus to short distance, where it has remained.  

Speaking of not racing Ironman this year, look how my brick miles dropped off! 

One thing I have not done with swim~bike~run is set distance / training goals for the following year. I'm not sure I could even begin to. For now it will just be fun to compare the years and note anything remarkable about the year.

Next up is the Fairfax Four Miler. I had planned to run the Resolution Race 10K on January 1, but now I'm not so sure that will happen. I had rolled my ankle right after Thanksgiving, and ended up taking two and a half weeks off running let let it heal, which it has done for the most part. I think back to back races would not be smart going into the New Year where I have a big goal for late March. Priorities! However, there is a little 5K I might consider on Sunday, January 4... Stay tuned! 

Happy and Healthy Training!

Two more days...

It has been two weeks and a day since my last run, when I made the decision to 'abandon' the #36DaysofAwesome run streak challenge. I was really sad to have a sore ankle and bummed to not run. However, I know it was the right choice. Today my ankle feels almost normal again! 

In two days - on Christmas Day - I plan to go for a very easy, short run to start my day. I have the Fairfax Four Miler on my schedule the evening of December 31 and plan to run that easy. Though originally my plan had been to go for a course PR! I still plan to do the Resolution Race the next morning, though I have not yet made a decision on whether or not to do the 10K or downgrade to the 5K. By the way, you can see Team Rabbit rocking their ears on the Resolution Race registration information page, here! After my Christmas morning run I'll decide. There's no sense in overdoing things so soon, seeing as I am coming off a sore ankle.  I need to look at the bigger picture and my Spring "A" race on March 28 and Fall "A" race on September 13!

Best wishes for a fun and safe holiday. 

Happy and Healthy Training! 

The streak has ended!

The streak has ended? You may be wondering 'what streak' I am talking about! I had seen a Facebook link on the Runner's World #36DaysofAwesome challenge. This is where you run at a minimum of one mile a day from Thanksgiving, November 27, 2014 to New Year's Day, January 1, 2015. I had run a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving when I saw the 'challenge' on my friend Kim's Facebook page and decided I would give it a try. 

Things were going well! I ran the next two days with my dog, Riley, and she was thrilled! Then on day 4, Sunday November 30, I did a 4 mile trail run in my new trail shoes. Which, by the way, are fantastic! The trail shoes, Saucony Progrid Xodus 3.0, really made a difference. 

My AUsome new trail shoes!

I could run over chunky and regular gravel and not feel it on my feet! Amazing! But seeing as I am new to running on the single track trails, I kind of twisted my right ankle. Twice! Did not think much of it at the time and it did not keep me from continuing on that run! 

Monday, December 1 I did the Potomac River Running fun run at the Fairfax store and even took Riley with me! The streak continued on! Then last Thursday (December 4) I ran 3 miles in my neighborhood. The first 2 miles went OK, but by the third mile I thought I was getting a shin splint! Had completely forgotten about the ankle twisting/rolling incident... I've been icing it, taking ibuprofen, massaging it, and using Biofreeze. Then on Sunday I had a race, the Blue and Gray 5K. Team Rabbit blogged about it as Carol was running the half for like the fifth year in a row! Anyway, the run went great, and I hit my goals: negative split and descending miles. At the finish they announced that there were folks from a local chiropractic / PT office and they could give quick assessments or massage. I decided to get my ankle looked at. The doctor, Dr. Pallotti, checked out my ankle and all seemed to be OK and I was doing the right things for it. Except for maybe running on it. I mean my ankle is not even swollen, nor has it been! 

Well, yesterday was day 12 - and I ran one very easy mile on my treadmill. For a total of 25.78 miles since Thanksgiving. This morning my ankle is just plain sore. And it has been. I decided that continuing this fun run challenge was not worth the continued soreness, or possibly even longer term damage. Besides, the goals I have for 2015 are much more important! I have a new 10k training program starting on January 6 and I want to be healthy and strong for that! I need to follow my blog sign-off advice! 

So I will rest it through Saturday and try to run an easy 5k on Sunday. Then rest it some more. I have planned to do the the back-to-back New Year's Challenge again (Fairfax 4 Miler on December 31 and the Resolution 10K on January 1), but can always bag the second race if I need to. I have not signed up for that yet anyway!

Happy and Healthy Training! 

Race Report: Fairfax Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving morning I participated in the inaugural Fairfax Turkey Trot! This new race is run on much of the course the Fairfax Four Miler is - which I've done the past few years - is a fun race / course! The new race benefits the City of Fairfax Fire Department Benevolent Fun and started and finished right in front of the fire station! 

Race morning I arrived early for packet pick up and managed to snag lucky number 7 as my race number! In fact, I arrived so early I pretty much had my pick of spaces in the closest parking lot! After getting my bib I headed back to my car to stay warm for a bit.

When it was time to head to the start, I noticed that there were many dogs out for a run that morning! I sure wish I had though to ask ahead of time about that... While I did not have a time goal for the race, my plan was to try to negative split and even have descending splits as I need to get better at that. I think I lined up in the middle of the group. The announcer said there were over 1,000 runners out! 

My first observation: the course looks different in the daylight! I ran steadily and was warming up a bit. Turns out I should have removed my pink long sleeved shirt, which I did during a short walk break at about the half way point. I thought my second mile would be slower than the first because of my walk break - but surprisingly that was not so! There's a bit of a gradual downhill in the first half which means the second half has a gradual uphill. I know it would be hard but vowed not to walk! 

When I hit the 3 mile mark I did my best to sprint to the finish. And then my rabbit ears fell off! I had to do a quick back track to get them, but then we were off again! I could see the official clock ahead reading almost 30 minutes, and I was not sure how many second it took me to cross the start line. So I sprinted even faster! I hit my stop button and the time read 30:00.07 and I scrolled through my splits and found I'd not only done a negative split but each mile got faster - even mile 2! My official time listed in the results was actually 29:59 and a 9:40/mile average, so I was very happy with that! 

At the Fairfax Turkey Trot!

Also: Two weeks ago Monday I did my first Monday night fun run at Potomac River Running's (=PR=) Fairfax store. The course is great as they host a  couple of races from that location and I did two races there last year. One guy there was running with his dog! I thought that was great and planned to bring my Riley the next  time I went. Which was two nights ago! Here's a picture that =PR= Fairfax posted to their Facebook wall:

With Riley at the =PR= Fairfax Fun Run on December 2, 2014!
(Photo Courtesy of =PR= Fairfax)

Riley would not turn around for the picture! She had a blast, though I think she started out too fast. Newbie runner mistake. :) I also had to rein her in because I cannot run as fast as she does! Riley got a bit tired around the 2 mile mark, so we cut the course short and only ran 2.61 miles. She will definitely attend more fun runs with me in the future! We will work up to the full 3.1 distance of the route! 

Next up: Blue and Gray 5k where my fellow Team Rabbit-mate Carol will do the half!