2014 Races I Ran

For posterity, I'm going to make a blog post for each year listing all the races I've completed. I really only started writing them down in one place in 2013, so it will be a challenge to go back and figure out what the heck I did from 2010-2012.

I sign up for A LOT of races because I do it for fun, not for performance. But I'll admit that I pretty much lost my damn mind in 2014.
  
Here it is:

Date	Name	Type	Distance
March	US Road Running	virtual	5k
3-01-14	Be the Match	road	5k
3-22-14	Warrior Dash	obstacle/mud	5k
April	US RR	virtual	5k
4-10-14	White Rock Celebration	road	5k
4-21-14	Stand with Boston	virtual	10k
4-27-14	Lone Star	road	10k
5-03-14	Cinco de Miler	road	5 mi
5-03-14	Cinco de Muddo	obstacle/mud	5k
5-04-14	Tough Mudder	obstacle/mud	12 mi
5-08-14	Katy Trail	road	5k
5-10-14	Gladiator	obstacle/mud	5k
5-11-14	JCC Bagel Run	road	10k
5-14-14	Jumpin Jellyfish	virtual	5k
5-17-14	Spartan Super	obstacle/mud	8-10 mi
5-18-14	Spartan Sprint	obstacle/mud	4-5 mi
5-22-14	US RR Diamond	virtual	10k
5-24-14	World Domination	virtual	5k
5-26-14	US RR	virtual	5k
6-18-14	Merrell Down & Dirty	obstacle/mud	6 mi
6-17-14	Red Pirate US RR	virtual	5k
7-12-14	RAMS	road	5k
8-23-14	Nocturnal Lands	fun run	5k
8-31-14	Disneyland	road	half
10-4-14	Rugged & Raw	trail	10k
October	Choice 5k	virtual	5k
10-14-14	Five55 Series	aquathlon	500m + 5k
10-19-14	Honored Hero Half	road	half
10-25-14	Double Trouble*	road	5k/10k
11-15-14	Six:02	road	6k
11-27-14	Turkey Trot	road	8 mi
12-28-14	One Big Fat Run	virtual	5k

That's 31 races run!

*Double Trouble was really obnoxious in that I couldn't find any registration confirmation from when I registered in July and did not receive any updates and ended up going out of town instead of running it and couldn't get a refund or transfer or anything.
  
My 2010-12 Races
My 2013 Races
... 
My 2015 Races 
My 2016 Races

2013 Races I Ran

For posterity, I'm going to make a blog post for each year listing all the races I've completed. I really only started writing them down in one place in 2013, so it will be a challenge to go back and figure out what the heck I did from 2010-2012.

I sign up for A LOT of races because I do it for fun, not for performance.

So here's 2013: 

Date	Name	Type	Distance
1-19-13	Electric Run	fun run	5k
2-02-13	Graffiti Run	fun run	5k
4-06-13	Hero Rush	obstacle/mud	4-5 mi
5-14-13	Bring Home Bowe	road	5k
6-01-13	Miles of Mud	mud/obstacle	4 mi
6-22-13	Splash Dash	fun run	5k
9-07-13	Mud Factor	obstacle/mud	5k
9-21-13	Neon Splash Dash	fun run	5k
9-30-13	Get Out & Run	virtual	10k
10-05-13	Rugged & Raw	trail	10k
10-19-13	Choice 5k	road	5k
10-20-13	Get Out & Run	virtual	10k
10-22-13	Halloween Team	virtual	5k
11-01-13	Bad Prom Run	fun run	5k
11-23-13	Savage Race*	obstacle/mud	10k
11-xx-13	Get Out & Run	virtual	10k
11-30-13	Ugly Sweater Run	fun run	5k
12-01-13	Fit Fatties	virtual	5k
12-15-13	Spartan Beast	obstacle/mud	15.2 mi

That's 19 races run!

*Savage Race was my first ever DNF, and I am very proud of it.

My 2010-12 Races
...
My 2014 Races
My 2015 Races  My 2016 Races

2010-2012 Races I Ran

For posterity, I'm going to make a blog post for each year listing all the races I've completed. I really only started writing them down in one place in 2013, so it's been a challenge to go back and figure out what the heck I did from 2010-2012.

Date	Name	Type	Distance
7-24-10	Boryeong Mud Festival	mud flats	5k
9-12-10	DMZ International Peace Marathon	road	10k
10-2-10	Energizer Night Race	road (zoo)	5k
10-30-10	???*	road	10k
11-14-10	8th Sports Seoul Marathon?	Type	Distance
11-21-10	Son Koe-Chung Peace Marathon	road	5k
12-19-10	Something Else?	road	distance
4-16-11	Warrior Dash	obstacle/mud	5k
5-01-11	Heels and Hills	road	half
6-05-11	Merrell Down & Dirty	obstacle/mud	5k
6-25-11	Patriot Games	obstacle/mud	5k
6-16-12	Gladiator	obstacle/mud	4 mi
11-03-12	Foam Fest	obstacle/mud	5k
11-17-12	Glo Run	fun run	5k

*I have pictures from this event but cannot find any other info. It was the "World Cup Stadium Marathon" or something like that.

That's 14 races run!

My 2013 Races 
My 2014 Races
My 2015 Races  My 2016 Races

Let's Talk Truthfully About Trainers

The Daily Beast has a great article about important questions to ask when you are searching for a physical trainer. It's definitely worth a read:

... the health and fitness industry is rife with problems. The hype, the body-shaming, the obsession with weight and body-fat—these things stand as barriers to people actually adopting healthy habits that they can maintain throughout their lives. Even so, this is the industry we look to when we decide we want to learn about our bodies—how they work, and how to take care of them, and how we can use them to experience enjoyable, natural movement.

So, if you have a trainer, or you’re thinking about hiring a trainer or some other sort of health professional, you want to be in the best hands. I offer here a simple test: three questions to pose to your potential health guru, to weed out the bad ones. And believe me, there are bad ones out there.

1: Do I Need to Lose Weight?

No.

You don’t need to lose weight. If you’re an average American, you probably need to be more physically active, and you could probably tweak your diet in any number of ways. But your trainer should not be telling you that you need to lose weight.

The above sentiment may surprise, and even upset a lot of people. But the very fact that the idea of “not needing to lose weight” seems so radical is a testament to the brokenness of our health culture.

Despite our obsession with it, weight is a poor proxy for individuals’ health.

  

Here's the link to the rest of it.

I'm Going to Run a Marathon

I took the plunge and signed up with Team in Training to train for my first marathon, the Dallas Marathon on December 11, 2016. That's 26.2 miles. I don't even like driving that far.

How it works is that I commit to fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and they provide me race training with a coach and a local group.

Honestly, I'm really scared.

Two years ago I completed two half marathons while suffering through IT Band Syndrome, which caused excruciating knee pain that left me crying hard through the last mile or two of the 13.1-mile Honored Hero Run in October 2014.

Though I'll be working with a coach and seeing other runners once a week, I'll ultimately be logging hundreds of long, hot miles this summer and fall all alone. So I need your help:

1. Ask me how training is going.
2. Nicely point out my typos.
3. Remind me to stretch.
4. Donate if you can.

And I'll keep putting in the miles and keep you updated on this journey.

Camp Gladiator: Mixed Bag

This morning was my 8th visit to Camp Gladiator and marked the beginning of metabolic conditioning week, where the workouts utilize the things we've worked on for the past 3 weeks and take it up a notch as far as difficulty/intensity. But where I floundered over the last 2 weeks, today was my favorite CG workout of all.

Camp Gladiator is kind of like a boot camp setup with challenging exercises but with a positive atmosphere. The trainers are very upbeat and encouraging, quick to offer suggestions for modifications and reminding you to try your best; they let you determine what your 100% effort feels like.

I signed up because of a spring promotion where I pay $10 up front and can attend unlimited sessions for 4 weeks. If I attend fewer than 10, I get charged more money, so it’s a great incentive.

Week 1 focused on endurance exercises and included a fitness test that I finished in the allotted time but was unable to complete the last 9 of 50 consecutive push-ups. We’ll test again this Wednesday. Week 2 focused on functionality, specifically core-strengthening exercises. We use yoga mats in a parking lot, and my back, knees, and elbows have been bruised to hell because of it. Week 3 was high-intensity interval training. As an endurance athlete, I can’t really do this stuff.

Week 4 started today, its focus being metabolic conditioning. We did 3 minutes of alternating hard exercises (dumbbell squats + curl, push-ups + row, dumbbell squats, dumbbell swings, and Russian twists with a dumbbell) followed by rest and then a quick seven-tenths-mile lap for three or four rotations.

I usually lag far behind the rest of the campers except those who are injured, but I freaking killed it today, pacing and passing a few back-of-the-pack runners on every lap after the warmup except for the final lap when I bonked, in need of fuel.

And actually on Saturday, my workout partner and I dominated one of the exercises where we take turns holding one another back with a resistance band while sprinting and finished ahead of everyone else, working just as hard. A lot of this can be attributed to flow; we figured out how to quickly switch holding and wearing the band on each rotation, but that doesn't detract from the accomplishment in any way.

It's been fun and surprising to find out how my strengths translate to CG workouts, because mostly they don't.

First Quarter Goal Progress

This year's goals primarily focus on cultivating healthy habits rather than setting outcomes-based resolutions.

The first quarter of the year has been largely successful for creating and maintaining various wellness habits and has also brought to light a few areas where I would like to improve. I set up a spreadsheet to track various activities and divided it by week. January 1 to March 31 makes 13 full weeks.

My first goal was to hit 70,000 steps each week, barring injury or illness, based on the Fitbit 10k/day recommendation. I'd been wearing the Fitbit since July and hitting my goals most days, but I didn't think 10k every day was an achievable goal compared to 70k/week. I didn't hit my 70k goal as often as I wanted to these three months, but I only missed it during bad migraine weeks and a few race taper and recovery weeks when I was deliberately working to keep my mileage low. Overall, my 13-week step totals average to 72,714, so that's fine by me.

I also had a goal of logging 1,000 miles walking and running in 2016. I'm at 405 miles with 9 months to go.

I'll have to reassess and reset some goals for the following months.

I got back into the swing of regular blogging with a goal of 50 posts for the whole year and am already halfway there. I like writing but typically lost steam and stop for weeks (or months) at a time. I posted 46 times in 2015 and 48 in 2014. I usually have a half dozen posts in the works and just need to finish and schedule them for the times when I have nothing new to write about. I got a head start in 2016 with finishing up 3 drafts and scheduling 5 posts in the first week.

My goal for the year was to lift 75 percent of my body weight on the assisted pull-up machine, and I hit that just after two months, so maybe I'll go for a real pull-up this year. I want to see how I progress from here before I make that an official goal.

Daily meditation and biweekly stretching/yoga just aren't happening. The step goals were easy to continue because I'd already begun the habit and was nearly hitting my new goals to begin with. Not the case for meditation and yoga. I've been trying to start a daily practice for at least 6 months and not getting more than about 3 days in a row. I guess I'll keep trying.

On track:
I'm a little over one-quarter of the way to my goal for writing gratitude lists 200 times this year and on-track to finish my feminist and racism reading lists. I've taken 4 new fitness classes already with a goal of 10 new classes for the year. My rec center has LOTS of offerings; I just need to figure out how to get a few into my training schedule.

I'm going to add a new column to specifically track the miles per week that I log running so I can keep an eye on my volume of running, whereas running and walking are combined on my Fitbit and yearly mileage goals.