The Goals for 2015

     This past month everyone has been making and letting the world know what their New Year resolutions or goals are for the year.  I actually love seeing what other people are looking to achieve in the coming year, it gives me such motivation to sit back and really look at what I want to achieve.  Last year my goals were to continue my weight loss, run the Owens Corning Half Marathon, run Ragnar SoCal with my SoleMates team and complete my first marathon.  I would say that last year was a resounding success.  Not only did I run the Owens Corning Half Marathon, I ran it in under two hours, and I did run and obviously loved every second of my Ragnar adventure.

Ragnar pt1

Ragnar pt2

Ragnar pt3

Ragnar pt4

     On January 1st I weighed in at 210.5 lbs and on December 31st I finished out the year at 175 lbs, that's a total of 35.5 lbs down for the year.  As for the marathon, I couldn't have asked for a better first marathon experience.  Not only did I finish the race I did it in under 4 hours when everyone thought I was crazy to even try to attempt a sub 4 marathon.

     My plans for 2015 have changed several times over the last month or so as I have thought about it.  Before this IT Band issue consumed my life, I had glorious ideas of going after a sub 3:30 marathon this fall.  I also wanted to earn my membership into the Half Fanatics club, but that now has been scrapped, at least for how I intended to do it.  I was going to run the Owens Corning Half Marathon and 6 days later run the Indy half with my SoleMates for our reunion, but thanks to a large 3 day mandatory all hands on deck event at work being moved to the same weekend as Indy I am gonna have to miss out on the reunion and the Half Fanatics.  

     This IT Band has really put a damper on things for me, just because of the uncertainty with this injury not knowing how long it will last.  That, however, has not kept me from still thinking big for this year.  First, without much thought I signed up for a Fat to Finish line Facebook group challenge of 2,015 in 2015.  Stupidly I pledged that I would attempt to cover all 2,015 miles in 2015 all by myself considering I am starting out not being able to run, but it didn't cost anything and it actually helped form the rest of my goals or challenges for the year.

     For me 2015 is going to be all about miles not time.  I want to work to get healthy and run as much as I can, no matter how fast or slow it is.  That sub 3:30 marathon time goal will come, but I truly think that I pushed my self so hard this past summer to that sub 4 goal that I forgot why I was really running, to lose weight.  I can't burn calories and continue to lose and/or maintain my weight if I'm not running.  Right?  OK, I can but I would rather run than something else because I enjoy it so much.

2015 goals in no particular order

Get back to regular running

     Continue to work with my therapist till I can run pain free.  This is the biggest because if I can't do this than I can't do anything else on this list.

2015 or more total miles for the year

     I explained this one already earlier

Run a trail race

     This is a little tougher only because we don't have a lot of trails in Northwest Ohio and the ones we do have are pretty flat and basic vs other areas, but here is a local race that features a 5K, 25K and a 50K called the Oak Openings Stampede.  My first thought is to run the 50K because this will cross the trail race and ultra marathon off my list, but I may just do the 25K for the experience of it, but we'll see.

37 miles on my 37th birthday

     This may be a pipe dream, but I was inspired when I read a lady's blog, who was recently featured in Runners World magazine, that she was running 50 miles on her 50th Birthday.  She was running a race, but I am thinking about just hitting the road in the morning till I hit 37 miles and then have Mandy pick me up and take me home. 

Complete an Ultra Marathon

     Ever since I completed the marathon I was so proud of myself, but I had that feeling of what next.  I was mostly thinking of time goals at that time, but the more I read about ultra running the more it intrigues me.  I don't know if I am built for it mentally or physically, but I wanna find out. 

Complete the Detroit Marathon

     Katie from my SoleMates team and the runs for cookies blog is shooting for a marathon PR this year and our fellow SoleMates teammate, Thomas, is coming in from Portland, Oregon to help pace her to her finish time.  I wanted to at least run one marathon this year and my very first half marathon was the Detroit International Half, so I thought it would be perfect.  I'll get to see Thomas and Katie and since I don't have a time goal this year I'll just hang with them to give Katie any support I can.

Hit my goal weight of 173 lbs

     I am so close to my goal weight I set for myself, and I think I would be there already if it wasn't for me not able to run much these last couple months.  Once I am back on the road I'll make the push to get there.

Maintain my weight within the range of 168 - 178

     Once I hit my weight goal I need to give myself an range to live in so I thought a 10 pound range is an acceptable way to maintain where I am at.  That is unless I become some muscle bound buff guy and put on 20lbs of muscle or something crazy. Bahahahaha!

Try more fruits & vegetables 

     Trying the Apple has really opened my eyes and made me think that I need to give some other things a try.  This will be slow and on my terms, but even if I only try one new thing this year I will call that an accomplishment.

     So that is it.  That is what I am thinking right now.  I reserve the right to change my mind and or alter my goals, but I feel like this is really representing how I feel right now.  I never ever thought I would say the words "I really miss running", but I do miss it.  If running a little slower and going longer is better than short and fast (#) than that is what it will be.