Biggoofyrunner thoughts for 2014 – bring it on!

I have posted my year end review already but now I want to talk about my thoughts for 2014.  I won’t call them resolutions because anything I need to resolve to do I shouldn’t be waiting until the new year to start on…so let’s call them thoughts or ideas for now and some will become goals over time.

I basically have a few themes of things I need to work on and really they are pretty similar to last year:

• Sleep – just in general I know I don’t get enough sleep and I am tired a lot of the time.  This leads to me replacing sleep with carbs.  I look for the quick energy of the carbs to push me through when I am burnt and it usually ends up being not very good carbs either that play havoc with my weight.
• Diet – building off the theme above I need to work more on my diet.  I have not been as consistent as I should on having a good solid protein breakfast – this is a priority as is ensuring my work lunches have a good balance with fruits and proteins.  I have to do this while limiting salt and anything that can cause water retention.
• Get my weight down / body fat percentage down.  Ideally I would like to get myself just under 200 pounds – maybe 195-197 range.  And I would like to try to balance out the running by bringing more weight lifting into the mix and settling out near 10% body fat if possible.  This would have huge benefits for my health in general and my running specifically
• Running – this is a tough one to decide what my goals will be and a lot will depend on how well I do at Goofy in January.  If I beat my PR on the full then I will be wanting to drive even lower and things go really well would there be a potential of a BQ?  Buggered if I know right now but if I get my weight down and train very hard then maybe there is an outside chance.  Goofy will tell me more but I am thinking that 3:30 should be possible for me but 3:15 would take blinding focus.  On the more realistic side the half marathon PR of 1:46:11 still needs to fall as well.
• Blog – I want to extend more what I do with the blog and get better with how I use it and social media.  I am constantly learning new things and will continue to try different things to see what works for me.  I also want to build up disney.biggoofyrunner.com (our sub site for Disney inspiration) – write up more stuff that isn’t specifically running related and slowly evolve into more writing about the kids and life in general.

I’m only going to get a bit deeper into the running thoughts here – the others will evolve naturally over the year as long as I work on them.  The running requires a bit more of a plan.  And for a plan I need to have some races booked or at least being looked at so I can build my training plan accordingly.  So far I only have one race book after the Goofy Challenge but I have several thoughts about other races.  I will try to go through those below and explain why I think they would help me get better.

Races for 2014:

• Goofy Challenge in January at Disney World – already booked – this is my 4th one and should be my best yet.  This event is a big part of why I have gotten back into running.
• WPS Half Marathon – 10th anniversary of the race and my 3rd – already signed up.  May 4th (Sunday).  It is good to have a spring run to keep me going through the winter after the Goofy is done.  I think my half PR needs to get reset on this race.  There’s some motivation.
• Fargo Marathon? Not sure on this one but it is May 10th (Saturday) – would be an easy drive down and a good flat race and would help keep my levels higher putting me in a better position for the Manitoba in June.  Similar to what I indicated for the WPS half a spring race will keep me driving through the winter.  My motivation nosedived this past spring and I think having a marathon on the ticket earlier in the year would help prevent that from happening.
• Manitoba Marathon – not signed up yet but expect to do it – June 15th – will be there to push hard up to the race and maybe set a new PR – If I don’t do it at Goofy in January it MUST happen on this race.  Would hope then to be going into summer is super shape and then build on that with pool resistance exercises and additional running through the summer.
• Treherne marathon?  This one is up in the air – it is in September and with the heat through the summer I’m not sure I will be wanting to do full marathon training in that (that and I want to spend as much time in the pool with the kids as possible).  The race also has lots of back country loose gravel roads and not sure I want to do that – will depend on where my head is at after the Manitoba.  Most likely not but maybe if I need to prove something.
• Half marathons in the fall – the 3 races I did this past fall did wonderful things for my motivation and fitness levels – would like to capitalize on that again going into Goofy training for 2015.  I will sort out the races later in the year and which ones I pick will depend on the next couple points below…
• A fall marathon?  This might be nice – if I am really doing well it might be nice to set a new PR before going into Goofy in 2015 so that I could just enjoy that race without putting a lot of expectations on it.
• Wine and Dine half marathon in November?  Would love to do this with the wife as a fun trip just for us – easier for us to train for and would be awesome to be in Epcot really late at night….will have to work on the wife on this one…we will have the annual passes after all…and it is within a month of our anniversary….
• Goofy 2015 – will want to do this – 10th anniversary of the Goofy – my 5th Goofy in 2015…too many numbers easily divisible by 5.  This appeals to my OCD tendencies.  To make it worse, Goofy 2014 includes my 8th marathon, Manitoba will be my 9th and if I don’t do any more this year that would make my 10th as part of the Goofy Challenge.  Ooohh I got goosebumps thinking of all those 5s…or if I do those races and 2 more that would be 5 in 12 months…still wouldn’t qualify me for Marathon Maniacs but would be a great year.  I should stop typing this before I commit to something before I am ready…

Just a thought on mileage for the year – Google Earth shows a straight line from my house to the parking lot at Epcot at 1695 miles with the shortest road distance at 2005 miles….could I hit one of those distances in 2014?  With the right training plan it should be more than possible.  I will just have to decide which one – 1695 is definitely more realistic though.  I did 1400 this year and missed over 200 training miles and took about a total of 5-6 weeks completely off from running so 1695 is achievable for sure.

In Jan and Feb this year I basically took a few weeks off between the Goofy and when I started training for the Manitoba.  I won’t be doing that this year.  As soon as we get back from the Goofy we have 3 weeks before we go to Disney for a family trip.  That 3 weeks will be for running high speed shorter mileage runs and trying to get my weight down.  I will take a bit of a break at Disney World but we are staying at the Beach Club and I will be doing a few morning runs on the Boardwalk during that week.