I have been thinking for a while now about what my goals should be for 2015. I didn’t want to lock myself down to anything until after the Dopey Challenge was completed and I saw if I met my goals there or not.
With the Dopey Challenge now complete and those goals met, I have now had a chance to sit down and really think about what I want to do with my running and fitness in 2015. But I also thought about what else I want to do this year beyond the running stuff…you know…like other hobbies? I vaguely remember having hobbies…
Where I am coming from here is that I put in some major milestones with running in 2014 (and early 2015 so far) but those milestones came with a time cost. It meant spending less time with my family than I would like (don’t get me wrong – they were very understanding and never complained about the amount of time I was putting in) and it meant sacrificing other hobbies, etc as the time needed to run had to be balanced out.
As a bit of a recap for 2014 and early 2015:
- 1971 miles for the year – my highest mileage year ever
- 3 months where mileage was 200 miles or greater
- set a new half marathon PR (1:46:00)
- set a new full marathon PR (4:09:44)
- ran my first ever ultramarathon – 12 hour run totaling 49.2785 miles
- completed the 2015 Dopey Challenge while hitting a significant number of photo stops
- As part of the Dopey Challenge I also completed my 5th Goofy Challenge, 10th marathon and 15th half marathon
So all told the last 13 months have been significant and filled with many phenomenal milestones! I am proud of what I accomplished in this time period.
So with all that in mind here are some of my thoughts on what my running goals will be for the rest of 2015:
- Run less – stick with me here…I hit 1971 miles in 2014 and invested significant time in the training but by the end of the year I just felt like I was putting in time. It was not focused. I put in mile after mile but most of it was at easy speeds due to weather and treadmill issues – I never felt like I was pushing myself. I want to focus and get more out of every mile I train. I then also want to get more time with the family. This means I want to do more speed work, more hill work and reduce the number of long runs on the weekends. I want to get energized about running again.
- So what does this look like? Probably something like 1400 miles this year – significant drop from the 2014 year but still quite good.
- My basic schedule will have approximately 30 minutes on the treadmill Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I say approx 30 minutes because I will probably try to do these as 5 mile runs and that should be in the 35-40 minute range. These weekday runs will be done involving lots of speed and some hills. This speed work is the reason we got a new robust treadmill.
- I will then back off my weekend runs from 2 long runs (10 miles Saturday and 13-20 miles Sunday currently) to only one medium to long run – that is, I will most likely run 13.1 miles every Saturday and take Sunday off as a family day. I don’t want to completely lose the endurance I have built up so I also intend to make one of these Saturday runs a 3 hour run once a month. This should equate to a 18-20 mile run once a month with three 13.1s.
- So I will be backing off from an average of 40-50+ miles a week to around 30-35.
- The only race I am currently putting on my calendar for 2015 is the Winnipeg Police Service Half (WPS Half marathon) in May. My intention is to PR this race (this is the reason for all the speed work).
- After that in June the Manitoba Marathon comes up on Father’s Day. I suspect I will run this race but I don’t know yet if I will do the half or the full. I will make the final decision on that based upon how the WPS Half goes. If I break my half PR there I will run the full here. If I don’t make the half PR then I will run the half here and try again.
- I might do a couple of the half marathons in the fall I have done the past couple years but I will decide that this summer.
- I also keep thinking about the 12 hour Lemming Loop again – I didn’t quite make 50 miles and I would like to break that milestone but the race is in October and I’m not sure I want to put in the many long hours of training required to get ready for this race though the summer. It would mean giving many hours of my summer weekends to training and I’m not sure if I will be willing to do that again. I’m putting this one as a maybe at this point.
- runDisney races – I will be taking a break from the Walt Disney World Marathon races for 2016 from what I can tell at this point. I love the races but I have done it several years in a row now and it may be time to back off for a bit.
Some other non-running fitness themed goals for 2015:
- Lose some more weight – I am currently down 35-40 pounds from what I consider my starting point in September 2012 or about 50 down from my worst point. But I have been in the same 5 pound range for about a year now and it is time to get things moving down again. I’m hoping the extra intensity from doing more speed and hill work will help here, but I also need to re-evaluate my diet at this point as well.
- short term goal is to get to 210 pounds by the end of April
- longer term goal is to get to 207 (with increased muscle mass) prior to September (3 years since I started trying to get back in shape) equaling a 50 pound loss since my start point.
- Increase strength training – I want to refine my body shape by losing more fat and adding more muscle:
- I already do daily chin ups, pull ups and push ups but want to increase the number done in each set by the end of the year by 100%. I also want to change up to doing this twice daily – so in the morning as I do now and in the evening as well.
- Start back on some free weights at home – arms, shoulders and legs. 2-4 days a week for 15-20 minutes per day. I’m not going to go back to doing hours of weight lifting every week like I used to but I do want some muscle back.
- Get more sleep! I may be the only person that actually got more sleep during the Dopey Challenge than I normally do – I really need to focus on getting to bed at a decent time on weekdays!
I also have some more general goals to be happier, healthier and more productive:
- Spend more time with the kids and my wife – this is really the big goal for the year. It means doing more healthy and active things together but also more quiet time.
- Get back into some of my other hobbies – photography (I’m not any good but I enjoy the process), writing, doodling, playing video games, reading, walking
- Be more present – less screen time! This means less smart phone, computer, tv, etc and more actually being there mentally.
- Play music around the house more – there always seems to be a tv on for background noise in our house, music would be a better choice all around.
- Do more stuff with my hands – building things, drawing, crafty things, etc – this will include doing more stuff like when I built my own standing desk out of copper tubing.
So that is an overview of where I want to go in 2015 and at this point I am only going to truly focus on the shorter term goals of the weight loss and the WPS Half Marathon in May. I am keeping myself open to re-evaluate in May once that race is done and I am willing to change my goals at that point once I see where I get to in the next 4 months.
Stick around and let’s see where we end up!
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