December and 2013 Round-Up

What I thought would be two blogs I did in one last year ... so let's stick with that. I like that idea. It'll help me get to bed quicker.

December was ... well, December was bad. I didn't do jack all for most of the month. You'll see ...

Running: 1.07 mi
Swimming: 400m (.25 mi)
Cycling: 2.62 mi
Lifting: two sessions!
Other: a session of Wii Fit, three rounds of stretching

Yeah. A whole lot of nothing. Also the reason of the end of the weekly recap posts, because I really didn't feel like writing entries like the following:

x day: Off: because I can
x day: Off: because
x day: Off: (no reason)

You don't want to read it, I don't want to write it. We have an accord.

Now, for the goal recap. For all intents and purposes, I kind of failed in hitting most of my goals. Ultimately I succeeded in the biggest one (finish IMAZ), but I didn't hit any of my sub goals, which really kind of stinks. Maybe I was too ambitious for the first one; who knows. It just means I have more to strive for next time.

Anyway, let's recap:

Running:
Break old 5K PR of 26:27: Two 5Ks of 28:13 and 30:22 say fail.
Sub-59:00 10K: 59:12 says fail. It was still a PR, though.
Hit 2:10 (stretch: 2:00) in the Half-Marathon: Garmin says yes - 2:09:44; official results say no. Gotta go official, unfortunately. Mentally I know it's achievable.

Race Goals:
Sub-1:50 or 1:45 at Boulder Sprint: A 1:44:39 says yes to both! Shortened bike, but I'll take it.
Sub-3:30 at 5i50 Boulder Peak: 3:26:37 says success! Also a shortened bike, but meh. Probably made it an official 40K as opposed to the 42K it usually is.
Sub-7:30 (or 7 or 6:45) at Boulder 70.3: My 7:40:09 says fail. I know this is more than possible though. Stupid flats.

Ironman Goals:
FINISH: Woo!
Finish sub-17 (15 or 14): Shoulda had a sub-16 goal. Woulda hit that one.
Finish swim sub-2:20 (2 or 1:40): Pool times had me almost hitting the stretch; reality had me two minutes off stretch goal number one.
Finish bike sub-5:30 pm/10:30 race clock (7 hrs or 6 hrs): I got off the bike. Good enough.
Finish run before 17:00 (sub-5:11; sub-5): So the stretch goals were a bit lofty, I know, especially for someone who had a.) never run a marathon and b.) no idea how her legs were going to respond to running after all that other crap. For a little while though, it did seem within reach, and I'm happy with that
Keep transitions under 10:00: ... Med tent stop in T1 made that one 11:24. Had I not screwed up my ankle the day before? This one would have been golden. I'm counting it.

Moral of my goals/resolution story? Don't try for short course PRs (except maybe at a tri) when training for long shit. Also, if you're self-coached and doing your first Ironman, maybe your goals shouldn't be too lofty. Who knows.

New goals to come soon! (Probably Sunday.)

HOWEVER, I do have a specific January goal: Move for at least 10 minutes EVERY DAY. I have been slothful post-IMAZ for way too long and I need to get in the habit of exercising again. This means, move every day for at least 10 minutes. That 10 minutes can be stretching and Rumble Rolling (oh that thing is painful and sucky), but it's gotta happen, and it's gotta happen every day. Two days in and so far, so good.