2015 Resolutions

I’ve had this written for a while, but it’s taken me a while to crawl back out of holiday slack mode to refine and make sure my intent is straight on all of these.

Racing:

Do some soul searching and figure out what is important to YOU for 2015 race-wise, since you may be on a different schedule than Zliten for at least half if not more of the year.  Race the marathon Feb 28th only if training is going well.  Make appropriate goals as such.  No arbitrary January 1st goals on what you’re supposed to PR or tackle next year, just the promise that each race will be for a reason.

So far on the schedule is:

Woodlands Full (/half if training goes poorly) – Feb 28

Austin 10/20 – Mar 29

That’s it.  The year is what I want to make of it otherwise.  As of right now, I have the typical conflicting thoughts of wanting to do it all – maintain a major running base and trying to knock over some of my older PRs (5k, 10k, half) while dipping my toe into swim racing and getting faster at the shorter triathlons and maybe doing a full cycling century and maybe even doing a 50k ultra.

What’s absent right now is the drive to do a bunch of 70.3s.  I’ll probably do one, Kerrville, but I don’t feel the need to dedicate my year to it.  I’m also questioning Kerrville + Spacecoast marathon.  Unless I truly approach it as a training run to build to a second marathon later, or I can maintain a really good run base, it’s never going to be my best shot at a great experience.  I’m thinking about trying the half next year.  We’ll see.

Training:

Polarized and periodized training seems to work.  Continue with this.  Easy days easy.  Hard days on point.  Base periods without electronics or focus and embracing the joy of movement with really loose volume suggestions instead of nailing a certain mileage/pace.  Months out of your A race – 85% easy 15% hard.  Closer – more goal pace work.

Upping the volume just a bit.  Hopefully by spending a little more time at each thing and also by getting faster.

• 1k run miles.  Let’s make this one happen.  935 is really close, I could probably have done this with a few more weeks of higher volume.
• 100 swim miles. That’s more swimming.  Like 25% more.  I’d really like to figure out ways to tack more short swims onto the end of workouts and maybe not have any months where my swimming is less than 1 mile a week (which was actually 1/3 of my 2014)
• 3k bike miles (~2800 last year).  A higher % of my ~3k bike miles outside or at spin class (aka, not easy trainer miles).

Work strength and stretching in as I can.  Do more when I can fit it in.  Little stuff during commercials, lazy strength sessions while I’m dicking around at home, 10 mins of yoga in the morning when I don’t have time for anything else, this stuff all adds up.  Every week I should think “hey, I fit in a little bit” at least.

DDR is a great plyometric workout.  Try to incorporate this into training or maybe look into some of the classes at the new gym. Keep up with the drills during running.  Keep some explosivity in the legs.

For January, I’m going to try streaking. 1 run mile per day, minimum.  I’m finding that at least in winter, the biggest obstacle for me is getting out the door.  Even if nothing else, this will net me another 2-3 miles per week running an easy mile on days I would normally take off.

Figure out a time for offseason.  True offseason, same as July for you this year.  At least 1 month.

Food/eating/scale:

If nothing else, eating higher fat and less grains has helped me fuel better during training and races.  Continue this, but in the way it was in August/September when the weight was starting to come off.  Unless it stops working.  Then be reasonable.

Continue to batch cook.  Experiment with new recipes.  Enjoy healthy food.

Track food again, for a bit, starting Jan 5th.  To get a baseline of what is working.

No booze January.  This will be a bit of an experiment.  I anticipate losing some lbs because of it but I’m not banking on it.

Don’t indulge like a jerk on the cruise in March.  You get 2-3 days of marathon metabolism eating and then you need to eat like a normal human.

The scale comes with on all trips.  That helps not to spend two months whittling away a few hard fought lbs to gain them back in a weekend.

Weigh less in December 2015 than I do in January 2015.

Work stuff:

Approach my new position with confidence, wisdom, humility, and listen to the folks who have experience at the new stuff im taking on

Realize i cant be superwoman.  Do my best and walk away from it at the end of the day.  No second guessing or judgements.

Get at least 2 more chapters through any games under my purview.

Continue to play a variety of games (online, table top, board, card, etc) as research and experience.

Above all else – nothing is set in stone yet, so don’t completely freak out if things don’t go according to the plan in your head.

Other stuff:

Get rid of at least ONE (non-perishible) net thing every day in 2015.  If I do extra, great.  But every day, one thing will leave this house via donation, treasure table, giving it to someone, or the trash.  If we bring in new non perishable things, we have to donate/trash an equal amount of things (amount, not type).  Hopefully this will encourage me to do MORE than one thing per day but I’ll call this a victory at 365 extra things gone.

Continue not going into a training hole and be social – hang out with people and don’t turn down too many invitations out.

Less facebook/twitter, more short posts on here (vs epic long recaps after not posting for a week or 2).

Complete the TX Tri Series with a mix of volunteering and racing.  Volunteer elsewhere when I can.

Do something that’s a hobby, not dying in front of the tv, once a week for more than a few minutes.  This can include reading, video gaming, sewing, piano playing, writing that’s not for this blog, etc.

Actually go scuba diving in lake travis this summer (or somewhere) so I don’t noob it up in the winter.

Spend as much time in the water I can.

End the year with 3 words to describe 2015 that are as positive as “grateful, fun, and focused”.

What’s your 2015 resolution?