2012: New Year, New Goals, and NE 70th Still Sucks
Well it’s definitely been awhile since the blog has been put
into use. Most of the blogging towards
the end of last year was around running and after NYC, I really needed to
detach from all things related to running for a bit. The timing of NYC works out well for that
because you have about 7 weeks until the end of the year to start fresh.
Then I got superstitious with Big Blue starting to get on their winning streak, so I decided that my blogging would definitely have an effect on how the Giants would do in the playoffs. Clearly it worked. That also delayed the inaugural blog entry for 2012.
We have been doing some cooking along the way so I am going to break up the blog entries into where I am at with my running, and then write a separate one about the Giants along with the culinary experiments taking place in Chez Beck. All in all, 2011 was an excellent year on so many fronts and we were so fortunate to share those good times with great family and friends.
So many positive things happened in 2011 but I knew that I needed to figure out what I could improve upon in 2012.
The more I thought about it, the more I kept going back to my nutrition strategy and how it played a huge role in both marathons I laced up for in 2011. One of the takeaways from running a marathon was understanding that while a marathon is twice the length of a half-marathon, it doesn’t exactly work like that from a fitness and nutrition perspective. It’s almost as though you’re running 17 or 18 miles in the 2nd half as opposed to running 13 miles.
Continuing on the nutrition theme, I also decided that I started focusing on marathon nutrition strategy only when I decided I was going to run a full. While that seems logical, it takes awhile to figure out what works and what does not work as you exert yourself for longer periods of time. So I got some guidance, which has worked so far.
I made a commitment to start early in the season on assessing how I could have more energy later on in the marathon distance. Even though I will not be building up to long (16+ miles) for at least a couple of months, I want to get my body used to certain fueling strategies early on. The benefit will be that when I ramp up my mileage that the tweaks should hopefully be minimal to keep the energy levels consistent in a marathon.
Other things to work on – increasing upper body strength and mobility via Crossfit, more “business” massages (aka – nothing relaxing, but productive), sticking with the heart rate zone training with Kim at TNMultisports.
The past couple of weeks have been really positive on the training front, and I feel like my fitness is close to where I’d hope it would be after the break. Also when you get some of these runs in with friends to laugh and chat about life, that’s a double win.
Today’s run was listed as a strength workout mixed in with a long run. READ: HILLS. That called for me to dust out the plan for NE 70th. The last time I did 70th was on some hill repeats last year with Melissa and Meagan of NW Crossfit. I recruited CP to join in the fun since she destroyed me and drew blood (no, really!) the previousTuesday during a track workout.
Well this morning’s run didn’t disappoint in terms of the suckage factor on NE 70th and I think we were just relieved to gut it out. This was one of those runs where the overall pace didn’t matter and finishing did. Um, a round of ice baths for everyone. Yippee!
Then I got superstitious with Big Blue starting to get on their winning streak, so I decided that my blogging would definitely have an effect on how the Giants would do in the playoffs. Clearly it worked. That also delayed the inaugural blog entry for 2012.
We have been doing some cooking along the way so I am going to break up the blog entries into where I am at with my running, and then write a separate one about the Giants along with the culinary experiments taking place in Chez Beck. All in all, 2011 was an excellent year on so many fronts and we were so fortunate to share those good times with great family and friends.
So many positive things happened in 2011 but I knew that I needed to figure out what I could improve upon in 2012.
The more I thought about it, the more I kept going back to my nutrition strategy and how it played a huge role in both marathons I laced up for in 2011. One of the takeaways from running a marathon was understanding that while a marathon is twice the length of a half-marathon, it doesn’t exactly work like that from a fitness and nutrition perspective. It’s almost as though you’re running 17 or 18 miles in the 2nd half as opposed to running 13 miles.
Continuing on the nutrition theme, I also decided that I started focusing on marathon nutrition strategy only when I decided I was going to run a full. While that seems logical, it takes awhile to figure out what works and what does not work as you exert yourself for longer periods of time. So I got some guidance, which has worked so far.
I made a commitment to start early in the season on assessing how I could have more energy later on in the marathon distance. Even though I will not be building up to long (16+ miles) for at least a couple of months, I want to get my body used to certain fueling strategies early on. The benefit will be that when I ramp up my mileage that the tweaks should hopefully be minimal to keep the energy levels consistent in a marathon.
Other things to work on – increasing upper body strength and mobility via Crossfit, more “business” massages (aka – nothing relaxing, but productive), sticking with the heart rate zone training with Kim at TNMultisports.
The past couple of weeks have been really positive on the training front, and I feel like my fitness is close to where I’d hope it would be after the break. Also when you get some of these runs in with friends to laugh and chat about life, that’s a double win.
Today’s run was listed as a strength workout mixed in with a long run. READ: HILLS. That called for me to dust out the plan for NE 70th. The last time I did 70th was on some hill repeats last year with Melissa and Meagan of NW Crossfit. I recruited CP to join in the fun since she destroyed me and drew blood (no, really!) the previousTuesday during a track workout.
Well this morning’s run didn’t disappoint in terms of the suckage factor on NE 70th and I think we were just relieved to gut it out. This was one of those runs where the overall pace didn’t matter and finishing did. Um, a round of ice baths for everyone. Yippee!