After last year’s ups, downs and big life changes, I’m itching to crush some major running goals. The first one: train wisely! After developing a bunion on my right foot and finally figuring out the right combo of shoes, KT tape (or not) and toe spacer to not have bouts of numbness or pain after running, I have realized that I need to seriously learn to love strength training. I wish I could say that I’ve been diligently killing a strength focused workout two times a week, so far I’ve only completed one since the start of the year. Baby steps. I just need to reconcile that one strength workout per week is better and more helpful than no strength workout each week. Time to build a strong foundation with the body that I have.

“Think about what you want your body to DO for you, rather than what you want to take away from it. Honor your body, don’t talk shit about it.” -Lauren Fleshman

I can’t take away the bunion, but I can build up the muscles in my body to realign myself to lessen my chances of developing an injury. I also need to learn to be okay with taking a few days off from constantly being on the go. Relaxing is something that I don’t do often enough. I feel lazy if I haven’t accomplished any arbitrary tasks that I believe I should on any given day. This is starting to become problematic, as I end up having anxiety about not getting shit done but also exhaustion when I keep going beyond what I can physically handle. Granted, I have been getting a full night’s sleep now that I am working at a completely different job. I am cleaning up my eating habits and overall, I feel physically better with those small changes.

Race goals! I want to break 2 hours in the half marathon in early May. I have chosen the Des Moines Women’s Half Marathon to be my goal race. This race is also going to be my first ever race I’ve run for charity. Last year I was a volunteer coach for my local Girls on the Run, but due to my hectic schedule in the retail world, committing two afternoons per week to coach wasn’t feasible this year. So I volunteered to be a Sole Mate with a goal of raising $500 for Girls on the Run of Central Iowa. I also have no idea where to start when it comes to fund raising and am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the process. I have set up my fundraising link and would be eternally grateful at any amount donated to Girls on the Run.

Another race goal is to complete a fall marathon. I’m currently debating between the Des Moines Marathon or the Kansas City Marathon. Both are the third weekend in October, KC being on Saturday and Des Moines being on Sunday. The advantages to Des Moines are pretty high: I’ve already run the course before, I can also train on the course, I won’t have to travel for the race, the cost to register is less. But a small part of me also wants to start working out the logistics for travelling for a marathon. I want to run Chicago, NYC and a few other major marathons so I know what to expect when I finally get that Boston Qualifier and run the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is my long term marathon goal. It’s been nagging at the back of my mind ever since I decided to train for my first marathon in 2015. I have a lot of training to do before I reach the fitness it will take to run a qualifying time for Boston. At this point, I’d need to run a 3:30 marathon to BQ. For reference, my first marathon time was 5:10. I’v got to knock off nearly two hours to even hit the qualifying time. This also seems completely out of reach right now, but I know that staying healthy and injury free is how I can do the impossible.