I’m certainly not doing too hot on the whole “monthly reflection” of my 2011 goals thing, but two weeks in to May seems like it’s still a perfectly valid day to look back at April.  I’ve been mulling April over a lot, for reasons that will become apparent, and I guess I’m ready to write about it.

  1. Mileage – Official count; 115 miles in April.  Still keeping consistent with January’s 117, February’s 108, and March’s 117, and just above my 104.131456 targeted average for the 2011 kilometer challenge.
  2. Race Weight – I started April feeling like I was on the right track, but my grandmother whom I was very close to passed away on April 111, which not only sucked on a deeply emotional level, but resulted in a lot of what my family decided to call “bereavement calories.”  So, yeah, between airport food and the delicious pastries that family friends brought over, I wasn’t feeling to hot by the end of that week.
    For the second half of the month, I just held steady.  No more gain, no more loss.  But by month’s end, though I was still carrying the few extra pounds, I was feeling much leaner than I had a month prior.  I didn’t do any measure of BMI or try to figure out what percentage of my weight is muscle versus fat, but I’ve got to believe that I’m leaning in the right direction here.
    I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m trying to get there.  Definitely need more discipline on the diet and exercise tip.
  3. Cross Training – Aside from yoga, I managed maybe a once-per-week average through April – if that.  Mostly weights.  More recently (read; not April), I tried my first BodyRock TV workout.  And I definitely need to maintain more of both.
    I broke my yoga streak more than once in April, but am keeping at it.  So we’re on a new streak, but at least it’s a habit now.  Even if I’m not doing it every day, yoga is part of my routine now.
  4. Water – Now that it’s more consistently warmer out, I’m doing better on not front-loading with tea, but I’ve been letting the water go undrank, which is really not like me.  I never thought it would be a challenge to maintain this 100 ounces per day thing, but somehow I’ve fallen off the wagon.  Which is why it’s good to keep looking back at these goals, then turn to the water bottle, and get back on.
  5. Workouts, not just runs – I’ve let things slip a little bit since April ended, but have been doing pretty well in keeping every run a workout2.  Since leaving California, we’ve settled in to Gig Harbor, Washington, which is home to a wicked hilly multiuse trail, so every “easy” run is going to be a bit of a hill workout anyway.
  6. 19:00 5k – Still no attempts at a 5k or anything on the calendar.  But . . .
  7. 1:32 half marathon – I took two swings at this in April, setting a PR each time, but not quite making it.  On April 3, I ran the Great Bay Half Marathon in New Hampshire in 1:36:30, 42 seconds faster than the Santa to the Sea in December.  The next week, I shaved off another 3:05 and the Wine Country Half Marathon in Paso Robles, CA in 1:33:25.  I skipped the Western Pacific Half Marathon (and am very glad I did, given surrounding circumstances) but signed up for the Tacoma City Marathon half on May 1, which I managed to finish in 1:29:56, another 3:29 faster, third in my age group, twenty first overall, a full seven minutes and sixteen seconds faster than December.
    And, according to Greg McMillan‘s fancy calculations, that’s not only fast enough for my goal, I’m hypothetically capable of managing a 3:09:40 marathon.  Which means I ought to find myself a late summer marathon.  I’m looking at either the Lake Tahoe Marathon or Skagit Flats Marathon thus far . . . all I know is it’s got to be somewhere en route from Vancouver to San Francisco and before October, as my wife was selected in the lottery for the Nike Women’s Marathon!  Which means I get to be a marathon spectator!

 

Show 2 footnotes

  1. I wasn’t sure I wanted to mention this at all on the interwebs, but it affected me in many ways, and I’m getting to the point where I can discuss it with people I’m not related to, so here it is, world.
  2. Technically, recovery runs are workouts too, though, so I’m not as bad as I give myself crap for.
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks