January Blues
January is typically the toughest month of the year for me. Daylight hours are few which affects my mood and productivity. I feel out of sorts from the aftermath of the holiday sugar overload and I feel out of shape because I'm not in any sort of peak training. Every year I know it's coming and every year it happens, though this year has been one of the better so far. Part of that has not been overwhelming myself with new resolutions then feeling terrible for not accomplishing them. Rather, I've been taking everything one day at a time and simply doing my best.While I haven't made any specific resolutions for this year, I'm continuing with some themes that resonated with me last year: consistency and grace. Committing to being consistent and outlining specific daily and weekly goals really helped my accountability with training in 2016. I reached my goal of running 2600 miles in the year, an average of 50 miles per week. Leading up to the Chicago Marathon last October, I had this realization that I had been being really hard on myself through my training and had been putting too many expectations on myself and that one day. I felt that instead I needed to be gentle with myself and give myself grace. That became super relevant because I got to a point in the marathon where I wanted to quit because I was hurting badly and falling behind around mile 17. I gave myself permission to stop, collect myself, and run it in to the finish at a sustainable pace rather than bail. I'm more proud of earning that Chicago Marathon medal than any other.I still want to pick a new theme going into the new year. There's one thing I'm always afraid of going into a race, and that is to let it hurt! I'm not talking about pushing through an injury, but running through typical race pain. I always try to do the best I can while remaining as comfortable as possible. My reasoning is that I want to save something for the end and avoid burning out. This strategy is okay to an extent, but by not taking any risks I've rarely reached a point where I've truly found my edge. I can think back to an instance last year when I was in a later stage of a local race and nearly caught up to someone that had always finished leagues ahead of me. I was having a great day and she was likely having a rough day. I began to close the gap between us, but something held me back. I was scared to pass her because I didn't know if I could do that and maintain my pace to the finish. I also somehow felt I shouldn't pass her out of respect, like it would be a low blow on someone already having a bad day. I didn't attempt to pass her, and it's very likely she would have rallied and beat me anyway, but I'll never know what would have happened had I tried. I wish I had just gone for it. All that being said, this year my goal is to take bigger risks and let it hurt a little! Perhaps that is a bit counter-intuitive with my grace theme... but I believe it's possible to have both.I updated my race schedule with an outline of my first half of the year. I'm kicking off the season next week with some indoor track, repeating some of my favorite races from last year including the Corvallis Half Marathon and Bloomsday 12K, and capping it all off with the historic Grandma's Marathon in June!In another news, I recently got to chat with Lindsey Hein on her podcast I'll Have Another. Lindsey is a marathon runner, running coach, and mom. I remember first learning about her and her incredibly moving story when she graced the cover of Women's Running Magazine. She was so sweet to chat with and we covered all kinds of topics from my life growing up with music, my first sub-3 marathon, and how running and music intersect in my life. We also talked my experience at the Grammys last year and talents and woes of Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, and Adele. You can listen to the episode here as well as on iTunes.Enough typing for now- it's time to bust out the spikes and hit the (snow covered) track!