Running/Fitness Update

Now that I'm home, I finally had some time to look at the calendar and figure out some reasonable running and fitness goals for the next few months.

First, I need to focus on minimizing my body frame.  Miraculously, despite eating all the foods in Europe, I came home at exactly the same mass I was when I left.  I attribute this to lots of walking, easy cardio in a gym whenever I could fit it in, good coffee (I bought a Nespresso machine within 2 days of our return), and reasonable portion sizes (for the most part).  So, I'm going to try to replicate those conditions at home, while also doing my best to increase the workouts and prepare healthier lighter fare when I can cook.  

Since the New York marathon, due to running fatigue and travel, my fitness efforts have been mainly in gyms.  It's been nice to mix it up.  In addition to being able to read while doing moderate cardio on machines, I've been doing much more core work, both strength and stretching.  In my first workout back in the gym in a long time, I included 3 sets of 6 pushups and I've been bumping it up each time.  Most recently, I did 3 sets of 9.  So, I think 3X15 pushups is a good goal for the end of the year.

Last week, I fit in 19.1 miles walking and running, plus another 90 minutes of easy cardio while reading on gym machines, and another hour or so of core.  There were really only 2 real "workouts" as far as running was concerned -- I did 6 miles with the running club on Sunday chatting at a 10:51 AVG pace, which counts as my long run ; and I did 5X400 @ 8:00/mile pace on the treadmill with walking recovery on one of my gym workout days -- this one doesn't look like much but I was actually very proud of it, as it was after 30 minutes on the recumbant bike, and before another 30 minutes of core strength and stretching, so it made for a very solid workout overall.

My current race calendar and goals are very simple:

December 13 -- Summit Rock Half Marathon -- have a solid trail run, no time goals, but want to push myself.

January 11 -- San Francisco Hot Chocolate Run -- easy run to the finish to cheer on folks from my local running club who are racing. (I've got social plans the night before that are unlikely to finish before midnight, so it just didn't make sense for me to pay to do this one.)

February 1 -- SF Kaiser Half Marathon -- race

March 22 -- Oakland Half Marathon -- maybe?

April 26 -- San Luis Obispo Half Marathon -- not sure yet.  Will almost certainly do this one, but it's too far out to set specific goals yet.

My other fitness goals are relatively simple as well.

I want to try to get back into the habit of going to Wednesday track day when I'm home -- their workouts didn't fit with my marathon training (which didn't have much speed work at all), and I don't have much of anything in terms of speed right now.  I'd like to change that.  I think I'd also like to find one or more local 10Ks or 5Ks for early 2014.  

I want to continue gym workouts on at least one, and hopefully 2 days per week to give me the opportunity to reward myself with books to stay motivated and to work on my core.

Speaking of core, I want to get back into the yoga studio, with a goal of 1 session per week.

And, then, after fitting in track, gym, and yoga, on the other days each week, I'd like to fit in some easy runs and a long run.

It sounds like many of the bay area running peeps are gearing up for longer races in the spring and early summer.  So I think I may also try to take advantage of that, and just look to join folks on training runs and/or as a pacer/crew on super long runs.