Tuesday, November 1, 2016

November Goals

Happy Fall! It's November! I always say I love the warm weather of summer and hate the cold, but I do love the fall colors and leaves changing. So beautiful!

Anyway, back to things. My healthy eating got away from me on my honeymoon (obviously!) and hasn't quite recovered. So I need to get that back on track. But running is going well.

I ran the hot chocolate 15k last Sunday (recap to come, hopefully), and even though I'm not as fast as I was when I ran this in 2010, so I wasn't planning on a PR, it's amazing to me how much just losing a bit of weight helps with running. I felt pretty good and actually ran the whole thing, not even a stop for water (someone handed me a bottle of water which I kept with me a until mile 6).

First, 9.3 miles is my longest distance since my last half in May. It's a good hike for me these days. So to be able to run it non stop is pretty amazing for me right now. I haven't done that in a long time. A LONG TIME! Like at least a couple years I would imagine. I did run 8 miles a month ago with only 1 stop in the middle, which was why (by mile 3), I thought maybe that could be my goal for the race. 

So I've lost between 35-40 lbs since the beginning of the year. And since then, my pace has improved and clearly so has my cardio endurance.  You know, I know this already. Since I lost weight in 2010. But you kind of forget. You don't think maybe that's why my knees are hurting more while running and my breathing is more labored. You kind of know, but don't realize what a difference it really does make.

Since losing weight isn't everything when it comes to improving your running... I have been thinking of things I want to get better at and decided to slow start that by making some November goals.

NOVEMBER GOALS

1. Incorporate strength training/core work. I'm combining this one right now since I'm doing neither right now. I don't want to say I want to do both and then do neither. So for the month of November, I want to incorporate 1 strength training workout or core workout per week. I know that's not a lot. But it's more than I'm doing now and I have to start somewhere. If I do more, bonus. Hopefully I can up this by December.  I'm also going to say that I will do this on Tues or Wednesday during the week. If I don't pick a day, before I know it, it's Friday and I'm just saying "I'll start next week."

Any advice on a good video or website that I can use that has a good routine?

2.  Stretch more. This could be general stretching, foam rolling, etc. or yoga. My hamstrings and calves are super tight as well as my IT band and hips. Basically everything. Foam roll. Stretch. It's needed!  I'm going to try to incorporate that right now on Monday. And I'm going to put a minimum time of 10 mins! None of this 3 mins foam roll and I'm done. lol.

3. Continue on my healthy eating plan. I still have 10-15 lbs that I want to lose but I know those last 10 lbs can be stubborn. Since I was eating crap for October, I think I can make my November weight loss goal of 5 lbs. Normally I wouldn't put a number on it but for this month (after my October), I think it's necessary. It's not a huge number but it's big enough to matter! I need to be working on it!

4. Drink my water. I'm typically good at getting 40-50 ounces of water in a day but have been slacking on that in October too. And I typically like that number to be closer to 80 ounces of water. So my November goal is to hit 60-80 ounces of water daily. I just realized I've only had about 14 ounces today so I better get moving!

I think these are very doable goals for November. I don't want to make too many or make them too hard because then they probably won't get done.

Hope you all have a great start to the month!