2017

What a year!  I'm not even sure where to start.  The first year of my life where I put in a full year of not just running, but training.  My highest yearly mileage ever, by almost 100 miles.  My 2 longest runs ever (27 and 30 miles).  My 3rd, and strongest, marathon.  Some solid half marathon performances.  Many Track Tuesdays.  Many miles with friends.  I didn't achieve the goal I was working towards all year, but I still achieved so much this year.

It is easy to get sucked into disappointment over my failures this year, but I'm not letting that happen, because I can also see all my triumphs, and they are so much bigger.  Things can't go perfectly all the time, that wouldn't be real, and wouldn't help us appreciate them as much either!  I just completed a strong, almost injury-free year, and I am going into 2018 stronger than ever.  I am ready to crush some marathon training for Pittsburgh in May.  I'm going to keep working on my speed in the hopes of someday PRing in the half marathon.  Maybe it will happen in 2018 and maybe it won't, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that I keep on believing in myself and working hard to achieve what I want in life.

I just finished the year with roughly 1585 miles, my highest ever!  I'm setting the bar even higher for 2018 with a goal of 1700 miles.  To achieve that, I'm going to try to up my weekly mileage from 30 to 35.  BUT I will always strive to do what's best for me and if it turns out that goal is too lofty and I just can't manage 35 a week, I will scale it back.  Running strong is more important than running far. (However, I feel like 35 miles per week is still pretty low for most marathoners, so I'm not expecting it to be too big of a problem...)

Here's my monthly recaps from Instagram