JUNE MILES + JULY GOALS
So, I realized that I never even talked about my June goals. I took most of April + all of May off from racing, just trying to get my body + mind ready for a PR come the summer months. I’ve been working hard for several months now to get myself ready to do some serious 5K racing. June was going to be my big month for training + racing for a PR.I had 2 races in June - the KT82, which was just for fun, and last week’s Superhero Dash. I came up 2 seconds short of a PR at the Superhero Dash, but it was definitely the confidence boost I needed to get myself MENTALLY prepared for a PR. Right now, my mental toughness is my biggest struggle. Instead of positive affirmations during my races, I am typically thinking of how much every part of my body hurts. Ugh. Time to get my mental toughness ready to go.How do I UP my mental toughness game? Well, long runs + tough track/tempo workouts really are the things that help me. However, I know that I need… SOMETHING… to say during a race to help me get through those tough parts. When I PRed the half marathon back in October, I used a quote from Hamilton, “I am not throwing away my shot. I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy, and hungry, and I’m not throwing away my shot.” Time to start rocking out to Hamilton lyrics on my way to races again - and on my long runs!As far as mileage though, I probably had one of my highest mileage months EVER. I am consistently hitting 30+ weeks in my training, running 10 mile long runs every weekend, and the majority of my runs during the week are 6 miles or more (except the past 2 weeks, since I am starting to taper a little). And while my legs are definitely FEELING the extra miles (typically by the end of the week, my legs are DEAD), I am actually feeling REALLY good. And this is really the first time I have sat down to check out my mileage. Because my Garmin + Strava record everything for me, I don’t really worry about my total weekly mileage too much, so seeing those numbers truly excites me!
TOTAL MILES FOR JUNE = 159 milesAVERAGE PER WEEK = 38.48 miles
Right now, like I said, I am starting to taper for my GOAL 5K in 2 weeks. I’ll be heading to Chicago for the 3rd year in a row to run Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago! I will be doing the Remix again (5K on Saturday, half marathon on Sunday), and I actually feel like this is the most prepared I will ever be for BOTH races. The first year I ran, my goal was the 5K two years ago and the half last year. Being just 6 months postpartum with Miles when I first ran the 5K, I should’ve been pretty happy with just over 21 minutes (and 1st in my age group). Last year, I TOTALLY blew up in the half, running no where NEAR my goal of 1:35. So, I’m feeling REALLY good about this year! It’s a new course, but it’s fairly similar to the old course, so I’m pumped to have the chance to PR up in Chicago!After #RNRCHI, I’ll be gearing up for the fall racing season. I have some 5Ks and at least 10K planned this fall, and I’m PUMPED about where my training is taking me right now! While it was super hard for me to give up the control I had over my training plan, being able to have a coach give me the accountability I needed was MORE than worth it!