Run Review and Changes to Laces and Lattes

YAY! We are in 2015! How did you bring in the New Year? I had a chill evening with some girl friends and appetizers and headed to Hamilton on New Years Day for a waterfall terrain run with some runner friends.

Taken from my Instagram.

I am looking forward to an amazing year and I wanted to take a quick look at some changes that will be happening on the blog. Don’t worry, they are all good!

1. I am sending out my first newsletter on Monday, January 5. If you are interested in receiving it, you can sign up here. I have a few exclusive discount codes, a list of winter races you should do and some extra content.

 

2. I am going to be doing a bit of restructuring in my weekly posting. I will still be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30 AM/EST, but it will look more like this:

MOMENTUM MONDAYS:

I get a lot of questions about my training. I will feature my weekly training recap as well as any workouts/therapies that are especially compelling for me that week.

RESOURCE WEDNESDAYS:

We are going to talk shop about run training, whether it is a bit of science, a recovery trick or a training plan. I will take a look at some of the latest books, articles and topics in the running world.

FRIDAY FINALE: 

A bit more of a wild card day, Friday will feature an interview, cool lists or product and race reviews.

I will be kicking that off on Monday, but for now, I wanted to touch on a few running highlights of 2014.

I think my most unexpected performance was the H + P Time Trial where I placed third female in a very competitive and talented field of ladies. I was in the midst of intensive marathon training without a lot of speed work, so the fact that I was able to pull a 7:37 minute 2.2KM was a happy surprise. I am not a track girl, but I do incorporate some speed work into my training to make sure I am healthy and strong for my races.

My most prepared for race was my marathon. I focused intensely on my goal and trained as hard as I could considering the short time frame I had to work with and I was proud of my results. I ran a marathon PR of 3:20:56 and I am looking forward to shaving that time down this year, hopefully at the Boston Marathon as I ran this past marathon on stress fractures.

The two most FUN races were the ones that I won as the first female over all and I don’t that that was an accident. I was not anticipating anything from either race and was using both as a training run, but because they were both beautiful trails with lots of hills, gorgeous scenery and either pouring rain or extremely hot, I fell into a rhythm and felt like I was playing. I barely remember the overall process – I guess it is the kind of races where you experience flow. They were the Creemore Vertical Challenge and Yankee Springs Trail Half Marathon.

Best trail series was 5 Peaks series. I won third female in my age group OA and had a wonderful season with friends. I would love for you to join me for a race (or the whole season!) this year. You can register to win a free race here until tomorrow. 

Best new style of race was the EPIC 8 hour adventure race. It was so much fun to learn more about canoeing, mountain biking and orienteering and I am excited about working on those skills in 2015!

How about you? What are your run highlights of 2014?