November 2018 Training Recap

I had a lot of goals at the beginning of November. I wanted to participate in the 30 Day November Challenge for as long as I could, hopefully into the double digits, but instead I made it to day 5. I was more focused on my T25 workouts at that point, and I was okay with that. I continued to run and do those workouts until the week after Thanksgiving, and then things started to slowly go down hill. I’m still running – every day, in fact – but some days it is a real struggle to even do that. I’m working on figuring things out and getting back on track, but I’ll talk more about that later. Let’s get into the details of November.

Total Miles: 63 miles

Here’s where I stand with my “Banking the Miles” challenge for 2018:

January 2017: 73.83 miles / January 2018: 66.50 miles
February 2017: 33.39 miles/ February 2018: 74.53 miles
March 2017: 51.51 miles/ March 2018: 89.00 miles
April 2017: 68.68 miles / April 2018: 70.75 miles
May 2017: 61.50 miles/ May 2018: 100.19 miles
June 2017: 51.62 miles/ June 2018: 78.57 miles
July 2017: 70.38 miles/ July 2018: 79.76 miles
August 2017: 104.54 miles/ August 2018: 136.95 miles
September 2017: 136.86 miles/ September 2018: 137.30 miles
October 2017: 72.28 miles/ October 2018: 80.11 miles
November 2017: 52.86 miles / November 2018: 63 miles
December 2017: 57.54 miles /
TOTAL 2017: 835 miles/ TOTAL 2018: 976.66 miles / GOAL: 1000 miles, 98%

What was I training for? Nothing in particular, which may be why I have felt so lost in my training this month.

What races did I run? The Hungry Turkey 5k at the Detroit Zoo

Best performances: Longest distance was 7 miles. Fastest pace was running with my brother in law on Thanksgiving – 2.25 miles at 11:09 pace. I also started trying to run further without run/walk intervals and was able to accomplish 6.5 miles without walking by the end of November at a 12:02 pace.

Opportunities for improvement: Are you surprised that I am going to say diet and hydration? Some weeks I stay well hydrated and I eat a more nutrient dense diet. Other weeks I just eat junk and I can’t believe I don’t pass out from not being hydrated enough. This is one of my main goals to focus on moving forward, because I know that it is going to help me to accomplish my training goals.

What’s ahead: I am continuing to work on my last couple of goals for the year. I completely stopped doing T25 this past week and I’m not sure when I will go back to it. I have a really hard time balancing a program like that with running. And I also have a hard time getting out of the “all or nothing” mindset. Ideally I would like to fit T25 and other workouts into my half marathon training plan as cross training so that I am doing a mix of everything. As far as running goes, I am trying to keep my Runner’s World Run Streak alive (run every day from Thanksgiving til New Year’s Day) and also reach 1000 miles for the year. Combining running and walking, I’m only 8 miles away from that goal right now. But I am very close to achieving 1000 miles just from running! So while I’m not pushing myself too hard because like I said, I’ve got a lot going on right now, I am pushing a little bit to hit that goal. I’ve got to average about 3 miles per day until the end of the year to reach it… and half marathon training officially starts on Christmas Eve, so it should be pretty darn close!