How I Did On My 2018 Goals

The year is winding down, so it’s time to look back at how I did on my goals.  2018 had a lot of ups and downs.  I had some big successes, but I also had one major failure.  It was also a year of transition.  At the beginning of the year, I was piling up lots of mileage, but it was mostly race-walking.  By the end of the year, I was doing far fewer miles, but it was mostly running.  Here’s how I did on the goals I posted last January.

Walk 100 Miles in 24 Hours at FANS

This was by far my biggest goal, and it was a big success.  I started training for this race in August of 2017.  I gradually built my average daily mileage to a peak of 20 miles per day.  My form wasn’t as smooth as the more experienced walkers, but what I lacked in efficiency, I made up for with a fitness level that allowed me to maintain a fast enough pace, even as began to tire.  I finished with 101 miles.  In the process, I became the 91st person to earn a United States Centurion badge in a judged walking competition.

For more detail on that race, here’s my race report.

Set a New Race-Walking PR for the Marathon

Going into the year, my best time for walking a marathon was 4:58:01.  I improved on that at the Surf City Marathon in February with a time of 4:46:07.  Then I set another new walking PR at the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon in April, finishing in 4:39:51.

Although it wasn’t one of my stated goals, I also set new marks for walking 10 kilometers.  First, I walked the Bermuda 10K in 1:05:28.  Five months later, I walked the Cheese Curd Festival 10K in 1:03:45.

Finish a Third Circuit of 50 States

I reached this goal in November, when I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa.  A few weeks later. I received my trophy from the 50 States Marathon Club.  This one has a different design than my first two 50 states trophies.

New Countries

Every year since 2010, I’ve run marathons in at least two new countries.  My goal for this year was to continue that trend.  I ended up running marathons in four new countries.  In January, I ran the Bermuda Marathon.   In June, I traveled to Canada to do the Manitoba Marathon.  In September, I traveled to Denmark to run the Skovløberen Marathon.  I finished the year by running the End of the World Marathon in Belize.  That brought my lifetime total to 32 countries.

Minnesota Races

I have a long-term goal of doing every marathon in Minnesota.  This year, I added the Blue Ox Marathon in Bemidji.  I’m not getting any closer to finishing, though.  This year, there were five new marathons in Minnesota.  This is probably a never-ending goal.

Qualify for the Western States Endurance Run

Ever since my DNF at Western States in 2012, I’ve wanted to go back.  This year, I scheduled the Vermont 100 as my qualifying race.  It didn’t go well.  I thought I could walk the majority of the course, and do just enough running to make sure I stayed on pace to beat the 30 hour time limit.  Less than three weeks before the race, I had a high hamstring injury in my left leg.  It didn’t seem to bother me when I ran, but it hurt if I tried to walk at a fast pace.

The course turned out to be more technical than I thought.  That, plus the fact that I was doing much more running than I planned, led me to start running out of gas after only 30 miles.  I ended up dropping out at 47 miles.

I realized this was a make or break moment for me.  Dropping out of this race meant not having a Western States qualifier.  That, in turn, meant I would have to start over with one ticket next year.  I’m not getting any younger, and it can take several years to get into that race.

My recent back problems have made me question whether I can realistically do a race like Western States.  To train adequately for a race like that takes lots of steep downhill running, which is something I should probably avoid.  You also have to do a qualifying race every year.

As much as I loathe giving up on a goal, I decided it was time to let this one go.  As soon as I made that decision, I made peace with it.  Now that I don’t need to worry about scheduling qualifying races every year, it’ll be much easier to schedule the other races I want to do.  I can also focus my training on the things I’m good at.  I’ve always been more of a road runner.

Re-integrate Running Into My Training

For the first half of the year, my top priority was to train for FANS.  That required lots of walking, but I also had a long-term goal of gradually adding running back into the mix.  By the middle of January, I was only running once or twice a week, but I started to consistently run at least 10 miles per week.  I’ve run at least 10 miles every week since then.

To minimize impact, I ran on a treadmill with a slight uphill grade – usually two percent.  By May, I was finally running every third day.  I ran 105 miles that month (in addition to walking 515 miles).  I’ve run at least 100 miles every month since.

By the end of June, I was finally ready to run every other day.  That was short-lived as my hamstring injury forced me to take extra rest days while I recovered.

My return to running was hampered a few times by colds, but I continued to run a minimum of 10 miles per week and 100 miles per month.

In September, for the first time in 15 months, I ran on consecutive days.  In October, I ran marathons on three consecutive weekends.  By then, I was running all of my marathons, and started consistently running them in under four hours.

I was still running only a few days a week and supplementing my mileage by walking.  In December, winter conditions forced me indoors.  I wasn’t interesting in doing more than one workout per day on the treadmill, so I finally made the switch to all running.  Last week, I ran 50 miles.  It was the first time in 18 months I ran that much in one week without it including a marathon or ultra.

I’m where I wanted to be in terms of how much I’m running.  The next step will be to improve my pace and get back to where a 10 mile run feel effortless.  Right now, it still feels like a long haul.

Cut Back on Marathons

I wanted to cut back on my race schedule, mostly because I was spending too much time away from home.  My goal for this year was make only 12 trips out of town by myself.  That’s an average of one a month.

I was able to stick to that goal.  I made twelve solo trips for marathons and ultras.  I also made a few trips with Deb and I did two local races that didn’t involve overnight stays.

Late in the year, I found I wasn’t doing enough races to stay in shape.  I’m in the habit of using marathons as my long training runs, so I really need to be doing them every two or three weeks.  Early in the year, when I was averaging 15-20 miles per day, it didn’t matter as much if I wasn’t doing 20+ miles at a time.  As my weekly mileage dropped, I started to miss the long workouts.

Going forward, I’ll probably make a few more trips than I did this year, but only to make sure that I never go more than three weeks without running a marathon.  That seems about right for the way I train.

That’s how I did on my goals, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.  2018 was like two different years.  For the first six months, I was mostly walking, I was doing higher mileage than ever before, and I was really gung-ho about my training.  In the second half of the year, my training fell off a cliff.

To understand what happened, you have to go back to about February.  I used to write blog posts once or twice a week.  I’ve continued to post race reports, but I haven’t had any other posts since February.  It’s not that I didn’t have anything else to write about.  I did a lot of long workouts on a treadmill, and I would often pass the time by mentally writing my next post.  After the workout, I would begin writing up those thoughts.  I never got too far, however, before I needed to get ready for my next workout.  I started posts on several different topics, but never finished any of them.  To get in my mileage, I was doing three workouts a day.  When you include changing clothes, cooling down, showering, etc., it started to seem like a full time job.  I didn’t feel like I had time for anything else.

After several months, it took a mental toll on me.  After FANS, I cut back a bit, but I still wanted to maintain a high mileage load as I gradually transitioned back to running.  At first, I cut back to 15 miles a day.  I remember posting on Facebook that I thought that mileage level would be sustainable.  That was a fateful post.  The very next day, I tweaked a tendon where my hamstring connects to my pelvis.  After that I had to cut back while I healed.

Usually, runners hate to take time off from training.  For me, it seemed more like a relief.  I enjoyed the time off a little too much.  For the next few months, I sometimes took days off even when I didn’t need to.

Now I had more time to write, but I was no longer interested.  I was burned out, and it extended to my writing.  This is my first post since February that isn’t a race report.

I’m finally getting more consistent about doing daily workouts, but I don’t have any enthusiasm to do more than one workout in a day.

In the first half of the year, when I was doing as many as 20 miles a day, I was eating a lot, but still losing weight.  When I cut back on running and walking, I didn’t adjust my eating habits.  Since then I’ve gained 10 pounds.  That’s enough to add about 15 minutes to my marathon times.  With a reduced mileage load, losing that weight won’t be easy.

I finished the year with 3,000.15 walking miles and 1335.35 running miles.  I did the vast majority of the walking in the first half of the year, and I did the vast majority of the running in the second half.

I finished three ultramarathons, thirteen marathons, two 10K races, and one mile race.  I also had a DNF in a 100 mile race.

So that’s how 2018 went.  I had a few low spots, but overall I think it was a pretty good year.  In a few days, I’ll post my goals for 2019.